Grants and Research

As the Principal Investigator, Dr. Feria leads groundbreaking research projects, overseeing all phases from conceptualization to execution. Her expertise drives innovative solutions and significant advancements in her field. 

Grants (From most recent or active to 2006):

  1. 2024-2027 USDA Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative (Subaward $130,000) Climate-Smart Organic Sorghum Partnership for Grain and Silage Production.

  2. 2022-2027 Wellcome Trust UK (~$600,00 UT Austin leading Institution, UTRGV ~$197,000). FloDisMod – A Framework for Flood and Disease Modeling.

  3. 2022-2023 (October – August) APHIS USDA (US$25,000). Cactus Moth Survey.

  4. 2021-2022 (October – August) APHIS USDA (US$25,000). Cactus Moth Survey.

  5. 2019-2020 (January – December) APHIS USDA ($25,000). Cactus Moth Survey.

  6. 2019-2023 United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Undergraduate Research and Extension Experiential Learning Fellowships Program, NIFA ($474,105). Empowering Future Agricultural Scientists: food security and climate change research experiences for undergraduate students.

  7. 2017-2019 Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Section 6 grants. ($104,876). Understanding the ecological and geographic distribution of Manihot walkerae.

  8. 2017. February-September. Zika bi-national surveillance project. Fundación México-Estados Unidos para La Ciencia (FUMEC $51, 518).

  9. 2017 Conservation License Plates Texas Parks and Wildlife Department TPWD ($15,458). Johnston's Frankenia (Frankenia Jonhstonii) population status: year one in the post-delisting environment.

  10. 2016-2019 United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Undergraduate Research and Extension Experiential Learning Fellowships Program, NIFA (US$237,200). Training the next generation of agricultural scientists: coping with food security and climatic change challenges.

  11. 2015 American Bird Conservancy ($23,461) to develop the project: Priority areas for conservation of birds in the Tamaulipan Brushlands (Texas-México) and Laguna Madre (México). 

  12. 2012-2014 Comisión Nacional para el Uso y Conocimiento de la Biodiversidad (CONABIO), México ($18,572.60) to develop the project: Distribución geográfica de lagartijas (genero Plestiodon) y colibríes endémicos a México.

  13. 2011 Comisión Nacional para el Uso y Conocimiento de la Biodiversidad (CONABIO), México (Mx$49,700) to organize the Simposium Climate Change and its effects in Mexican birds, to be held at the XI Congreso para el Estado y Conservación de las Aves en México (CECAM). Role: Principal Investigator.
     
  14. 2011 The South Texas Border Health Disparities Center (STBHDC) at UTPA ($15,000). Project title: Fine-scale risk assessment of Chagas Disease transmission on the US-Mexican border. 

  15. 2008-2009 Faculty Research Grant ($5,000) to develop the project Predicting the Range Expansion of Species Due to Global Warming: A Case Study with Butterflies. 
In the role of Co-Principal Investigator, Dr. Feria collaborates closely with other research leaders, sharing responsibilities in project design and implementation.

Grants (From most recent or active to 2006):
  1. 2023-2028 Department of Education, Hispanic Serving Institution Program ($2,995,124.00). Puentes: A Cultural Wealth Model for Latinx Student Success.   

  2. 2022-2027 Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS USDA; $65,000,000 Texas A&M leading institution; UTRGV $1,302,865). Texas Climate-Smart Initiative.
  3. 2022-2025 National Science Foundation ADVANCED ($1,250,000). Latina ADVANCE Expose, Engage, Enable, and Examine (E4) Partnership: Transforming HSI STEM Departmental Climate for Latina Faculty Success.

  4. 2019-2021 (year 3) Center for Disease Control and Prevention ($10,000 000; $547,000 for UTRGV). Western Gulf Center for Excellence for Vector-Borne Diseases.

  5. 2016-2017 Seed Grant - College of Science, UTRGV ($24,997) Rio Grande Valley’s community health resilience in face of Chagas disease: risk assessment using mathematical models.

  6.  2012-2014 Wildlife Management Institute, Incorporated ($75,000) to develop the project: Riparian Corridor Re-Vegetation/Restoration Design in the Tamaulipan Brushlands and Gulf Coast Prairie Bird Conservation Regions.

  7. 2010-2011 National Geographic (GRANT #8701-09) ($18,214.00) to develop the project: The geographic origin of the poinsettia and the evolution of morphology under. Domestication.

  8. 2009-2011 DGAPA, PAPIIT IN203509 ($50,000). Diversidad y análisis de la distribución geográfica del suborden Rhopalocera (Lepidoptera) en el estado de Oaxaca: Fase I. Región Loxicha, Sierra madre del Sur.

  9. 2009-2011 CONACyT 83237. ($50,000). Diversidad y análisis de la distribución geográfica del suborden Rhopalocera (Lepidóptera) en el estado de Oaxaca.

  10. 2008-2010 PAPIIT grant, UNAM, México (Mx$599,000.03) to develop the project: Ecología térmica de Phrynosoma: implicaciones de la distribución y modo reproductor.
As a collaborator, Dr. Feria works alongside diverse teams and institutions, contributing her expertise to joint projects.

Grants (From most recent or active to 2006):
  1. 2014-2017 CONACyT 223033 (MX $900,000; ~US 70,000) to develop the Project: “Use of ants as bioindicators of land use change and climatic change” (“Uso de hormigas como bioindicadores del cambio en el uso del suelo y cambio climático”). 

  2. 2013-2015 FOMIX-CONACyT Hidalgo number 191908, México (MX $3,094,412). To develop the Project Diversidad Biológica del Estado de Hidalgo (tercera etapa). 

  3.  2013-2015 Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, Spain Madrid ($90,000 euros). Global-Fungi (Fungi driving animal species to extinction: diversity, environmental adaptations, and predictions in a global warming scenario).

This section highlights Dr. Feria's involvement in various roles that support her research initiatives, including student support, co-manager, and/or senior personnel.

Grants (From most recent or active to 2006):

  1. 2016-2017 Engaged Scholarship. Student Research support for Marcelo Pintos ($2,000). Project: Identifying the risks of Chagas Disease in Southeast Texas based on infected Triatomine insect species and parasite gene diversity. Role: Student Support.

  2. 2015-2017 United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection System (APHIS) Plant Protection and Quarantine ($103,706) Support of Geographic Information System Development on Crop Production in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Role: Co-Manager. 

  3. 2014 UTPA, Undergraduate Research Initiative ($2,000) to develop the project: Chagas Disease Rate of infection of the main arthropod vector for the disease in Texas. Role: Student support. 

  4. 2013-2014 National Science Foundation ($158,420) -MRI: Acquisition of a Next- Generation Sequencer for Biological Research at a Hispanic Serving Institution in South Texas. Role: Senior Personnel. 

  5. 2013-2014 United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection System (APHIS) Plant Protection and Quarantine ($45,626) Support of Geographic Information System Development on Crop Production in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Role: Co-Manager. 

  6. 2012-2013 United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection System (APHIS) Plant Protection and Quarantine ($30,000) to develop the project: Development of Geographic Information System Data on Crop production in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Role: Co-Manager. 

  7. 2007 Post-doctoral fellowship at the Facultad de Estudios Superiores Zaragoza, UNAM, Mex.
     
  8. 2007 Post-doctoral fellowship (US$4,500) by the Center for Conservation and Sustainable Development at the Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG), St. Louis, Mo, USA. 

  9. 2006 Seed Grant (US$6,000) by The Amazon Conservation Association to develop the project: Micro and macrofauna in the internodes of the Bamboo Guadua weberbaueri Pilger project at Los Amigos Biological Station, Peru. 

  10. 2006 Fellowship (US$1,500) granted by the International Center for Tropical Ecology (ICTE), the Biology Department at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, BBVA, and the Center for Conservation at MOBOT are to attend the IX Congreso Latinoamericano de Botánica in the Dominican Republic from 18-26 of July. 

  11. 2006 ICTE Fellowship (US$2,500) for an internship in the Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid to get training in the use of MARS, GLM, and CART niche model-based programs. 

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