RTI International, NCSU, Kenan Institute launch $2.3 million research incentive program

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – RTI International, North Carolina State University and the Kenan Institute for Engineering, Technology and Science launched the Game-Changing Research Incentive Program (GRIP) to stimulate the growth of interdisciplinary research and promote collaborative innovation. 

GRIP, a large-scale seed-funding program, will allocate potential funds of up to $2.3 million over three years to fund up to four exceptional research teams and programs.

"We want these projects to target research problems that are truly complex and require an interdisciplinary team approach to lead to what we hope will be solutions to grand challenge issues," said Alan Rebar, Ph.D., N.C. State's Vice Chancellor for Research, Innovation and Economic Development. "We hope that the projects will form the foundation of long-standing, impactful research programs that cross disciplinary and institutional boundaries."

RTI will fund up to one GRIP project that is consistent with RTI's strategic research objectives and includes comparable research teams comprised of N.C. State and RTI researchers as co-investigators.

"It is an honor for RTI to be a part of this bold, new N.C. State research initiative," said Jim Gibson, Chief Operating Officer at RTI. "We embrace the GRIP vision, and we see in this program an opportunity for researchers from our two institutions to come together to advance research in a way that neither of us could alone."

GRIP is intended to seed, incentivize and amplify visionary research that will result in a high return on investment in terms of extramural funding, award-winning research impacts, and first-class interdisciplinary graduate education and training.

"We are pleased to have RTI and the Kenan Institute as our collaborators and funding partners," Rebar said. "My hope is that our faculty will use this opportunity to think big, be creative and marshal expertise within and outside N.C. State that will be game-changers for N.C State, North Carolina, the nation and the world."