Center for Interdisciplinary Scientific Computation (CISC) 2018 Seed Grant Competition

Illinois Tech’s Center for Interdisciplinary Scientific Computation (CISC) was formed in spring 2017 to act as a focal point and catalyst to strengthen the use of computation to solve important academic and practical problems. A key part of its mission is to encourage new interdisciplinary scientific computation research. In support of that, the Center is offering seed grants of $30,000–$40,000 for the 2018 calendar year to fund teams of investigators from at least two academic units who will work together with the aim of developing and submitting viable research proposals to external funding agencies.

Application Deadline: October 31, 2017 (5:00 p.m.)

A routing sheet should be submitted through Cayuse by the deadline. Use sponsor:  CISC – Center for Interdisciplinary Scientific Computation (Illinois Tech)

Submit proposals in a single PDF to osrp@iit.edu.

The following components are required:

  • Title of the proposal
  • Abstract (250 words max)
  • Description of the research program and its significance: this should be understandable to academics not necessarily in the disciplines involved.
  • Team members: the team must include Illinois Tech faculty members from at least two academic units; preference is given to proposals where the principal investigator is from the College of Science; involvement of Illinois Tech students and collaboration with other institutions is encouraged.
  • Plan to carry out the research: the duties of each team member; an explanation of why each team member is critical to the success of the research; a list of outcomes.
  • Commitment to submit proposals for future external funding to continue the research program: provide links to relevant requests for proposals (RFPs); explain the suitability of the proposed research program for these RFPs.
  • Budget: support for research assistant(s), teaching relief, consumables, conference attendance, and other reasonable research expenses are allowable; explain how each budget item supports the research program and the goal of future external funding; a letter of support from the department chair is required if teaching relief is requested. Indirect costs are not allowed. Please provide a detailed line item budget in table format and a detailed budget justification.
  • Two-page CVs of faculty and senior researchers
  • The body of the proposal, i.e., all but the budget and CVs, should be no more than 15 pages.

A panel will review proposals and notify the successful team by November 30, 2017. A one-page interim report will be required by July 31, 2018.  A three-page final report will be required by March 31, 2019, detailing what was achieved and what proposals for external funding were submitted.  For questions, contact Fred J. Hickernell, CISC Director, hickernell@iit.edu, x7-8983.