ideas:

data blitz
invite other research institutes like cancer center?

retreat with research sandpit, form teams around common topics
goal of sandpit: campus research board proposals? traines writing?
aces fire grants from hatch grant funds (from federal gov for land-grant univs). e.g., 30K for sequencing experiments
it's like buying a car: money has to go out by the end of the summer
deadline is end of september
cancer center seed grants?
beckman seed grants?

cancer center has sequencing discount through cbc

nsf broadening participation in stem grant specifically about extending pan-genome methods to students.
e.g. differences in soil microbiome vs human microbiome
e.g. database issue is really bad for soil microbiome work

training: could start something as a workshop and then it could evolve into a course

wet lab + dry lab joint workshop?
could be a component of a training grant?

another possible focus: sequencing microbes from samples where microbes are super rare? e.g. lung tissue?

do a "woods hole" here?

another possible funding source: the YIP program at IGB.
https://www.igb.illinois.edu/article/young-innovator-program-successfully-concludes-its-second-year
more entrepreneurially oriented but with this topic it's a possibility.