The Innovation Impact Grant (IIG) program supports the purchase of research equipment for core facilities at academic or nonprofit institutions fostering innovation within North Carolina’s life sciences ecosystem.
Priority will be given to proposals demonstrating a high impact on the applicant institution and broader life sciences research community.
Potential applicants at Duke should consult with Kylie Snyder, Foundation Relations (kylie.snyder@duke.edu) before applying.
Deadline: Wednesday, October 1, 2025
The principal investigator (PI) must be employed as a permanent, full-time core facility director or faculty member at a North Carolina academic or nonprofit research institute. The PI must also have technical expertise directly related to the type of equipment requested (as documented in the biosketch).
- An IIG principal investigator may have no more than two concurrent active awards from the Center.
- An institution that has received NCBiotech equipment grant funding within the past two years is ineligible to receive an IIG award for the purchase of similar equipment.
The proposal must list the intended major users of the equipment along with an explanation of how the requested instrument will advance their projects’ research objectives. Major users may have university, industry, or government research affiliations within or outside of the PI’s institution.
The number of major users who must be identified is dependent upon the size of the university or research institution.
- Requests from Duke University, North Carolina State University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Wake Forest University (including WFU Health Sciences and WFIRM) require at least SIX major users.
- Requests from all other NC institutions require at least THREE major users.
Each application must be authorized in a letter of support from a senior research executive representing the applicant institution (e.g., Vice Chancellor of Research or equivalent). See page 11. This requirement is not fulfilled by the signature on the proposal Cover Sheet.
Up to $150,000 may be requested, and a cash match is required.
Funding Year
PI
Equipment
2008
Thomas Schultz
ABI 3730 DNA Sequencer; Corbett Rotor-Gene 6000 RT-PCR machine
2008
Stephen Craig
500 MHz NMR Spectrometer Console
2009
Huntington Willard
Blade serever enclosure, Dell M1000E; 16 blade servers, Dell M600, dual quad CPU, 32 GB RAM 2 NetApp Fibre channel storage shelves; 1 NetApp SATA storage shelf
2009
William Wetsel
XP2U ultra-microbalance Plethysmometer; ECT unit; treadmill; Foot misplacement apparatus; sono Track ultrasound detector; gait analysis system; prepulse inhibition test systems; grip strength apparatus; pressure analgesia meter; marnes maze; morris water maze equipment; micromanipulators for steriotaxic; Coulochem III HPLC detector; HPLC autosampler; Atlantic platform for water maze; Intracranial stimulator apparatus; 5-hole nose-poke apparatus; conditioned place preference apparatus; tail suspension apparatus; digital infrared cameras, cards, computers; ethovision license with upgrade; observer license with upgrade
2010
Michael Hauser
BioMicroLab XL20 Automated Tube Sorter with balance and 2D scanner; Capit-All 96 Channel Scrrew Cap TubeCapper/Decapper; Racking Systems for tube boxes
2011
Sam Johnson
Long-term Fluorescence Time-lapse Imaging System for the Light Microscopy Core Facility at Duke University
2011
Dr. Geoffrey S. Ginsburg
Advancing Infectious Diseases Biomarkers: Migration of Gene Expression Signatures to Next-generation Point-of-care Diagnostic Devices
2011
Dr. Mark W. Dewhirst
Fluorescence Molecular Tomography Shared Resource
2012
Dr. Yutao Liu
Duke Acquisition of a Mid-range DNA Sequencer for Molecular Genomics Core. Funds are requested for purchase of a MiSeq Personal Sequencing System from Illumina
2012
Dr. Sina Farsiu
Ultrahigh-Resolution Adaptive Optics Optical Coherence Tomography/Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscopy System
2013
Murdoch, David M.
Dip Pen Nanolithography
2013
Rockman, Howard A.
Echocardiography for Sophisticated Murine Cardiac Phenotyping
2013
Dressman, Holly K.
Expression Profiling of Single Cells
2014
Yokoyama, Kenichi
High sensitivity multi-purpose electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy for biotechnological and biomedical research
2015
Kim, So Young
Acoustic Liquid Handling for High-Throughput Screening
2015
Palmer, Gregory
Fluorescence and Luminescence Imaging Instrument for Duke Shared Resource
2016
Fitzgerald, Michael
Acquisition of a MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometer System
2017
Force, Jeremy
3D Biology Signatures defined by Nanostring Max System
2017
McCall, Shannon
Empowering Duke's Precision Pathology Center with Quantitative Image Analysis to Support Discovery, Diagnostic Assay Development, and Immune Cell Monitoring