June 9, 2021
Global Food Systems Seed Grants awarded
The Office of Research Development announces the results of the fiscal year 2022 call for proposals for the Global Food Systems Seed Grant Program.
The funding supports innovative research in all aspects of global food systems, especially projects that are interdisciplinary, promote job creation and economic development in the state of Kansas, engage graduate or undergraduate students and partner with Kansas-based industry.
All proposals were peer-reviewed by faculty members with a variety of relevant expertise.
Awardees and their project titles:
Sajid Alavi, grain science and industry; Yonghui Li, grain science and industry; Martin Talavera, food, nutrition, dietetics and health: "Plant-based meat for sustainable food systems."
Shih-Kang Fan, mechanical and nuclear engineering; Jianfa Bai, diagnostic medicine and pathobiology: "STEC POCT: Single-cell digital PCR detection of shiga toxin-producing E. coli with point-of-care digital microfluidics."
Mithila Jugulam, agronomy; Asif Mohammad, Heartland Plant Innovations: "Development of herbicide-tolerant wheat: Valuable resource for improved weed Management in Kansas and beyond."
Phillip Lancaster, clinical sciences; Chad Paulk, grain science and industry; Raghavendra Amachawadi, clinical sciences: "Enhancing the economic value and business viability of food waste to animal feed conversion."
Victor Gomez Leon, animal sciences and industry; James Drouillard, animal sciences and industry: "Effect of diet supplementation with omega-3 on reproduction and milk production of lactating Holstein dairy cows."
Eleni Pliakoni, horticulture and natural resources; Martin Talavera, food, nutrition, dietetics and health; Terry Griffin, agricultural economics: "Evaluating the effect of innovative food labeling technology on produce quality, safety and consumer acceptability."
Prathap Parameswaran, civil engineering; Ganga Hettiarachchi, agronomy: "Leveraging the circular bioeconomy: Sustainable recovery and optimization of slow-release biofertilizers from livestock wastewater."
Yong Cheng Shi, grain science and industry; Umut Yucel, animal sciences and industry: "Evaluating novel octenylsuccinic anhydride modified starches for emulsion and encapsulation application."
Xiuzhi Sun, grain science and industry; Weiqun George Wang, food, nutrition, dietetics and health; John Jaeger, animal sciences and industry: "Affordable regenerative beef proteins from cattle blood waste for innovative food proteins."
Dana Vanlandingham, diagnostic medicine and pathobiology; John Leslie, plant pathology; Stephen Higgs, diagnostic medicine and pathobiology: "Low-cost feed and low-level exposure to mycotoxins may have high-cost consequences."
Yi Zheng, grain science and industry; Gordon Smith, grain science and industry; Yonghui Li, grain science and industry; Donghai Wang, biological and agricultural engineering: "Developing a distilled alcoholic beverage program utilizing grain sorghum associated with coproducts valorization."
Morgan Zumbaugh, animal sciences and industry; Travis O’Quinn, animal sciences and industry: "Understanding skeletal muscle metabolism as a means to improve livestock production efficiency."
Awardees will be required to report on progress in six months, submit a final report and apply for extramural funding for the next stages of the project at the end of the funding year.