A call for Letters of Intent is now available for Illinois State University’s pilot program to support interdisciplinary research and creative scholarship teams.
The program, titled “Advancing Research and Creative Scholarship (ARCS),” represents an additional investment in research and creative scholarship and will augment existing internal funding streams for research and creative scholarship. The program was first publicly announced by President Terri Goss Kinzy during her September 20, 2022, State of the University Address, and intends to support cohorts of teams of scholars over the next seven years.
One specific goal of the program is to create a mechanism that encourages researchers and scholars at Illinois State to self-organize around defined research themes that they identify. Ideally, these research themes will align with Illinois State faculty’s research strengths and interests and funding opportunities at major research sponsoring agencies such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Energy (DOE), United State Department of Agriculture (USDA), and national and corporate foundations. Providing internal seed funding to these faculty-identified areas should accelerate interdisciplinary research and creative activities at Illinois State.
The notice of funding opportunity and call for Letters of Intent are now available on the Research website. Letters of Intent are to be submitted using InfoReady. Letters of Intent are due March 31, 2023, by 11:59 pm CT, with full proposals due on May 16, 2023.
Feedback sessions were held during fall 2022, and over 80 faculty, staff, and students attended to learn more about the program. That feedback was incorporated along with that received from the University Research Council, the Deans Council, and the Academic Leadership Council to generate this pilot version of the program. One significant change from the earliest drafts is the inclusion of separate tracks for teams of various sizes.
Answers to many questions about the program may be found on the program’s website, which includes a Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) page. Additional questions can be directed to avpresearch@IllinoisState.edu.
