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CAIA Programs

CAIA FY25 Programming

Acting as a catalyst for CALS and VT researchers and communities in the Commonwealth and beyond, CAIA operates its I4 programs: Inspire, Ignite, Implement, Innovate. CAIA seeks to unlock faculty time and enable researchers to efficiently pursue complex solutions for complex problems.

Faculty Development Series (under development) – prepare pre-tenure faculty for fostering innovation, building complex teams, writing large proposals, and developing institutional awareness.

Seminar Series – invite high impact speakers to speak on cutting-edge technologies, innovative research trends, or science policy implications to campus. 

  • 1st speaker – Kate Lewis, Executive Director, National Agricultural Research, Extension, Education, and Economics (NAREEE) Advisory Board

Incubation Lunches – convene critical conversations around topics that align with faculty expertise, college or university priorities, funding growth opportunities, and stakeholder needs.

Susan Duncan Innovation in Agriculture Seed Grant  – support user‐centered and user‐driven research and development activities directed at building capacity, security, and resilience in the United States agriculture and food sector in partnership with ICAT and VT-ARC.

Graduate Student Scholarships – provide opportunities for high-quality graduate students to be transdisciplinary and innovative through multidisciplinary co-mentorship.

Team building and networking opportunities – build and bridge social capital to enable complex and transdisciplinary teams.

Flagship Initiatives – enable topical priorities that provide focus and agility to CAIA. Initiatives will be selected based on a variety of criteria such Federal and VT priorities, request-for-proposal trends, and faculty input. Robust support from CAIA will be provided to pursue an ultimate goal (multi-million-dollar grant, Center-level autonomy, etc.) determined by the initiative team. CAIA currently has three Flagship Initiatives:

  • Ag Biotech and the Circular Bioeconomy
  • Agriphotovoltaics
  • Cybersecurity in Agriculture

The RFP for the new Flagship Initiative(s) is expected to be out in mid-February 2025. The final selection will be announced at the March CAIA Big Event. The implementation will begin in FY 26

Event Sponsorship – sponsor events when VT faculty have or will have a prominent leadership role and the event aligns with CAIA’s mission and vision. Sponsorship requests will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Please complete this form and email to vtcaia@vt.edu to submit an event sponsorship application. Sponsorship will mainly be provided for facilitating student and key speaker participation through travel grants as well as research site visits.