from Inside Iowa State
September 27, 2012
First mentioned Sept. 14 in his installation address, president Steven Leath released this week the details of a funding initiative to support new multidisciplinary research programs that will have a "transformational impact" on the university, the state and the country.
The "pursuit" funds -- dollars that don't support the research itself but rather the preparation of larger-scale research funding proposals -- will be awarded by March to up to three teams. Each team could receive $500,000 annually for three years.
"This initiative is intended to create a new culture of interdisciplinary and collaborative research at Iowa State, a culture that encourages 'thinking big,'" Leath said in his installation address.
He said the program will identify research areas that are core to the university and "move them to the next level" to address topics of state and national importance. Successfully competing for large external grants and contracts will help build the university's reputation for innovation, he said.
"I encourage all Iowa State faculty to . . . consider creating teams to take advantage of this new initiative to promote innovation and grow the research enterprise at Iowa State," Leath wrote in a letter to all faculty.
Big effort
The scale of the Presidential Initiative for Interdisciplinary Research -- and not only the funding level -- sets it apart from other pursuit funding opportunities at Iowa State. In addition to a core group of five to 10 faculty and staff members from multiple academic units, research teams must include partners or collaborators from universities, industry, national laboratories, foundations and other organizations. Over the three years of the program, teams are expected to submit multiple proposals for external large-scale research grants and secure funding that far exceeds their ISU pursuit support. And the proposed research question itself must be "of a scope and complexity" that it demands broad collaboration and appeals to more than one funding agency.Leath noted that preparing successful grant proposals at that scale is an especially time-consuming venture. According to his letter, emailed to faculty on Tuesday, appropriate uses of pursuit funding would be:
- Teaching release during the academic year
- Hiring consultants to add value to the team
- Holding workshops to develop and strengthen the connections among ISU and non-ISU partners
- Faculty summer salaries
- Graduate students
- Preliminary investigations
- Research-related supplies and equipment