The Office of Research and Economic Development (ORED) announced it will award grants to faculty for research, scholarly and creative work under the new Research, Infrastructure and Scholarly Excellence (RISE) program, Monday.
“The RISE program is reinventing the internal funding opportunities that ORED had in the past,” said Carly Cummings, Director of the Office of Research and Faculty Development, an office within ORED. “What we wanted to do with the new program was to expand the different program offerings so they are more tailored to a specific outcome.”
According to ORED, the RISE program has three divisions — Research Project Support, Scholarly and Programmatic Support and Travel Support. Each of these divisions holds a variety of programs that faculty can apply to for aid.
“We’re looking to make it very visible and apparent to the faculty that ORED is wanting to support all disciplines and activities related to research and creative activities,” Cummings said. “So instead of having one big program that everyone can apply to, we decided to be a little bit more specific.”
Cummings said this allows faculty to see which program best fits with their project. When a program within RISE becomes available, ORED will send faculty an announcement to introduce the program. Some programs will have strict deadlines while others will accept proposals on a rolling basis.
ORED states to apply for a RISE grant, a faculty member “must be in a tenure-track or research faculty position and have submitted all reports and requirements from previous ORED awards and all sponsored activities.” If a faculty member receives funding through RISE, they will not be eligible to apply for the same grant until two years after their original project ends.
Although UI students are not eligible to apply for RISE grants, Cummings said making funds available for faculty will allow them to better aid and support their students.
“We know that faculty support students, and that is something we are really keen on,” Cummings said. “If a faculty member is looking to obtain some funding to support students, there are some funds available that can do that so that we are reaching across all of UI and into the student population as well.”
As of now, ORED has announced two programs within RISE — Jumpstart (JS) and Meet Your Sponsor (MYS). According to ORED, JS provides funding for those pursuing new lines of investigation. The grant will award funds up to $40,000. The deadline is March 1.
ORED describes MYS as a way for potential funders of sponsored work to visit with researchers in person. This program awards up to $1,500 and has a deadline of Jan. 31, 2019. MYS will also accept applications on a rolling basis.
“Look into the different opportunities we have. I think that there’s potentially something for everyone,” Cummings said. “Reach out if there are questions. Since this is new, we like feedback.”