Category: Announcements

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Nearly $1.5 million awarded in Annual Cycle

The Jefferson Trust Board of Trustees has awarded nearly $1.5 million to 17 new projects and programs across the University of Virginia.

Student experiences, enhancing student learning through internship and research opportunities, and community outreach were key grant themes this year.

“Only the Jefferson Trust and its Trustees can fund a concert series and a dark matter telescope in a single afternoon. Project diversity is a hallmark of this organization, and it is thrilling to see how each shapes the University and student experience over time” says Brent Percival, Executive Director of the Jefferson Trust.

The 2024-25 Grants:

Undergraduate Composers Concert & Performance Series: $33,415

Funding helps create a concert series featuring performances of original music by student composers.

Possibilities in Pulp: Reusing Paper Waste on Grounds: $15,000

This project aims to reduce paper waste at the School of Architecture by further developing and testing paper pulp manufacturing techniques, and piloting strategies for scaling this process for long-term use.

Virginia Student Film Festival: $30,000

A two-day student film festival will showcase undergraduate filmmakers across Virginia. Programming will include screenings, networking events, and panel discussions with industry professionals.

Dark Matter Radio Telescope at UVA’s Fan Mountain Observatory: $249,850

The Astronomy Department will purchase and install a fully steerable DSA-2000 radio telescope, increasing student training and research opportunities.

Simulated Lunar Surface Arena for Robotics Testing: $86,000

The Mechatronics and Robotics Society (MARS) is building a simulated lunar surface arena to test lunar robots and better compete in NASA’s Lunabotics competitions.

Office of the Architect for the University Student Internship Initiative: $70,000

This three-year pilot engages students in the University’s variety of design and planning projects and provides access to mentorship and internship opportunities.

VLPP Education Program: $70,000

In partnership with The Decarceration Clinic at UVA Law and Resilience Education, funding expands the Entrepreneurial Reentry Education Program model to include UVA’s first legal studies course, designed for incarcerated learners, and developed and taught by UVA law school students.

Criminal Justice Data Training Center: $78,594

Funding establishes a new Criminal Justice Data Training Center in the School of Data Science, which will train students in data analytics of the criminal justice system and support them as community partners.

Daniel S. Adler Student Award
Sound on Grounds: Student Podcast Production and Distribution Team: $83,500

This project aims to increase students’ knowledge of and access to podcasting resources at UVA and support their creative development.

Cyber Systems and Operations: $30,000

This speaker series brings industry experts to the classroom, exposing students to real-world insights and experiences, enhancing their critical thinking, and preparing them for careers in cybersecurity.

Equitable Healthcare Access: Evidence-based Concussion Management for UVA Students: $297,191

The Sports as a Laboratory Assessment Model (SLAM) will be implemented within Student Health & Wellness to improve outcomes through equitable access to clinical care for UVA students with a concussion.

Ashley Thompson Manning Health Innovation Award
Addressing the Mental Health Needs of Young Children in Virginia: $80,000

Funding helps to develop a flagship clinic to increase access to Parent-Child Interaction Therapy by training UVA psychologists, graduate students, and community therapists, reaching more parents and children in need in underserved areas.

John B. Syer Award
STREAM Ambassadors Expansion: $60,000

Funding expands the Science, Technology, Reading, Engineering, Art, and Math (STREAM) Ambassadors program at UVA Wise, involving students and local youth through new workshops, camps, and speaker series.

Increasing Local Non-Profit Community Impact with UVA Student Internship to Improve Data Collection: $76,350

An initiative of the UVA Statistics Department, this project supports student interns’ work in data collection, analysis, & interpretation strategies for local non-profits.

Wayne D. Cozart Global Award
Safeguarding Science: Developing Knowledge and Tools to Prevent Scientific Fraud: $86,987

A taxonomy of scientific fraud is being developed to identify types of wrongdoing, involved organizations and their motivations, then engineering tools and methods to address the problems.

The Fried Center for Advancement of Potential (FCAP) Intern Training Program at Student Health and Wellness: $104,162

This project provides internship opportunities and experiential learning for undergraduate students pursuing healthcare careers and affordable functional exercise intervention for students in need of care.

Jefferson Engineering Lectureship at UVA: $30,000

A lecture series will bring experts in the fields of data science, healthcare, and environmental sciences to UVA, exposing engineering students and faculty to pioneering research ideas and interdisciplinary innovation.

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Flash Grants Focus on Student Experiences

The Jefferson Trust has awarded $119,880 across fourteen flash funding grants since January.

“The volume of requests we received this year was overwhelming. It is a clear indication that UVA is an active, forward-looking university with a healthy student body ready to make an impact,” shared Brent Percival, Executive Director of the Jefferson Trust. “The Trustees were thrilled to see so many Flash Funding requests from students; their engagement in programs and projects that enrich the student experience is a hallmark of the Trust.”

Student experiences are the standout theme this spring. Whether student research experiences, like Morven Soundscape and From the Ground Up, to learning opportunities with artificial intelligence (AI), through McIntire’s Escape Room Tournament and the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence in Research and Training, people at UVA are seeking out new ways to engage and enhance the student experience.

Different than the Jefferson Trust’s Annual Cycle grants, Flash Funding grants are capped at $10,000 per project and are awarded monthly beginning in January.

The 2024 Flash Grants:

AFROTC VR Simulator: $10,000

Funding will bring virtual reality simulator training on the T-6 Texan II aircraft to Air Force ROTC students at UVA, and a potential partnership with the UVA Aeronautical Engineering club.

Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Research and Teaching: $8,040

A team of professors is launching a series of workshops, open to the University and local communities, designed to illustrate the benefits and weaknesses of AI.

From the Ground Up: $9,700

Through hands-on learning labs and field research, UVA students will develop an educational module centered on soil biological health of Native tallgrass prairies to help build agricultural and environmental education among local Indigenous youth in Sisseton, South Dakota.

Morven Soundscape: $10,000

Students will create an expansive soundscape of the land at Morven Farms, enhancing listeners’ understanding of the place, and assisting researchers in a better understanding of its history, archaeology, and environment.

McIntire School of Commerce Escape Room Tournament: $8,000

A student-created game, the Escape Room Competition simulates an Artificial Intelligence (AI) business firm, where students will use critical thinking skills and hands-on learning to solve challenges in entrepreneurship, innovation, and modern workforce.

The Stan Winston and Steve Warner Festival of the Moving Creature: $10,000

In preparation for the Stan Winston and Steve Warner Festival of the Moving Creature, students in Art of the Moving Creature class work on their festival creatures.

The class, and culminating festival, will showcase the multidisciplinary lessons and passions of Arts Grounds in a public performance of larger-than-life moving creatures designed and powered by students in the Art of the Moving Creatures Spring 2024 seminar.

CALM Wellness Retreat: $1,400

The CALM Wellness Retreat for School of Medicine students provides the medical student community a dedicated space to find relief from the stressors of medicine and build sustainable mindfulness practices that they can carry with them throughout their medical school journey and future medical career.

Smiles & Spatulas: $3,400

A cooking program that will empower adults with Down Syndrome by teaching kitchen safety, cooking basics, and general nutrition. This pilot program offers volunteer opportunities for students while giving back to the Charlottesville community.

Teaching and Learning Enhancement Hub: $9,590

An initiative in the Department of Psychology with results that will be applied broadly, the Hub is evaluating several effective learning strategies to improve learning experiences for students.

JunkLabz – Printers4Kidz: $10,000

Funding helps to purchase a new plastic sheet press, enabling Junk Labz to improve the diversion and processing of plastic waste more efficiently, turning higher volumes of recycled plastic into durable, long-lasting products.

Entrepreneurship for All: $10,000

In partnership with local high schools, this program is designed to educate and empower youth from historically marginalized communities to create their own ventures and social enterprises.

Sara Curruchich. Being an Indigenous Woman in Today’s Guatemala: $10,000

The internationally recognized Mayan Kaqchikel singer and songwriter visited Grounds as a Ruffin Distinguished Artist-in-Residence. Classes, workshops, and a free public concert were held, and materials from the visit will be archived in the UVA Library for future students to learn about Curruchich, Kaqchikel art, and activism.

Public Facing Writing: Editor Workshop Series: $10,000

Graduate students in the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences are organizing the Public Facing Writing workshop series, aimed to support public humanities work and grow the networks between humanities scholars and public facing publications at UVA.

SWVA Can Code Regional Student Showcase: $9,750

In partnership with UVA Wise, local schools, and community organizations, middle- and high- school students will learn coding, web app development, problem-solving, prototyping, and entrepreneurial and communication skills at summer camps, then showcase their work on Wise’s campus.

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New Flash Grants Highlight Student Experiences

The Jefferson Trust has awarded $96,350 across 14 flash funding grants since January.

“Creativity is key this semester! We have received a tremendous number of submissions, primarily from students, seeking to shake things up and move in new directions” shared Director of Grants, Amy Bonner.

Educational opportunities are the standout theme this spring. Whether it’s coming together to learn at programmatic events like the Darden Emerging Markets Conference, Virginia Undergraduate Investment Conference, and the Black Student Business Expo, creating a better way to study organic chemistry, or educational opportunities for incarcerated individuals, people around UVA are seeking out new ways to learn and engage.

Different than the Jefferson Trust’s Annual Cycle grants, Flash Funding grants are capped at $10,000 per project and are awarded monthly beginning in January.

The 2023 Flash Grants:

Darden Emerging Markets Conference: $10,000

International affinity clubs at Darden are organizing the inaugural Darden Emerging Markets Conference, bringing together thought leaders, professionals, academicians, and students to discuss business and growth opportunities and challenges in global emerging markets in a post-COVID world.

Laboratory for Citizen Education and Leadership: $10,000

Funding provides student leaders across Grounds opportunities to engage and learn from mixed-reality simulations, to increase leaders’ understanding of and capacity for thoughtful and ethical community-engaged leadership.

Behavioral Science Across Grounds: $9,240

Funding helps to establish the first formal gathering of behavioral scientists across the University, providing an opportunity for improved collaborations, better training, strategic planning, and a greater sense of community.

Creating a Cohesive and Coordinated Food Union: Food Union Banquet: $3,200

The Food Union aims to integrate all the UVA Food-related CIOs and their goals of food-related work. This spring’s banquet brings together student leaders, University leadership, and community members to strengthen relationships and to increase awareness about sustainable and just food systems.

Morven Student Days: $10,000

Morven Farms will be open to all students during Morven Student Days and will provide transportation to and from Grounds. Students can study, relax, learn, and explore Morven through unique programming opportunities.

Students participate in yoga during Morven Student Days this spring.

Orgopoly: The Organic Chemistry Monopoly/Gameboard: $1,522

A student-created game designed to review Organic Chemistry I and II, Orgopoly aims to innovate and enliven the process of studying chemistry.

Predicting Neurodevelopmental Outcomes at the Bedside: $3,187

Funding helps establish a student research project to understand the connection between brain activity in premature infants and abnormal social development linked to autism.

The Virginia Undergraduate Investment Conference (VUIC): $10,000

The Virginia Finance Institute is hosting the VUIC stock pitch conference, bringing students together from multiple universities to provide hands-on experience in equity analysis and investment skills, networking opportunities, and professional growth.

VLPP Prison Education Program : $10,000

In partnership with The Decarceration Clinic at UVA Law and Resilience Education (RE), funding expands the Entrepreneurial Reentry Education Program model to include law school students in developing and teaching educational course materials for incarcerated learners.

Black Economic Empowerment Society (BEES): $9,734

Through a business development program, educational events, and community partnerships, BEES aims to increase financial literacy, emphasize the importance of asset ownership, and empower Black UVA students to start businesses.

{in}Visible Magazine: $3,170

Funding helps to launch the first literary publication at the University of Virginia dedicated to Asian Pacific Islander South Asian American (APISAA) community on Grounds, creating a space for exploring and sharing unique experiences through writing and art.

Talking Trees: $1,546

With the purchase of a print press, a folio of wood prints is being created as a visual catalogue of the different species of trees from across Grounds, providing tangible education to UVA students.

America’s Disappearing Chinatowns: $5,250

This project aids in student research of Chinatowns around the US by exploring the emergence and endurance of Chinatowns within the larger global context and culminating in the creation of a book to document students’ observation and research.

UVA x Nocturnal Medicine: $9,500

In partnership with the nonprofit Nocturnal Medicine, the Student Association of Landscape Architecture and Design (SALAD) is planning an event in fall 2023 concentrating on regeneration, focus, re-grounding, and building community among School of Architecture students.

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Jefferson Trust’s 2022 Awards Set New Dollar Amount Record

The Jefferson Trust Board of Trustees has hit new records in its grant-making: awarding nearly $1.35 million to 14 new projects and programs. This is the largest amount ever awarded, and this set of grants also includes the largest number of $100,000+ grants ever awarded.

“This grant cohort is absolutely phenomenal. I can’t wait to see how they transform UVA,” says Amy Bonner, Director of Grants for the Trust. “They are also the result of the most difficult decision-making process the Jefferson Trust has faced — the volume of innovative proposals received clearly demonstrates that the University community is rebounding from the pandemic.”

Together these grants will provide new opportunities for student research and unique classroom experiences, as well as providing pipeline opportunities for future Wahoos. Roadmap Scholars aims to increase the number of underrepresented students attending elite law schools; Star Hill Pathways focuses on improving student outcomes and closing opportunity gaps with local middle and high school students; and Environmental Thought and Practice in Real Life brings environmental leaders to Grounds to engage with undergraduate students and provide immersive learning opportunities with environmental practitioners. Read on for a full list of funded programs.

The 2021-22 Grants:

Roadmap Scholars Initiative: $200,000

This Law School initiative is designed to increase the number of underrepresented students attending elite law schools. From initial exploration of the legal profession to ultimate matriculation, the program will provide aspiring lawyers with the support, opportunities and connections necessary to succeed on their journeys to law school.

Side Hustles Micro Courses: Masterclasses in Contemporary Business Topics: $150,000

Side Hustles and Micro Businesses (SHMB) is a new series of micro courses to prepare UVA students with entrepreneur ambitions to develop profitable businesses.

Starr Hill Pathways: $150,000

Starr Hill Pathways will improve student outcomes and close opportunity gaps, ensuring that local youth (1) are prepared for post-secondary education, (2) have access to enrichment opportunities and support networks, and (3) thrive socially and emotionally. Focused on historically marginalized communities and youth in grades 6 to 12, the goal is to build a support system for students that leads them to admission to UVA or the college of their choice.

Optimizing pediatric donor heart utilization using big data analytics: $133,078

A team of pediatric cardiologists, data scientists, students and engineers are using big data analytics to optimize pediatric heart transplants — the right donor heart with the right patient at the right time. Analyzing data sets from the United Network of Organ Sharing (the most comprehensive representation of pediatric heart transplantation system in the world) will help to improve clinical practice and create predictive modeling to assess specific donors for specific candidates.

Walking the walk: Environmental Thought and Practice in Real Life: $120,000

Environmental Thought and Practice in Real Life (ETP IRL) will bring environmental leaders — thinkers, creators, entrepreneurs, innovators and activists — to Grounds to engage with undergraduates in a non-traditional classroom setting, providing immersive learning experiences. Practitioners-in-real-life (PIRLs) will help lead classes centered on environmental practice, focusing on sets of projects that reach into the broader University community and beyond.

Deaf Orpheus: $100,000

A staged production, “Deaf Orpheus,” will unite the worlds of the Deaf and hearing in an unprecedented full-scale expression of Deaf Opera at UVA in March 2023. Opera singers, Deaf actors, directors and instrumentalists of international prominence will partner with UVA’s USingers and Music Performance Faculty for this production. The production will also be made into a film.

Decarbonization Innovation Summit and Lab: $100,000

Through a summit event and subsequent student-led projects, Decarbonization Innovation aims to encourage interdisciplinary coordination and dialogue to advance solutions to the world’s decarbonization challenge.

Phytoremediation to reclaim farm and tribal lands from PFAS contamination: $93,000

This project allows a team of undergraduate students to demonstrate the full utility of industrial hemp as a tool for phytoremediation of PFAS-polluted agricultural soils and develop methods for implementation and training that can be shared with other communities affected by PFAS pollution.

The Cavalair Project: Smarter buildings for a healthier UVA community: $82,000

Students will conduct research to allow smarter approaches to HVAC system usage (occupancy levels and air quality metrics) that deliver a better, healthier environment for occupants at lower cost in several UVA buildings.

Centering African American Life in Central VA: Community Engagement & The Holsinger Portrait Project: $73,000

In a joint effort with local community members, a team from the University Library and Department of History will create an exhibition, community engagement program and digital humanities research program around a collection of photographs of African American community members taken over 100 years ago.

Integration of Virtual Reality (VR) in Training Medical Students: $54,973

A team of physicians, educators and technologists seek to implement a new model of medical case observance training using virtual reality, cutting-edge 360-video editing techniques, and specially programmed VR headsets. This innovative approach will help to increase trainee comprehension and patient safety.

Search for Hidden Chambers in the Temple of Kukulcán at Chichén Itzá: $35,834

Undergraduate students will work to research, design and fabricate detectors to help search for hidden chambers in the Temple of Kukulcán at Chichén Itzá. Through their work, students will gain a better understanding of particle and nuclear physics and be introduced to the new field of muon tomography.

Saving Athenian Democracy: $28,400

This new, interactive undergraduate course is a hands-on learning experience to expose UVA students to the ancient roots of our modern democracy. The course will challenge students to study and roleplay the lives of the ancient Athenians who worked to restore their democracy between 403 and 398 BC.

Charlottesville Zoning Design Workshop (CZDW): $28,184

This initiative aims to engage students across the School of Architecture in the design and policy questions raised by Charlottesville’s Comprehensive Plan. By exploring zoning through an architectural lens, CZDW will work with students to develop design-research with potential to impact local policy debates, while organizing public symposia on related issues of zoning policy and housing design.

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Annual Grant Cycle Updated & Open!

We fund great ideas. To apply, start with a Letter of Inquiry.

The Jefferson Trust Annual Cycle application is open for the 2021-22 academic year, and we’ve streamlined our process! We have implemented a two-step application to help grant seekers refine their project and opportunity for funding. Applicants must now complete a short Letter of Inquiry (LOI), which will be reviewed to determine if their proposal moves forward to the full application. Letters of Inquiry will be reviewed on a rolling basis, with notifications made within two weeks of LOI submission. In addition, the full application has been revised and simplified.

Timeline of New Process:

  1. Now – LOI forms are currently available in the grant portal and may be submitted any time prior to October 1!
  2. October 1, 2021 – Last day to submit a LOI. LOIs submitted after 10/1 will NOT be eligible to apply.
  3. October 25, 2021 – Full applications due for approved LOIs
  4. January 28, 2022 – Some applicants will be asked to meet with the board to provide more information.
  5. Early February 2022 – Funding status notifications sent to applicants.

The spring Flash Funding cycles will not be impacted by the LOI change and will be conducted with the simplified one-step application document. We encourage you to plan ahead, register to participate in our upcoming Grants Information Session, or contact Amy, Director of Grants & Oversight, with questions.