JULY 29, 2026

Dear colleagues, 

This summer has certainly been exciting for the research enterprise at UConn and UConn Health. The biggest news of July has been that we received an NSF Regional Innovation Engine award for QuantumCT. Led by Provost Pamir Alpay, this award unlocks up to $300 million between the NSF award and the state’s investment over the next 10 years. I cannot overstate the long road to this award, nor the incredible impact this award will have on our entire research, innovation, and education ecosystem in Connecticut. Simply put, this is huge. UConn is being recognized as a leader in quantum technologies – a rapidly growing global priority area. Because of this award, our children in Connecticut will grow up learning about quantum and be at the forefront of new technologies and scientific advancement. In my opinion, the most incredible part of this award is that quantum technologies can be applied to so many fields – financial, national security, health and bioscience, computer science – you name it, quantum likely has an application that can improve what we know and how we do things today.  

With the arrival of the QuantumCT Engine award, I need to send a special thank you to everyone in our community who made this possible. The planning and proposal process over the past 3 ½  years brought out the best in what UConn and UConn Health can do. We strengthened and built new partnerships with Yale, Southern Connecticut State University and many other universities in Connecticut, state agencies including the Governor’s Office, Department of Economic and Community Development, and CT Innovations. We established community partnerships and are creating quantum-related educational opportunities in school systems from border to border.  

UConn Research is incredibly grateful to everyone who made a strong impact in this initiative, especially our leadership and development team of Pamir Alpay, Abhijit Banerjee, Anna Gault Galjan, and Bethany Javidi. We also recognize that so many staff and faculty may not directly have contributed, but they indirectly made it possible by holding up the rest of the UConn and UConn Health enterprise to allow this initiative to be successful. Thank you. 

The other big news is that UConn leadership finalized plans for the distribution of the state’s $35 million in our research enterprise. The planned allocation of funds is provided below and will allow us to continue to transfer 5% of reimbursed indirect costs to PIs in FY27. We received this critical funding because so many of you shared your stories of the turmoil in the research world with our state’s leaders through testimonies, meetings, letters, reports, and advocacy from our AAUP chapters at UConn and UConn Health.  

The research leadership team and representatives from the AAUP chapters created an initial plan for this $35 million to support programs that were directly affected by the change in the federal administration in 2025. We are investing in and protecting our graduate programs, providing critical and long-delayed investments into our research infrastructure, and creating a stimulus fund to accelerate research and innovation. Building on this plan, OVPR leadership received input from our newly established Research Advisory Council, our deans and associate research deans, center and institute directors, and the Senate Executive Committee (SEC). We worked with the President’s Office, the UConn and UConn Health budget offices, and the Provost’s Office to finalize the plan to ensure this state investment would be directed where it was intended and provide stability and energy to the entire UConn and UConn Health research ecosystem. We appreciate the many people in UConn’s community who helped make this possible, including the partnership with our AAUP chapters. This success is a testament to what we can do when we work together to share the impact of UConn’s research led by our innovative faculty and staff.  

While this funding provides important support, it is not sufficient to fully offset the institution’s research funding losses, reduction in state support, and the $83.5 million budget deficit projected for FY27. As a result, these funds must be deployed thoughtfully to address the most pressing needs, protect critical budgeted activities, and strengthen the research ecosystem in ways that generate new opportunities and future growth. We also must be mindful that the state provided these funds with the specific purpose of supporting the research enterprise, and they will be looking for evidence of impact.  

We are working rapidly with university leadership, the Research Advisory Council, and the AAUP chapters to develop a brand new Internal Funding Program Process. This new process will allow the research community to pitch programs that will award these funds to individual investigators and/or initiatives in targeted areas. We anticipate the first Request for Programs to be released by September 1. Please send any further questions about this plan to research@uconn.edu or your school/college or center/institute leadership.  

Thank you,

Lindsay J. DiStefano, Ph.D., ATC, FNATA 

Interim Vice President for Research, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship 
UConn | UConn Health 
Professor 
Department of Kinesiology
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
Department of Public Health Sciences 

*Also eligible in Internal Funding Programs 

^Other needs at school/college level may be addressed if discretionary funds do not exist

After four years of close collaboration and sustained effort, UConn and its QuantumCT partners are heralding a key milestone in Connecticut’s emergence as a “capital for quantum.” 

On July 15, state officials and partners of the QuantumCT Engine gathered at UConn Hartford to celebrate the award of a National Science Foundation (NSF) Regional Innovation Engine. The NSF Quantum Technologies Engine in Connecticut was one of 12 teams nationwide to receive an NSF Engines award, which could total $160 million over a 10-year period. 

The QuantumCT Engine was the only quantum-related proposal to receive an NSF Engines award. Connecticut is on a transformative path as the state economy embraces the potential of quantum technology. 

“The competition among states for quantum leadership is fierce. And now Connecticut has entered the competition. And as all of you know, Huskies play to win,” said UConn President Radenka Maric. 

Read more on UConn Today. 

Congratulations to natural resources and the environment associate professor Wei Ren and her research team on earning an inaugural Genesis Mission award from the federal Department of Energy! The team includes co-PI UConn Tech Park Executive Director Emmanouil Anagnostou, civil and environmental engineering assistant professor Zhi Li, and natural resources and the environment assistant research professor Bo Tao.  

The Genesis Mission challenges public, private, and individual institutions to use AI to accelerate breakthroughs in energy, discovery, and national security. Nationwide, there were thousands of funding submissions, with 278 total awards announced in July.  

Ren and her team are building an AI-powered ‘digital twin’ of the Northeast U.S.—a virtual replica that combines satellite observations, field measurements, and advanced scientific models to reveal how water and chemicals move above and below the ground.  

“Just as weather forecasts help us prepare for storms, this digital twin will help us better predict groundwater supplies, understand how carbon is transported, protect coastal water quality, and support the safe deployment of emerging clean energy technologies such as geothermal energy and underground carbon storage,” Ren says.  

Read more on UConn Today 

With all the buzz surrounding quantum technology, what exactly is quantum? You’re not alone if you’re asking yourself this question. The QuantumCT accelerator has put together an overview resource, which includes an explainer on the key physics principles, a glossary of quantum applications, and a curated series of videos to learn more. 

And if you’re looking for even simpler terms, check out Science ABC’s “Quantum Mechanics Explained in Ridiculously Simple Words,” which explains key concepts using examples from pop culture. 

Fiscal Year 2026 has closed, and we are proud to announce the success of our research enterprise over the past year. Please visit the UConn Research website to view reports that include preliminary data on new awards, expenditures, and submitted proposals. 

As you all know, the last year was challenging for research universities across the nation. Yet as you will see, UConn researchers demonstrated tremendous resilience and successfully adapted to changes and delays in federal funding.

We totaled $318.1 million in new awards in FY26, up $4 million from the previous year. Moreover, UConn researchers continue to pursue research and scholarship activities at high levels, as evident by $351.4 million in expenditures throughout the fiscal year. 

Here are some highlights and conclusions from the FY26 data: 

This funding opportunity supports faculty travel to conferences for the primary purpose of engaging with industry partners and exploring potential collaborations aligned with your research. Funding is intended to facilitate meaningful conversations that may lead to sponsored research, partnerships, or other forms of industry engagement.  

Applicants may request up to $3,000 in reimbursement for conference-related expenses. Funding is provided on a reimbursement basis following conference attendance and is contingent upon participation in pre- and post-conference requirements designed to maximize the impact of these engagements. 

For eligibility, more details, and to apply, visit the application portal. 

This opportunity provides essential, short-term bridge support when funding for an ongoing, externally funded project has been completed, and anticipated follow-on funding has not yet been secured. Applicants must provide evidence that they have an emergency funding need and that they are actively pursuing renewed external support.  

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.  

Learn more and apply on the OVPR website. 

The OVPR is offering this competitive recognition award to faculty researchers / research teams whose work has been completed within the last five years, and that makes a compelling story of the impact that their work has had. 

“Impacts” are the direct changes in the world that stem from our research, scholarship, and creative works. Impacts can include policy changes; medical discoveries and enhancements; improved systems, designs and processes; and the enrichment of people’s lives. 

This program will open for submissions on August 17, 2026, at 12 am, with a deadline of October 5, 2026, at noon. 

Learn more and apply on the OVPR website. 

NIH Bio Genesis Mission 

Following up on the recent DOE Genesis Mission call, NIH has announced their contribution to the national effort to leverage AI for scientific discovery.  The effort is not about simply adding AI to existing work – it’s about “reimagining how researchers, institutions, data resources, and scientific infrastructure work together to solve the biomedical challenges that matter most to American patients and families.” 

The Bio Genesis Mission focuses on six new National Science and Technology Challenges:

Specific funding opportunities and deadlines have not yet been announced, but OVPR encourages researchers working in areas related to these technical challenges to begin thinking about project ideas in anticipation of coming requests for proposals. 

The OVPR would like to hear from you!  Please share questions and ideas using this short webform. We will answer one to two questions with each communication. 

Question: When will the Research Excellence Program (REP) be re-issued?

Answer: Given the state’s $35M investment, we decided to create a new process for disseminating internal research funding instead of simply re-launching our traditional internal funding mechanisms like the Research Excellence Program. We will be asking for the research community to propose new programs / initiatives to be used in AY 2026-2027. We anticipate this request to be open by September 1, 2026.

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