Campus News
CITRIS Interdisciplinary Innovation Program (I2P) funds two campus projects
The 2026-27 I2P call for proposals was open to projects focused on information technology solutions to significant societal challenges in any focus area.
CITRIS and the Banatao Institute at UC Santa Cruz has funded two new projects through the Interdisciplinary Innovation Program (I2P). The 2026-27 I2P call for proposals was open to projects focused on information technology solutions to significant societal challenges in any focus area. The program received a strong field of proposals and the two chosen by the review committee coincidentally both focus on wildlife conservation.
The program runs annually, with a submission period during the summer quarter. This year’s two funded projects are:
Robotic Handling for Gentler, Faster Tagging of Young Salmon, with Lead PI, Tae Myung Hu from Electrical and Computer Engineering and co-PI Miles Daniels from Physical and Biological Sciences.
The project addresses the challenge of declining salmon populations through streamlining the process of implanting electronic tags implanted in juvenile fish by developing a pin-array gripper robotic system that holds and orients juvenile salmon gently, quickly, and consistently, with little or no chemical sedation, ultimately creating a model for safer handling of other small, delicate animals as well.
Tiny Tags, Open Skies: A Low-cost Drone Platform for Sea Turtle Hatchling Dispersal Tracking at a Global Conservation Scale with Lead PI, Dan Costa from Physical and Biological Sciences and co-PI Becca Fenwick (in an unfunded, advisory role) from Engineering.
This project develops an open-source, low-cost aerial monitoring system combining specialized drone builds, custom UV imaging hardware, and computer-vision tracking software to close a critical, decades-old data gap in endangered species conservation, starting with sea turtle hatchlings, while providing global access to this innovative technology.
Future CITRIS funding opportunities
Currently open for submission through October 8th, with an optional (but strongly encouraged) letter of intent due September 25th, the CITRIS-CDSS Innovation Fellowship and AIC Awards provide up to $200,000 over two years to help translate laboratory research into viable commercial solutions for society’s most pressing challenges. The program is open to PIs at UC Santa Cruz, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Merced, Berkeley Lab and Lawrence Livermore National Lab. Please review the RFP and apply on the CITRIS-CDSS Innovation Fellowship and AIC Awards website.
The UC-wide CITRIS Core Seed Funding program will invite proposals from teams that must include researchers from two or more of the UC CITRIS campuses: UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Davis Health, UC Merced and UC Santa Cruz. The 2027 request for proposals is scheduled to open in the winter. For more information, please visit the CITRIS Core Seed Funding website or watch an information session recording on the website.
CITRIS at UC Santa Cruz also funds student projects and events through the Tech for Social Good program and invites applications for its technology track until November 15th, 2026.
In addition, CITRIS at UC Santa Cruz offers the CIDER Drone Pilot Training, a mentoring and education program to train students in the safe and comprehensive use of drones, with a special focus on agricultural and environmental research applications. The program is open for applications starting September 22nd through November 2nd, 2026.