The Quest Fund was developed to afford VCU faculty an internal funding opportunity to support new, emerging or continuing research. Since 2014, when it was originally named the Presidential Research Quest Fund, it has supported more than 100 projects, with past recipients continuing their projects and applying for additional funding beyond VCU so their work can expand, with the eventual goal of translation to practice or market. With Quest Fund investments reaching over $3 million, its supported projects have garnered millions more in state, federal, private and industry funding. 

“The VCU Quest Fund mechanism has transformed to one of the OVPRI’s largest internal funding opportunities, with 10 years of investments and projects funded,” said P. Srirama Rao, Ph.D., vice president for research and innovation. “The impact of these projects has the potential to truly save millions of lives and benefit our society for future generations.”

The 2024 grant CHP recipients/principal investigators from the VCU Quest Fund and their research projects are:

Courtney Holmes, Ph.D., associate professor of rehabilitation counseling in the College of Health Professions, and Tiffany Kimbrough, M.D., co-PI and associate professor of pediatrics in the School of Medicine, for the project “Project Thrive: A Needs Assessment of Families in the Complex Care Clinic.”

Brooke Dexheimer, Ph.D., assistant professor of occupational therapy in the College of Health Professions, and Dean Krusienski, Ph.D., co-PI and professor of biomedical engineering in the College of Engineering, for the project, “Altering Sensory Perception in Virtual Reality to Elicit Naturalistic Movements.”

Paul Kline, Ph.D., assistant professor of physical therapy in the College of Health Professions, for the project, “The Role of Visual Attention and Environmental Complexity in Real-World Mobility for People with Lower Limb Amputation.”

To see all of the recipients of the VCU Quest Fund, please visit VCU News.

To learn more about the VCU Quest Fund as well as additional internal funding opportunities under the One VCU Research Strategic Priorities Plan, visit the plan website.

To find external funding supporting knowledge creation in and across all disciplines, visit the OVPRI funding page.

By Emily Komornik
Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation
Originally on VCU News