Grants in the News

Undergrad students participate in a week-long summer Social Entrepreneurship Bootcamp.

Our grantees have been busy! Catch up on projects recently featured in the news:

  • The MADAYIN exhibition opened at the Asia Society Museum in New York City in September. This exhibit is in partnership with UVA’s Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Museum, and the Trust was a supporter of the accompanying exhibition catalogue created with the exhibit. MADAYIN is on display in NYC until January 5, 2025; we strongly recommend viewing! More information and features from the Asia Society and National Indigenous Times.
  • The Cavalier Autonomous Racing team competed at the Indy Autonomous Challenge in September and won the time trial competition (with record setting speed)! See more in this UVA Today article and video feature in UVA Today. The Trust was an early supporter of Cavalier Autonomous in 2020.
  • A group of students participated this summer in a Social Entrepreneurship Bootcamp, designed for budding social entrepreneurs. Read about one student’s experience in HER Campus. This ChangeMaker Bootcamp was a 2024 grant recipient.
  • Nursing Narratives received an annual grant this year to add a recurring editorial section to both print and digital versions of “Virginia Nursing Legacy,” the School of Nursing’s quarterly magazine. Read essays from their summer edition.
  • The Air Force ROTC received a flash grant this spring to increase virtual reality flight simulator training for cadets. Hear about their experiences in this CBS19 News feature.
  • UVA’s first Escape Room Tournament occurred in September. A 2024 flash recipient, learn more in this CBS19 feature.
  • Associate Professor Bryan Berger received a $93,000 Trust grant in 2022 to lead undergraduate students in research and training of industrial hemp as a tool for phytoremediation of PFAS-polluted agricultural soils. The team recently received a $1.59 million grant from the EPA to continue and expand their research! Learn more from the Maine Morning Star and EPA. Bryan shared, “None of this would have been possible without the grant you funded—thank you so much! The preliminary data and papers we published were the key to this opportunity. Really appreciate it and I think what you are doing is so important for UVA—it allows us to take risk on new ideas, build partnerships and take on big challenges in communities we otherwise wouldn’t have the means to do.”
  • The Trust awarded a team of professors and researchers $133,000 in 2022 for “Optimizing pediatric donor heart utilization” using big data analytics to optimize pediatric heart transplants by analyzing data sets from the United Network of Organ Sharing to help improve clinical practice and create predictive modeling to assess specific donors for specific candidates. They have received an additional $1.03 million in funding from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). This additional five-years of funding will aid in their research and testing efforts.