Seed Funding Program
The I-CREWS Seed Funding allows the program to respond to new opportunities and/or pursue high-risk, high-impact research projects. Idaho EPSCoR will coordinate an application process once per year in project Years 1-4. Eligibility includes individuals currently involved in I-CREWS as well as those not yet involved. To receive seed funding awards, an applicant must demonstrate synergy with ongoing I-CREWS efforts, including those to broaden participation, foster convergence research, and foster inter-institutional collaboration.
Two sizes of awards (small and large) are divided into two categories, all directly related to E-W challenges. One category is Convergence Research and Education, open to any qualifying team or research partnership in Idaho. This category includes projects driven by a compelling problem that demonstrate integration across disciplines (nonacademic collaboration is optional). The other category focuses on Community-engaged Collaboration to support co-produced research and education outcomes with communities (including Tribal representatives) through integration and co-production using local knowledge.
Types of Awards
Small Seed Funding (1 year, up to $55K)
These awards will primarily be led by early-career faculty members initiating research directly related to E-W. Established faculty members seeking to expand or apply their expertise into a new E-W research direction will also be eligible. Multi-institutional collaboration will be prioritized, but not required. Funding will support personnel, summer salary, or other resources needed to gather preliminary data and/or explore high-risk, high-reward E-W activities.
Large Seed Funding (2 years, up to $165K)
These awards will support collaborative, multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional E-W research, and will be led by early or mid-career faculty members. Funding will support graduate student research, postdoctoral fellows, faculty summer salary, or technical personnel. Co-mentoring, co-advising, and co-supervision will be encouraged, as will in-state student-exchanges.
Current and Past Awards
Project Summaries
Training Students and Researchers in the State of Idaho on Applied Artificial Intelligence for Engineers within the I-CREWS Framework
Lead Investigator: Tadesse Gemeda Wakjira, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Idaho State University
Co-Investigators: Mostafa Fouda, Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Idaho State University; and Jared Cantrell, Lab Manager and Research Engineer, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Idaho State University
Project Summary:
The intersection of energy and water systems in Idaho presents complex challenges that require advanced technological solutions to ensure resilience and sustainability. Engineers equipped with expertise in applied artificial intelligence (AI) are crucial for developing innovative solutions to optimize these systems. However, there is a significant gap in current educational offerings that focus on practical AI applications tailored explicitly for engineering students and researchers. In addition, current research and training often emphasize theoretical model development but lack the practical applications of these models. This deficiency hinders the practical implementation of AI solutions in real-world scenarios.
To address this gap, the proposed project aims to provide comprehensive and hands-on training in applied AI for engineering students and researchers across Idaho, including Idaho State University (ISU), Boise State University (BSU), University of Idaho (UI), and Brigham Young University-Idaho (BYUI) as well as researchers from Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and Center for Advanced Energy Studies (CAES). The workshop will be conducted twice a week and targets students at all levels, from beginners to advanced, as well as researchers, to ensure broad accessibility and impact. The training will include practical examples and applications of AI in energy and water systems with the I-CREWS framework, as well as other engineering domains. Participants will engage in workshops that emphasize the development and deployment of AI frameworks into practical tools, which bridges the gap between theoretical models and real-world applications.
Conflict or Benefit? Subsurface uranium deposit interactions with a potential future groundwater source: A case for energy-water interactions
Lead Investigator: Renee Love (PI), Clinical Assistant Professor, University of Idaho
Co-Investigators: MaryBeth Bennis, Lead Paleontologist, Frontier Resources, and MS Candidate, University of Idaho; and Keegan Schmidt, Professor, Lewis Clark State College
Project Summary:
The southeastern part of Idaho and states to the south are in a water crisis [1]. New, innovative ideas are critically needed in the discovery of future water sources. One geologic formation that has not been critically analyzed on a basin-scale in terms of energy-water potential is the Jurassic Morrison Formation. From preliminary analyses this formation has sandstone bodies that have adequate porosity for an aquifer system but questions regarding the permeability and interconnectedness of the reservoir in the subsurface remains in question. Further, the Jurassic sequence is known for its uranium deposits [2,3]. The question here is how much uranium leaches into the groundwater and, if modern technologies could be applied, could it be a potential future groundwater source?
Project objectives are to 1) obtain field samples for thin section, isotope, and groundwater elemental analysis to determine levels of uranium in the deposits and estimates of porosity and permeability, 2) use geophysical well logs derived from petroleum exploration wells to determine uranium levels in the subsurface, and 3) create predictive subsurface models of the Morrison Formation and determine size of reservoirs for a potential future groundwater source.