The Minnesota Bioinnovation Accelerator (MnBA) at the University of Minnesota announced its FY2025-2026 Seed Research Grant program in June 2025. This initiative supported cross-disciplinary, high-impact projects that leverage Minnesota’s resources and foster partnerships with government, industry, higher education, and community stakeholders to advance biomanufacturing innovation.

Thank you for your interest in the MnBA Seed Research Grant program. The deadline for proposal submission has passed, and we are no longer accepting proposals at this time. 

Key Details

  • Funding: Awards up to $100,000 for one year; follow-on funding available for current two-year awardees requesting renewal.
  • Eligibility: Open to faculty at UMN and UMN research institutions. Projects must demonstrate cross-disciplinary or multi-institutional collaboration.
  • Submission Deadline: June 16, 2025. Proposals must be submitted as a single PDF using the provided template to [email protected].

2025–2026 Priority Areas

  • Upcycling Minnesota-based byproducts/waste streams into valuable products
  • Leveraging biology for distributed manufacturing to ensure resilient supply chains
  • Remediation, recovery, and recycling of polymers, chemicals, and minerals
  • Advancing biomanufacturing for "One Health"-addressing human, animal, and environmental health

Proposal Requirements

  • Clearly define objectives, innovation, impact, and translational approach
  • Emphasize cross-disciplinary collaboration and relevance to Minnesota
  • Include a detailed research plan, milestones, deliverables, and strategy for securing further funding
  • Budget must primarily support researchers (graduate students, postdocs, staff); limited funds allowed for external consultants and services

Review Process

  • Proposals are evaluated for scientific merit, innovation, impact, collaboration, and alignment with MnBA’s mission
  • Reviewed by ad hoc subject matter experts; low-quality or off-topic proposals may be rejected without detailed review

Reporting

A final report is required for all awards.

Seed grant RFP

Availability/Deadlines

  • 6/16/2025: Lead PI submits proposal
  • 7/15/2025: Review is complete
  • 7/2025: Award notification
  • 8/1/2025: Award period begins

Eligibility Requirements

Applications will be accepted from UMN faculty (professor, associate professor, assistant professor) who hold (or will hold during the relevant academic year) full time (100 percent) tenured or tenure-track appointments (employee class FAR). New faculty must begin their appointment by the start date of the grant. 

UMN faculty (professor, associate professor, assistant professor) or equivalent positions at UMN Research Institutions holding full-time (100%) salaried multiple year contract, annual renewable contract, or fixed term contract appointments (employee class FAC, FTD, or ACP) and who are annually evaluated like tenured and tenure-track faculty (in terms of their research accomplishments, independence, and ability to secure external funding), are also eligible for support.

Applications with multiple PIs should specify a lead PI. A faculty member may be principal investigator (PI) on only one application during the current cycle.

Expenditures

General areas of support include personnel, operating supplies and services; equipment; and limited travel.

Personnel

Allowed

  • Salary/fringe support for graduate or undergraduate research assistants; partial support for post-doc and civil service personnel, and non-faculty P&A
  • Non-UMN personnel (e.g., consultants, honoraria). May not exceed $5000 or 20% of the total annual project cost, whichever is smaller.
  • Research subject/participant payments

Not allowed

  • Faculty or visiting faculty salary support
  • Support for personnel to edit or index publication material or to word process manuscripts or proposals
  • Subcontracts

Operating Supplies & Services

Allowed

  • General operating supplies and services (including core facility use charges) for this project, including computer supplies and software, if clearly necessary for the project. Publication costs for journal fees are limited to $1,000.
  • Professional or lab services outside the UMN. May not exceed $5,000 or 20 percent of the total project cost, whichever is smaller.

Not allowed

  • Routine maintenance/repairs of equipment
  • Books, subscriptions, reprints
  • Utilities (e.g., phone lines)

Travel

Allowed

  • Transportation and/or per-diem expenses to a) gather data or use resources otherwise not available, or to b) work with other colleagues on research of mutual interest. Note: Most scholarly meetings and conferences intended primarily to report on research are not appropriate.
  • See rates and other travel information. Rates should be reduced proportionately for visits longer than one month in one locale, when it should be possible to make more economical arrangements. An explanation of long-term arrangements must be included in the budget justification section.

Not allowed

  • Travel to sabbatical and single semester leave sites from Minnesota and return. Travel and per-diem expenses for single-semester leave and sabbatical sites to another site (“side trips”) for strictly research purposes may be considered.
  • Travel expenses associated with professional meetings, conferences, and short courses
  • Fees and expenses associated with conferences

Equipment or Rents and Leases

Allowed

  • Minor or major equipment, including computer equipment, if specifically needed for the purpose of the proposed project. Note: It is expected that departments or other University resources (e.g., Office of Information Technology and Minnesota Supercomputing Institute) will provide computer support.
  • The justification for a computer request must include the following: 1) Specify the special features of the computer that are necessary and integral for supporting the project. 2) Explain why other University computing resources (e.g. MSI, departmental computers) cannot meet the needs of the project. 3) Explain what will be done with the computer when the research is finished.
  • Shared equipment requests must include a 30-50% match. Non/shared equipment requests of capital equipment (equal to or greater than $5,000) should also include matching funds, typically 30-50%.