FIRE Grant Projects
The Rice Rivers Center Faculty Instruction and Research Engagement (FIRE) Grants support instruction, training, and research that strengthen collaboration between VCU's main campus and the Rice Rivers Center. This year, FIRE grant recipients will initiate projects spanning topics such as art education, anthropology, and drone technology. FIRE grant recipients bring forth a diverse spread of training and research programs that will engage students and grow into longer term, externally supported projects.
Instruction-based FIRE grant projects including Entomology and Mapping with Drones courses contribute towards a diverse summer session catalog at Rice. FIRE grants provide these projects with funding for equipment, transportation, and materials so that VCU students have the resources they need to develop valuable skills.
FIRE grants were also awarded to research and training projects. Research and training projects led by VCU faculty include forest ecosystems and disturbance, microplastic quantification, archaeological research, art education, and avian ecology. Outputs from these projects will contribute to the Rice River Center's growing data catalog, providing both exposure of the research as well as long-term value and reuse of the data. These projects will also provide VCU undergraduate and graduate students with the opportunity to contribute to novel research and further develop their professional portfolios.