VCRI Accepting Submissions for Chancellor's Innovation and Collaboration Fund

The Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation office invites faculty members to submit proposals for the Chancellor's Innovation and Collaboration Fund. The submission deadline is March 20. For the fourth consecutive year, the university will invest approximately $1 million in this fund for 2020 to support cutting-edge ideas and interdisciplinary studies.

The Innovation and Collaboration Fund is one of four subsets of the Chancellor's Fund which is designed to provide support for a number of new research, discovery, and creative activity opportunities that have not been possible given the dearth of external competitive programs that support "early stage" funding of new projects and collaborations, as well as financial constraints previously faced at the university.  

Funding will be awarded to research teams who propose projects that bring the academic community together in exciting and innovative ways. All full-time faculty at the Fayetteville campus of the University of Arkansas are eligible to serve as a group principal investigator.

Investments into faculty-initiated projects will not only lead to new academic directions, but they will also increase the competitiveness of the university and faculty for external funding and raise the recognition and distinction of the University of Arkansas' discovery, innovation, creative activities, and scholarly programs.

In last year's announcement of the fund, Dan Sui, vice chancellor of research and innovation, said, "This fund demonstrates the university's commitment to the research enterprise. Across our campus, faculty and students are reaching across disciplines to improve lives and build a better world, and we hope these seed funds can give them the foundation they need to take these projects to the next level."

Given that projects are aimed at seeding new initiatives, most funded projects should have a timeline of less than two years. Projects up to three years will be considered if the project period is well justified in the proposal. The fund will be used to support new projects only; any previous or concurrent funding for the proposed ideas make them ineligible for the Innovation and Collaboration Fund.

Proposals may be submitted via email to CIF@uark.edu. The deadline to apply is March 20. Award notifications will be sent by June 30.

Visit the Chancellor's Fund website for more information and application details.