The CCBS Opportunity award competition is open to any UCI graduate student or postdoctoral researcher (including project scientists, specialists, etc.), who attended the 2026 Sys Bio Retreat. Any pair (or trio) of individuals who meet the above criteria may jointly submit a proposal for this year's competition following the instructions below. The progress reports from previous years' awardees are available below.
2026 - 2027
What's Old is New
Today, massive amounts of experimental data are collected, used once for a publication, and then left to languish in big repositories, rarely to be touched again. We are asking for projects that re-analyze old data - public data or data collected at UCI - either using new or improved tools, or combining data in creative ways. Any type of data is fair game, and the proposer should make the case that something useful can be learned from the proposed re-analysis.
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The proposed project must be a short-term (up to 1 year), feasible research investigation that answers a research question related to this year's theme.
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It must be interdisciplinary: it must involve participation from at least two lab/research groups representing different disciplines or departments.
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It must be a "new" project, and it must address the year's theme.
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Your advisor/PI must agree to let you work on the project.
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You/your team must attend next year's retreat and give a presentation on your progress (retreat registration fees are waived for opportunity awardees).
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Step 1 - BEFORE 12:30pm on Sunday, 3/22, hand in (or e-mail to Emi) a one paragraph abstract (can even be handwritten) briefly describing the nature of the project.
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Step 2 - Send a more complete description (up to 3 pages) by e-mail to Emi (eembler@uci.edu) by MIDNIGHT on Monday, 4/6.
REVIEW CRITERIA -
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Proposals will be judged by the CCBS faculty, based on significance, interdisciplinarity, feasibility and responsiveness to the theme.
2026 Award Winners!
TBD
