A new seed funding program will support UO faculty members conducting research on climate change, sustainability and environmental studies as part of a new project aimed at tackling important issues centered on resilience.
The UO Resilience Initiative will build new, interdisciplinary research collaborations and support the development of new research agendas. It includes the seed funding program, which will be available across multiple schools and colleges.
"This program will inspire creative and innovative research and scholarship proposals that are rigorous in approach and inventive in design," said Cass Moseley, senior associate vice president for research and innovation. "Our hope is to leverage our institutional strengths and foster new interdisciplinary collaborations that result in real-world solutions to some of our most urgent social and environmental challenges."
The seed funding program was unveiled earlier this month during a daylong resilience symposium, a working meeting designed to identify and discuss the social-environmental issues that UO faculty members are well-positioned to address through novel, interdisciplinary research and scholarship.
Sponsored by the Office of the Vice President of Research and Innovation, the Resilience Initiative will leverage the UO's research strengths to address some of the major issues around sustainability, resilience and climate change. The program is being led by Moseley and Christoph Lindner, dean of the College of Design, along with a visioning committee of faculty members from across campus.
Seed funding in social-environmental research will support existing collaborations and foster the development of new diverse, interdisciplinary teams that include natural scientists and social scientists, humanities scholars, and faculty members from professional schools. All types of interdisciplinary collaboration will be considered.
The program includes two types of convening grants of up to $10,000: one that will bring together new faculty research teams and one meant to inspire collaboration with outside partners.
Also, a pilot grant will provide seed funds of up to $50,000 for faculty members to engage in more structured research and scholarship activities and is designed to position them to obtaining grants and other external research funding. The seed funding program also includes a mechanism for one deeply interdisciplinary team to receive support for a two-year postdoctoral scholar position.
The funding is open to tenure-related faculty members or career non-tenure-track faculty members in the research professor, research scientist, research engineer or research associate classification who will hold a UO appointment during the academic year of the research award.
The deadline for seed funding proposals is Oct. 15. A required letter of intent is due by Sept. 19. Awards are anticipated to be announced in October.
