The University of Tennessee–Oak Ridge Innovation Institute’s Science Alliance has selected two University of Tennessee faculty members for FY26 Support for Affiliated Research Teams (StART) awards. Each project will receive $100,000 to support new collaborative research between UT and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Congratulations to:
🔸 Hector Santos-Villalobos, assistant professor in the Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, who is collaborating with ORNL senior researcher David Cullen on AURORA: Agentic Unified Reasoning for Orchestrated Research Autonomy in Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy.
The project will develop an AI-driven, multi-agent framework designed to enable autonomous scientific experimentation and real-time decision-making in advanced microscopy workflows.
🔸 Stephanie Kivlin, associate professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, who is collaborating with ORNL senior researchers Ben Sulman and Matthew Craig on research exploring how plant and fungal traits contribute to long-term soil carbon storage and support a sustainable circular bioeconomy. Her broader research also examines the role of fungi and bacteria in above- and belowground ecosystem response to disturbance in the nearby Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The project aligns with UT-ORII’s Circular Bioeconomy Systems Convergent Research Initiative.
Established in 2019, the StART program was created to stimulate new UT-ORNL research collaborations. Since its launch, the program has funded nearly 40 joint research projects totaling more than $5 million.
StART is unique among UT-ORII funding opportunities because it focuses on supporting nascent UT-ORNL research teams and helping establish new collaborations between university faculty and ORNL researchers — strengthening the pipeline for future convergent research and external funding opportunities.
The Science Alliance will accept applications for FY27 StART funding this fall. For more info on StART, go to: https://utorii.com/start-awards/.
