The University of Iowa College of Dentistry is pleased to announce the 2026 Seed Grant Awards. 

This is the sixth year of the seed grant program. These grants fund innovative projects from early-career investigators or established investigators who are developing a new line of research. The goal of these grants is to encourage research and generate data that will enable the awardees to be competitive for peer-reviewed national funding agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health.

Seed grant awardees and applicants have become a major driving force of the collegiate research enterprise, resulting 

The four projects selected this year are sure to continue this trend.

The college would also like to express our appreciation for the College's Research Proposal Advisory Panel, for their time and effort on the seed grant program:

Peter C. Damiano, DDS, MPH (Chair), Bernstein Professor, Preventive and Community Dentistry
Azeez Butali, BDS, PhD, Gilbert E. Lilly Professor of Diagnostic Science, Department of Oral Pathology, Radiology, and Medicine
Liu Hong, MD, MS, PhD, Professor, Department of Prosthodontics and Director, Iowa Institute for Oral Health Research
Kyungsup Shin, DMD, MA, PhD, Ross D. Christensen Family Professor of Orthodontics, Department of Orthodontics and Iowa Institute for Oral Health Research and Director, Clinical Research
Cris Vidal, DDS, PhD, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Operative Dentistry
John Warren, DDS, MS, Professor, Department of Preventive and Community Dentistry
George J. Weiner, MD, C.E. Block Chair Professor, Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center

Each 2026 Seed Grant proposal was reviewed and evaluated by the College of Dentistry Research Proposal Advisory Panel (RPAP), and award amounts for the proposals were based on the panel’s review and scoring of the proposals, the requested budget, and the available funds.

Based on these criteria, the 2026 Seed Grant Awards are: