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News & Updates
University Grant Program Awards Announced
ORCS has awarded 10 grants for the 2026 cycle of the University Grant Program (UGP) - four Small Grants and six Seed Grants. The awards support projects in the arts, humanities, and sciences. The awardees are listed below, but if you’d like to learn more, visit the UGP Awardee page. Congratulations to the awardees!
UGP Small Grants 2026
Ekaterina Voronina: Oncogene Dosage Control
Gillian Glaes: Anti-Racism After Empire, 1968-2005
Fang Chen: AI Facilitated Problem Solving - The Impact of Collaboration Structure
Emily Ruskovich: Idaho Novel Converted to Screenplay
UGP Seed Grants 2026
Nitin Ravikanthachari: Wolbachia-Induced Sex Ratio Distortion and Cytoplasmic Incompatibility
Rebekah Kendall: PFAS, Microplastics, and Inflammation
Meredith Zettlemoyer: Short interval wildfire seed banks
Research & Creative Scholarship Stories
Bright Minds, Bold Research: Undergraduates at UM
The UM Conference on Undergraduate Research (UMCUR) celebrated its 25th anniversary this last week, showcasing undergraduate research and creative scholarship from every discipline. The conference highlights UM’s long‑standing commitment to engaging students in meaningful, hands‑on research experiences that help launch their futures. The ORCS Research Communications team captured a selection of these student stories on film! You can visit the UMCUR 2026 Student Highlights playlist to see all of the videos.
UM Doctoral Student Digs Up Archaeological Accomplishment
“The journey of Megan Denis to becoming a globetrotting doctoral student at the University of Montana started at an archaeological dig in British Columbia.
Originally from Bremerton, Washington, Denis as a college undergrad attended the field school of Anna Prentiss, a UM Regents Professor of Anthropology renowned for her meticulous and holistic methods leading archeological digs.” Read the entire story on UM News.
Events
Event Reminders
Follow links for details
Departmental Research Administrator (DRA) Forum
May 4, 2026, 10 AM to 11 AM, UC 225
The Office of Sponsored Programs invites all DRAs to this open forum where Pope Ashworth will discuss the move from InfoGriz to Tableau.
Montana Institute for the Book Arts
Two sessions: August 3-7, 2026 & August 10-14, 2026
The Montana Institute for Book Arts is a summer program that brings together artists, craftspeople, and motivated students from across the country to share their professional knowledge and their love of bookmaking. Registration closes June 30, 2026. Space is limited!
Resources
NSF SBIR/STTR Dynamic Discussion: Awardee Lessons from the Translation Journey
The University of Montana’s Center for Population Health Research (CPHR), a Phase 2 NIH Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE), will support one or more Research Projects to represent the next phase of our growing community of investigators. Note that this funding opportunity is distinct from our pilot project program. Research Projects are multi-year projects funded up to $150,000 in direct costs per year. Research Project Leaders (RPLs) are expected to allocate a substantial portion (~50% grant-supported) of their overall effort to the project. Applications must describe a research project that fits well with the scientific theme of CPHR. Preference will be given to projects that will make good use of one or more CPHR Core Facilities at the University of Montana. See the website for eligibility and application details.
The Funnies
This week, we asked AI to generate a visual of our mental state as the academic year draws to a close. Here's what we got.
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