Virginia seeks 3 Cavaliers

University of Virginia has launched a new funding initiative called 3 Cavaliers to support multidisciplinary research projects as they build towards securing external seed-stage capital.

3 Cavaliers will receive money from University of Virginia Board of Visitors’ Strategic Investment Fund, a vehicle intended to drive research and support wider economic development.

Virginia’s office of the vice-president for research will take responsibility for operations.

The scheme will supply viable projects with either $15,000 or $60,000 in seed funding. It features a cloud-based database of projects seeking research partners or capital, as well as a hub for faculty profiles and data on teaching, awards and publications.

3 Cavaliers will partner all 11 Virginia schools and is considered part of a “rapid” seed capital strategy poised to facilitate collaborative and high-potential research. It enables researchers to either invite peers to their projects or request to be taken on board elsewhere.

The program will seek project teams of three faculty members from at least two distinct disciplines in separate departments. Funded research will be conducted over the space of a year with scope for a six-month extension.

University of Virginia will close its initial call for applications on September 10 ahead of announcing its selections for funding on September 24.

Melur Ramasubramanian, vice-president for research at University of Virginia, said: “3 Cavaliers unleashes the creativity of collaborative faculty teams, helping them define consequential research problems at the intersection of disciplines and to move rapidly toward generating powerful solutions.

“By engaging faculty members across disciplines, the research capacity of the University will be strengthened and faculty teams will be positioned to be highly competitive for extramural support from federal agencies and philanthropic organisations.”