Call for Proposals
Undergraduate Research and Innovation (URI)
Student Seed Grants Program: Fall 2025
URI Phase-1 Student Seed Grants: $500 per project
URI Phase-2 Student Seed Grants: $3,000 per project
URI Student Seed Grant Program Tracks:
Track-1 Technology/Product Development and Innovation
Track-2: Application Based Research
Information Session
Hosted by URI External Advisory Board Members
(Information Session on Proposal Writing, Review Criterion and Submission)
September 24, 2025; 2.30 PM to 4.00 PM; Campus Center Ballroom A
(Light refreshments will be served)
Proposal Online Submission Deadline: October 22, 2025
Apply here:
https://njit.infoready4.com/#research
(Please log in using NJIT UCID)
NJIT 2030 Strategic Plan emphasizes providing undergraduate students an outstanding education integrated with research and innovation experience to enable them to succeed and take leadership roles in the society. The Undergraduate Research and Innovation (URI) program has evolved as a significant part of the education and research experience at NJIT. The URI website http://centers.njit.edu/uri/ summarizes undergraduate research and innovation opportunities with information about resources and competitions.
We are pleased to announce the Undergraduate Research and Innovation (URI) Student Seed Grant program. URI Phase-1 Student Seed Grants provide $500 per project to pursue preliminary research or demonstrate an initial proof-of-concept/prototypes. URI Phase-2 Student Seed Grants provide up to $3,000 per project to further pursue application-based research or develop a complete technology development prototype. Phase-2 proposals may be submitted by former Phase-1 Student Seed Grant winners who have completed Phase-1 work, as well as new students who have a research or product idea that has shown the preliminary proof of concept, market assessment or application-based research to establish the need, significance and basic approach. The student should prepare URI Student Phase-1 or Phase-2 Seed Grant proposals following the templates with format and guidelines.
Funds can only be used to order project supplies and prototyping. They cannot be combined with any other indices. There will be a deadline to order. Any items not received and approved by the deadline will not be purchased. Shipping costs must be included in the total amount. All orders must be received by February 15, 2026. Any order not received by then will be canceled.
All project proposals must be submitted by October 22, 2025. Awardees will have access to funds to start the project as early as early December and will formally present a progress report at the subsequent URI workshops. Each student team awardee is required to take a lab safety training (and a biosafety training, if applicable) if awarded a seed grant, you will be asked to upload documentation before receiving funds.
Proposal Submission Deadlines
Students working with an NJIT tenure / tenure track faculty member may submit Track-1 Technology/Product Development and Innovation or Track-2: Application Based Research proposals in the required format by October 22, 2025. Proposal Format Guidelines information are here and on the URI website.
Submit the application via InfoReady using the link above by October 22, 2025. You must log-in using your UCID to access. You will need to have your research proposal ready to upload for final submission. Please save it as a pdf in the following format - Lastname_PhaseX_Title.The X should be replaced with a 1 or 2.
Finalists selected for the URI workshop presentation will be announced in early November 2025. Finalists are required to present their project with a PowerPoint presentation to the External Advisory Board following the presentation format posted on the website at the URI Workshop on November 19, 2025 at the Campus Center Ballroom B from 2:00 PM to 4:30 PM.
Presentation templates can be found here
URI Board Members
Brian Kiernan, Angel Investor, Executive VP and Chief Scientist (ret), InterDigital Communications Corp.
(https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-kiernan-a5636b11/)
Govi Rao, CEO, Phase Change Solutions, Co-Founder, Carbon Group Global
(https://www.linkedin.com/in/govirao/)
Daniel Henderson, Serial Innovator and Entrepreneur, NJIT Board of Overseers, Joint Chief Executive Officer, Volobocce, LLC
(https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-a-henderson/)
Marc Long, PhD, Vice President, Research & Development, MTF Biologics
(https://www.linkedin.com/in/marc-long-3bbb833/)
Pallavi Madakasira, Managing Consultant, Eunomia Research & Consulting
(https://www.linkedin.com/in/pallavi-madakasira-3418aa/)
Alfredo Matos, President and CEO, A Z Matos, LLC
(https://www.linkedin.com/in/alfredo-al-matos-bs-msee-mba-47abb627/)
Peggy McHale, Principal, Pandi LLC
(https://www.linkedin.com/in/peggymchale/)
Pete Mendonez, Jr., President & COO, PearlX
(https://www.linkedin.com/in/pete-mendonez-jr-26a11a13/)
Liz Miller, President, Summit Place Financial Advisors, LLC
(https://www.linkedin.com/in/liz-miller-cfa-cfp-5100096/)
Harry Moore, Jr., President, Gray Beard Solutions LLC
graybeardsolutionsllc@gmail.com
Manish Patel, CEO, TrickyWater LLC
(www.trickywater.com) (https://www.linkedin.com/in/manish-patel-innovate/)
Sabbir Rangwala, President, Patience Consulting
(https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabbir-rangwala/)
Shashi Patel, Manager – Engineering, PSEG
(https://www.linkedin.com/in/shashikant-patel-1073161b/)
URI programs provide students opportunities to learn necessary and important skills to research and innovate to take a leadership role in the society. These programs are designed to help student develop vision and strategic planning skills to address current and forthcoming global challenges. As STEM initiative is now appropriately complemented with arts (called as STEAM) to effectively develop an engaging perspective in design and also understanding the socio-economic impact, the URI programs are interdisciplinary and available to students from all majors encouraging them to network and learn skills to understand diversity and teamwork through peer interactions. URI programs also allow students to understand current and future needs and challenges of high societal impact to find solutions to address them with new products, design or services in the global market.
Ideas to find a plausible solution are naturally generated by human beings. However, the skills to develop a vision to transform those ideas into innovation for implementation in the real-world is learned and nurtured though carefully designed academic and research programs. URI programs provide students an environment to explore and research their ideas and to interact with real-world experts to understand roadmaps associated with research and design future technologies. Student can also learn how to understand market trends so that they can re-think their solutions and learn pathways towards developing a successful product, design or service. With innovative research, they can lead to new discoveries and enhancement of knowledge towards developing a productive foundation for future technologies.