SIF Funded Projects

List of All Projects 

A hallmark of SIF’s success is its innovative matching model, which multiplies the impact of each dollar invested. Signature initiatives such as the Bicentennial Scholars and Bicentennial Professors Funds pair SIF resources with philanthropic contributions – broadening reach and deepening donor engagement.

To ensure excellence and accountability, all funded projects undergo an annual review by the Post-Award Assessment Committee (PAC). This rigorous evaluation process ensures alignment with the University’s core values of programmatic integrity, strategic impact, and responsible stewardship.

Enabling Discoveries That Enrich and Improve Lives

At the heart of UVA’s 2030 Plan is a bold commitment: to pursue knowledge that makes a difference – through teaching, research, and health care – guided by a fearless and unending search for truth in service to the public good.

As a major research university, UVA is committed to advancing knowledge and truth wherever it leads. While we’ve significantly increased our research output in recent years, achieving national leadership requires continued growth and focus. Research today is inherently interdisciplinary – reflecting the complex nature of the world’s most pressing challenges. To lead effectively, we must enhance our research infrastructure, foster collaboration across disciplines, and target our efforts toward solving global challenges.

Discovery extends well beyond the research lab. It’s also at the core of transformative learning. Our students thrive when education becomes an opportunity for exploration – moments of discovery that inspire curiosity, deepen understanding, and prepare them to shape the future.

Grand Challenge Strategic Research Themes

Through the Strategic Investment Fund, the University is advancing research and innovation in five designated Grand Challenge areas:

• Democracy
• Environmental Resilience
• Precision Medicine & Health
• Brain & Neuroscience
• Digital Technology & Society

These themes reflect both the University's strengths and its responsibility to address critical issues facing the world. Our investments in these areas are paired with efforts to strengthen research infrastructure across Grounds, creating a foundation for sustained excellence and global impact.

We should strive to attract and support the best students, faculty, and staff, recognizing that our success depends on the quality of our people. We must also provide efficient and effective systems that support their work, and cultivate a culture that nurtures and stimulates their growth and development.

One of our greatest strengths is our student experience, which features opportunities for meaningful interactions inside and outside of the classroom among faculty, students, and staff; a tradition of student self-governance, volunteerism, and a strong honor system; a dynamic arts community; and an outstanding athletics program—all in a uniquely beautiful, historic, and distinctive setting, and all of it designed for the purpose of preparing students to lead, learn, and serve. We are large enough to satisfy a vast array of interests, and small enough to create a sense of connection and belonging. In order to continue to attract the very best students, and to prepare and inspire them to live their best lives, we must offer them an unparalleled experience while on Grounds.

Our relationship with Charlottesville and the surrounding counties is critically and mutually important. Our success as a university depends in no small part on the strength of those communities, and on the strength of our relationship with them. We will reach our potential as a university only if we partner with our neighbors to ensure that the Charlottesville region is an attractive and equitable place to live. At the same time, as an anchor institution we must take seriously our responsibility to be a good neighbor and employer.

Last, our extraordinarily loyal alumni are a critical part of our community. We should do more to engage them and to provide them with opportunities for life-long learning as they navigate their way through a fast-paced and changing economy.

When this University was founded, its primary mission was to prepare students to become citizen-leaders who would serve our fledgling democracy. The vision was imperfect, of course, as it included only white males as participants in this project. But the core idea—that UVA exists to serve the public—remains both relevant and compelling. In an era of increasing skepticism about the contributions of universities, we will rededicate ourselves to the original animating purpose of the University and look for ways to better serve our community, the Commonwealth, and beyond.

List of All Projects