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Letter from the VPR
Colleagues,
Research drives innovation, and innovation drives impact. This was abundantly clear to me last week as I gave two presentations for the Board of Regents meetings in Seattle.
First, Ananth Kalyanaraman and I gave an update on AI research at WSU. Kalyanaraman directs WSU’s School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and is also the Office of Research Fellow for Advancing AI Research. Our presentation highlighted WSU’s emerging strengths in AI, machine learning, and robotics systemwide, along with plans for the infrastructure needed to support this work and the growing partnerships developing across the system and the state.
During that presentation, it was a pleasure to highlight two junior faculty members: Yan Yan in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, who recently received an NSF CAREER award for his work improving predictive accuracy and trustworthiness of AI to ensure more effective tools for real-world applications; and TingTing Li in the College of Education, Sports, and Human Sciences, who will receive support from the Microsoft AI for Good Lab’s AI Economy Institute for her efforts to help rural teachers and students make use of AI.
Second, I updated the Board on WSU’s research enterprise, covering ongoing trends in funding, operations, and systemwide activity. We have already seen a 30% drop in research awards in the first quarter of FY26, largely due to federal agencies shifting priorities and increasing oversight. During the recent government shutdown, the decline reached 60%. With the end of the government shutdown, awards have begun to trickle back in, but we still anticipate an overall decrease in FY26 award dollars.
These Board presentations are timely sources of insight into WSU’s operations in research, finance, athletics, and more. I encourage you to watch them. As we navigate difficult external pressures, they serve as a reminder to strengthen our internal coordination and operations.
Within the Office of Research, we’ve restructured our units into a single, unified team. Rather than functioning as separate offices (all with different acronyms), we are aligning under one umbrella centered on four core areas: research support and operations, advancement and strategy, innovation and entrepreneurship, and finance and administration. You’ll see this reflected across our websites, social media, branding, and communications as we bring our online presence together. This integrated approach reinforces our commitment to collaboration and ensures we collectively support and advance WSU’s research enterprise.
To us, every proposal, every experiment, every partnership matters. I appreciate your continued engagement as we work through this period and sharpen our focus on supporting WSU’s research mission.
Kim Christen
Vice President for Research
Upcoming Events
Cannabis Research Seminar Series
This semester, the Center for Cannabis Policy, Research, and Outreach’s (CCPRO) Cannabis Research Seminar Series, is highlighting outstanding cannabis research being conducted within the WSU system.
The last seminar of the semester will feature: “Characterizing the Cannabis Sativa Terpenome and its Applications,” presented by Jeremy Boutin.
Date: Monday, December 1
Time: 12:00–1:00 p.m.
Place: Veterinary Biomedical Research Building, Room 305, WSU Pullman, or via Zoom.
Funding Opportunities
Arts & Humanities Process Grant Proposal
Arts and Humanities Process Grant proposals are due December 1, 2025. The grants are intended to support smaller items needed such as: materials, printing, tools, software, permissions, services (transcription or translation), event support, marketing, participant stipends, etc. Travel is not an eligible expense.
Grants are open to all faculty engaged in work based in the Arts & Humanities, regardless of track, campus, or unit. Learn more and submit a proposal at the program webpage.
New Faculty Seed Grant
The New Faculty Seed Grant Program helps junior faculty develop research, scholarly, or creative programs that lead to sustained professional development and extramural funding. The 2026 application cycle begins November 1.
A Notice of Intent is required and must be submitted by 5:00 p.m., December 1, 2025, to be considered for this program. Late NOIs will not be accepted. Full proposals are due February 1, 2026, by 5:00 p.m.
Visit the program webpage to learn more and submit an NOI.
Information Item
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Spotlight
In service of WSU’s ongoing land grant mission, and strategic plan focus on use-inspired research, the Innovation & Entrepreneurship team in the Office of Research regularly engages with colleagues around the WSU system to share education and programmatic resources around technology transfer and commercialization of WSU research.
Over the last few weeks our team conducted in-person outreach presentations, first for engineering students at the WSU Tri-Cities campus on October 31, and then again for WSU Vancouver researchers on November 6. These presentations were developed to offer an overview of topics from the research technology transfer landscape at WSU to the impact of WSU research through technology transfer to the best ways of optimizing research value through Intellectual Property (IP).
These outreach activities are an ideal opportunity for our team to help identify opportunities for successfully moving innovations from the lab to the marketplace. Whether you are interested in the evaluation and protection of intellectual property for a particular technology, or the ideation and implementation of the optimal strategy for technology commercialization via licensing and entrepreneurship, innovation and entrepreneurship specialists in the WSU Office of Research are excited to assist. The process for engaging with us is as simple as contacting us via phone or e-mail or simply stopping by to say hello.