Strategic Initiative Fund (SIF) Projects
SIF Funded Projects
Primary Impact Area: Life-Changing Education
The Michigan Literacy Leaders Partnership
This initiative addresses the literacy crisis affecting Michigan children and advances transformational change in reading instruction across the state and beyond.
Great Lakes Blue Engine
Blue Engine supports climate resilience, economic mobility, and environmental equity by strengthening water-sector education, credentialing, and career pathways.
The Wolverine Kitchen Lab
The Lab transforms the kitchen into a space where students practice interdisciplinary problem-solving at the intersection of food, culture, science, sustainability and health.
Scaling Interprofessional Education to Improve Human Health
This project will expand hands-on, team-based learning opportunities that bring students from all 26 U-M health science programs together in clinical and community settings.
University of Michigan Arts Venture Fund
This initiative is a first-of-its-kind, philanthropic, return-based fund that invests in promising arts ventures and creative projects with commercial potential.
MDefenders Center for Public Defense
MCPD is dedicated to training and inspiring the next generation of public defenders while simultaneously strengthening indigent defense systems across the United States.
Primary Impact Area: Human Health & Well-Being
mi-SonoPatch: Smart Acute Abdominal Assessment
The project aims to improve how emergency departments evaluate acute abdominal pain, a leading cause of emergency room visits and CT imaging.
The Ypsilanti Health Center-Legal Services of South Central Michigan Medical-Legal Partnership (YHC-LSSCM MLP)
This initiative will integrate legal professionals into healthcare settings to address social and legal issues that negatively impact patient health.
Game Changers: The Michigan Center for Innovation in Women's Sports
Game Changers is dedicated to advancing the health, performance, and holistic well-being of female athletes across all ages, sports, and ability levels.
The Exercise Oncology Initiative (EOI)
EOI will create the first training pathway for professionals to deliver evidence-based exercise support to cancer patients and survivors.
Michigan Initiative to Reprogram Cells for Diabetes (MIRC-D)
MIRC-D’s goal is to move diabetes care beyond chronic disease management toward regenerative repair by using direct cell reprogramming.
Transformative Health Justice Training for Interprofessional Learners
This initiative will equip students in all healthcare fields to become effective agents for dismantling health inequities and medical racism.
Personalized Immune Models to Predict Infectious Disease Outcomes
This project aims to establish a personalized approach to infectious-disease prediction, treatment, and prevention.
Monitoring Food Hardship in the US
This project will track food insufficiency in U.S. households, publish quarterly briefs, and provide free public data on hardship among vulnerable families nationwide.
AI-Powered Optical Biopsy for Real-Time In Vivo Pathology
This initiative would enable clinicians to evaluate tissue microscopically during routine endoscopy rather than relying solely on physical biopsies and off-site pathology.
AI-Enabled Scalable Training for Global Mental Health Service Providers
This project will create an AI-enabled, culturally adapted platform to train and assess mental health counselors and therapists in low- and middle-income countries.
Michigan Center for Extracellular Nanomedicine (MCEN)
MCEN unites Michigan researchers to study tiny particles that shape health and engineer tools for earlier detection, precise drug delivery, and tissue healing.
Michigan Center for Human Immunology Model Systems (MiCHIM)
MiCHIM will advance fundamental discovery of how the human immune system works and better predict how new treatments will perform in people.
A Novel Strategy for Effective and Non-Addictive Pain Management
This initiative presents a novel strategy for effective, non-addictive pain management aimed at addressing the public health and economic burden of acute and chronic pain.
Primary Impact Area: Democracy, Civic & Global Engagement
Detroit Metro Area Communities Study (DMACS)
DMACS will expand into a Detroit-centered civic data platform providing reliable, timely, representative information to residents, organizations, funders, and policymakers.
Voices in Civic Belonging: Strengthening Immigrant and Refugee Engagement in Michigan
This initiative will strengthen civic and democratic engagement of immigrant and refugee communities in Michigan by building partnerships at local, state and national levels.
Money for the People
Money for the People supports grassroots movements advocating for public control over banking and finance, ensuring their communities have the resources they need to thrive.
The Center for Democracy & Civic Empowerment
The center seeks to advance a clearer, evidence-based understanding of what it takes to establish and sustain democracy, and translate that understanding into civic capacity.
Primary Impact Area: Energy, Climate Action, Sustainability and Environmental Equity
Shared Ground: Implementing and Sustaining Public Greenspace as Civic Infrastructure
Shared Ground transforms Detroit's vacant land into community-defined public greenspace that strengthens neighborhood connection, climate resilience, and civic life.
M|Lands: Training Sustainability’s Workforce through U-M Land-Labs
M|Lands will mobilize U-M’s more than 40,000 acres of land to develop a leading, place-based land stewardship training paradigm.
Energysheds: Planning for Michigan's Energy Future
This initiative will help communities understand and discuss how rising electricity demand from data centers and AI-enabled services is reshaping energy systems and land use.
Living Electronics for Environmental Monitoring
This initiative will develop a new kind of untethered living sensor network that uses microbial communities to monitor air and water quality and detect environmental threats.
Michigan Automotive, Grid, and Energy Transition Initiative (MAGNET)
MAGNET tracks Michigan’s clean energy and mobility transition, turning complex data into practical insights for policymakers, industry, communities, and researchers statewide.
Center for Community Environmental Dialogue
By first listening to communities, the Center for Community Environmental Dialogue will identify what inspires people to support climate, environmental, and energy solutions.
Primary Impact Area: Advanced Technology
Mi DuRAG: Human-Centered AI for Data Analysis in Research and Education
Mi DuRAG aims to create an AI data partner that captures expert decisions, rationales, and data structure, allowing students and researchers to focus on analytical questions.
Detroit Small Business Innovation & Learning Hub
The hub will equip Detroit small businesses with the digital tools they need to run smarter, while giving U-M students real experience building and deploying technology.
The Michigan Deepfake Resilience Hub
M-DRH combines explainable AI, human-centered design, and education to help the public understand AI-generated contents and protect themselves against AI-generated fraud.
Battery Safety and Sustainability Research and Testing Center
The center will establish the first open-access EV battery thermal-runaway testing facility to support research that helps prevent thermal failure and advances transportation.
Center of Safety for All (Safety4All)
The Safety4All Center will develop digital human twins and virtual testing technologies that fundamentally transform how safety systems are designed and evaluated.
Integrated Photonics for Low-Cost At-Home Biomarker Sensors
This initiative will develop low-cost, at-home biosensors to provide early disease detection, enable timely intervention, and improve quality of life for two chronic diseases.
Center for Human–Agentic AI Collaboration for Urban Resilience
This initiative brings together U-M researchers with community partners to strengthen urban resilience against flooding, severe weather, and water infrastructure failures.
Great Lakes Maritime Initiative
The Great Lakes Maritime Initiative will position the Great Lakes as a national hub for shipbuilding revitalization, maritime innovation, and workforce development.