Chancellor's Innovation and Collaboration Fund Accepting Proposals for Funding

The Division of Research and Innovation invites faculty members to submit proposals for the Chancellor's Innovation and Collaboration Fund. The submission deadline is Wednesday, April 21. For the fifth consecutive year, the university will invest 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 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. The selection committee is most interested in projects that aim to seek external funding beyond the initial stage of the research process. 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.

John English, vice chancellor of research and innovation, and Joe Steinmetz, chancellor, continue to see this program as vital to the research enterprise on campus. The total 2021 investment may be smaller given the circumstances of this year, but "we will continue to invest in scholarship through this mechanism."

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 the Infoready portal. The deadline to apply is April 21. Award notifications will be sent by late June 30.

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