CONTACT: Paul DeLuca, UW-Madison, 608-262-1304, pmdeluca@wisc.edu; Brian Thompson, UWM Research Foundation, 414-229-3397, briant@uwmfdn.org
MADISON – Wisconsin’s two doctoral universities will continue their partnership promoting collaborative research projects involving faculty and academic staff at both institutions.
Biddy Martin, chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Michael R. Lovell, interim chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, are renewing the Intercampus Research Incentive Grants Program, which will award funds to support research projects undertaken jointly at the two campuses.
The grants program was started in early 2010 and awarded nearly $400,000 in intercampus grants to support such efforts as the development of new materials to combat air pollution to the use of algae to clean wastewater and generate energy.
“Research across disciplines and campuses is increasingly the future of scholarly investigations,” Lovell says. “This is one more way that we can take advantage of our campuses’ individual strengths to the mutual benefit of our universities and regions.”
“This campus-to-campus initiative has generated impressive research projects, and I am eager to see what else we can accomplish by working together,” Martin says. “Joining the expertise and talents of our faculty and staff will bring us closer to producing the kind of groundbreaking research that will fuel Wisconsin’s economy in the years ahead.”
The universities are especially looking for projects in such key areas as water/energy, health care, advanced manufacturing, biomedical engineering, K-12 education, social sciences and the humanities.
Researchers are encouraged to solve a problem within a single discipline or collaborate on cross-disciplinary projects, and successful proposals are expected to lay the groundwork for future funding from federal or state grant programs or private foundations.
The chancellors will name a group of deans, faculty and foundation staff to serve on a committee to select grant recipients; about eight grants expected to be funded. The committee’s recommendations will be weighed by the chancellors, who will make the final selections.
Projects will be evaluated in part on the likelihood that the collaboration will continue beyond the grant. Proposals must also be structured in a way that reflects the participation of researchers from both campuses; at least 25 percent of a project’s budget must be for work at the partner institution.
Projects with combined budgets of less than $50,000 will be considered. Applications must be received by April 4, and grant recipients will be notified in May for projects slated to begin July 1.
More information is available at http://provost.wisc.edu/initiatives.html and http://www.uwmresearchfoundation.org/Madison-Milwaukee-Incentive-Grants.aspx.
