Current Funding Opportunities
From SIResearchInnovationOffice
Thinking of applying to one of these opportunities? Please email si-ori@umich.edu.
Air Force Office of Scientific Research FY08 BAA - Deadline: Open through FY08
Some specific areas of interest to the school of information are found in section c of the BAA - Mathematics, Information and Life Sciences. See specifically section 2) Complex Networks, 4) Distributed Intelligence and Information Fusion, 6) Mathematical Modeling of Cognition and Decision, 9) Sensory Information Systems, and 10) Collective Behavior and Socio-Cultural Modeling.
For more information please go to AFOSR FY08 General BAA
New Economy Initiative for Southeast Michigan - Deadline: Open
New Economy Initiative grants support the efforts of nonprofit organizations, charities, and government agencies to transform the economy of southeast Michigan and return prosperity to the region. Grants are available for a variety of activities, but proposed activities must be focused on helping to achieve the goal of the New Economy Initiative and its objectives focused on talent, innovation and culture change.
For more information please go to New Economy Initiative Program Description
Google Research Awards - Deadline: Open
Awards through this program are typically either monetary awards (in the range from $5K-$150K) and/or potential access to anonymized data for research purposes. The awards are intended to help promote and support academic research aimed at improving information access defined broadly. Areas that are of particular interest are included in the RFP.
Participants in the award program are expected to have a primary contact at Google through which they can discuss research directions, provide updates on progress, engage in knowledge transfer, etc. Google maintains an academic environment that we would like award recipients to participate in by giving talks on their work and engaging in discussions with our research group.
By sharing new ideas and key insights, we hope that both Google and award recipients can mutually benefit from the program. Generally, we will invite the writers of promising award proposals to come to our Mountain View offices to discuss their research further with researchers here. After the research is completed, we will once again invite the award recipient to Google to discuss the results of their work. The purpose of this program is both to facilitate more interaction between Google and academia and also develop a strong relationship and partnership with universities.
For more information please see the RFP
DHS Center of Excellence in Command Control and INteroperability (C2I) - Deadline: June 15, 2008
This is an opportunity for $18,000,000 over six years. It is anticipated that there will be one cooperative agreement awarded under this announcement.
The DHS Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate is requesting applications from accredited U.S. colleges and universities to establish and operate a DHS Center of Excellence (COE) in Command Control and Interoperability (C2I). This COE will address issues related to
- dynamic, on-demand data processing and visualization;
- hypothesis-driven data analysis;
- visualization of structured, unstructured, and streaming data;
- mathematics of discrete and visual analytics;
- scalable information filtering and dissemination;
- visualization and simulation of information;
- mobile and light-weight information analytics and sharing.
This COE will create the scientific basis and enduring technologies needed to analyze massive amounts of information from multiple sources to more reliably detect threats to the security of the nation and its infrastructures and to the health and welfare of its populace. These new technologies will also improve the dissemination of both information and related technologies.
New methods are needed to give individuals the ability to examine massive, multi-dimensional, multi-source, time-varying information streams, discover and disseminate that information, and make decisions in a time-critical environment. Technologies are needed that will support the application of human judgment to make the best possible use of this information and share it with others as appropriate to prevent, deter, and respond to threats. Consequently, S&T seeks basic research in two new, interdisciplinary fields: visual analytics and discrete sciences.
When effective, visual analytics enables analysts to make sense rapidly of uncertain, complex and diverse data sources. Examples include numeric data from databases, sensors or computational models, unstructured text from documents and reports, images or videos, and voice or other audio data. Visual analytics uses mathematical and computational algorithms to enable visual assessment and manipulation of diverse data.
Discrete sciences apply the methods of discrete mathematics to computational science. Their focus is developing simpler, more efficient algorithms and architectures for use in a broad range of data-intensive computing applications, such as knowledge representation, natural language processing, text or information extraction, uncertainty quantification and high-performance computing.
Ongoing research in both areas can be applied to address common challenges in the following areas:
- Information analysis
- Knowledge management
- Threat assessment
- Situational awareness
- Decision support
- Information sharing
- Interoperable communications
- Surveillance and investigative operations
- Cyber infrastructure protection
For more information please go to Grants.gov Synopsis and link to the Full Announcement
ASIS&T Best Research in Information Science Award - Deadline: June 15, 2008
The purpose of the award is to recognize an individual or individuals for an outstanding research contribution in the field of information science. The award is intended to be for achievements that have significant impact in the field and is based on recent research or on previous research whose contributions have recently been recognized. The award is for a systematic "program of research" in a single area at a level beyond the single study, but not at the level of a lifetime's work.
For more information please go to the ASIS Award Nominations website
ProQuest Doctoral Dissertation Award - Deadline: June 15, 2008
The purpose of this award is to recognize outstanding recent doctoral candidates whose research contributes significantly to an understanding of some aspect of information science. The award is intended to encourage participation of new Ph.D.s in the activities of a professional association by providing a forum for presentation of their research and assisting them with some travel support. Dissertations submitted shall fall within the scope of information science, including, but not limited to, any of the following areas of investigation:
- Automated language processing
- Classification research
- Computerized retrieval services
- Education for information science
- Information analysis and evaluation
- Information policy
- Information services
- Information storage and retrieval
- International information issues
- Library automation and networks
- Management of information
- Office information systems
- Information generation and publishing
- Storage and retrieval technology
- User-online interaction
For more information please go to the ASIS Award Nominations website
HP Labs Innovation Research Program - Deadline: June 18, 2008 5PM EST
The HP Labs Open Innovation Office's Innovation Research Program is designed to create opportunities -- at colleges, universities and research institutes around the world -- for breakthrough collaborative research with HP. Through this open and competitive Call for Proposals, we are soliciting your best ideas on a range of topics with the goal of establishing new research collaborations. The 2008 HP Labs Innovation Research program is seeking proposals for breakthrough research within five broad research themes:
- Information explosion: Acquiring, analyzing and delivering the right information to individuals and businesses so they can act on it
- Dynamic cloud services: Developing web platforms and cloud services that are dynamically personalized based on your location, preferences, calendar and communities
- Content transformation : Enabling the fluid transformation of content from analog to digital, from device to device, and from digital content to physical products
- Intelligent infrastructure: Designing smarter, more secure computing devices, networks and architectures that work together to connect individuals and businesses to rich, dynamic content and services
- Sustainability: Creating technologies, IT infrastructure, and new business models for the low-carbon economy that save money and leave a lighter footprint on the world
Within these broad themes, a number of compelling research topics are being proposed for 2008. Details can be found at the HP Program 2008 Research Topics site. Proposals are solicited in line with these topics on a geographic basis.
Awards under the HP Labs Innovation Research Program will consist of cash support for one year in the USD $50,000 to $75,000 range, including any overhead. A key element of each award will be on-campus support for one graduate-student researcher.
Important Dates
- Wednesday, 7 May 2008: Research topics announced and submission tool opens
- Wednesday, 18 June 2008, 5:00 PM Pacific Time: Deadline for submissions
- Friday, 1 August 2008: Notification of decisions
Full program guidelines are detailed in the Innovation Research Program Request for Proposals, along with other important program documents:
NSF - National Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education Digital Library - Deadline: June 27, 2008
This program aims to establish a national network of learning environments and resources for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education at all levels. The program has four tracks: Pathways projects are expected to provide stewardship for the content and services needed by major communities of learners. Services projects are expected to develop services that support users and resource collection providers that enhance the impact, efficiency, and value of the NSDL network. Targeted Research projects are expected to explore specific topics that have immediate applicability to collections, services, and other aspects of the development of the NSDL network. The NSDL Resource Center will provide collaboration assistance across all projects; undertake strategic partnership development on behalf of projects particularly with respect to non-academic entities; coordinate and, in some cases, perform thematic research and evaluation studies related to the program; synthesize findings across the portfolio; and disseminate findings of the accomplishments of the NSDL program. In FY2008, within the first three tracks the program will accept proposals for large grants in 1) the Pathways track, 2) a new sub-track: Pathways - Stage II, and 3) specific sub-tracks of Services - including a single Technical network services project to provide technical infrastructure support across the NSDL network. In all tracks, except for the NSDL Resource Center, the program will also accept proposals for small grants that extend or enhance results from existing services, collections, or targeted research activity so as to enlarge the user audience for the NSDL network or improve capabilities for the user.
For more information please go to NSF 08-554
ALISE - Research Grant Competition - Deadline: July 15, 2008
The Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) is now accepting proposals for its 2009 Research Grant Program Competition. An award of one or more grants totaling $5,000 may be made to support research broadly related to education for library and information science. The Research Grant Award cannot be used to support a doctoral dissertation. At least one applicant in a group submitting a proposal must be a personal member of ALISE as of the deadline date.
For more information please go to ALISE Research Grant Guidelines
NSF - Cluster Exploratory - Deadline: July 17, 2008
In the last five years, the private sector has launched a number of highly effective internet-scale applications powered by massively scaled, highly distributed computing resources. Academic researchers have expressed a need for access to similar computing resources that will allow them to engage and explore this emerging and pervasive model of computing.
Through the Cluster Exploratory (CluE) program, NSF-funded researchers will use software and services running on a Google-IBM cluster to explore innovative research ideas in data-intensive computing. Proposals funded are expected to cover a range of activities that first lead to advances in computing research, but that also explore the potential of this computing paradigm to contribute to science and engineering research and to applications that promise benefit to society as a whole.
For more information please go to NSF 08-560
NSF - CAREER: Faculty Early Career Development - Deadline: July 22-24, 2008
CAREER: The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations. Such activities should build a firm foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research. NSF encourages submission of CAREER proposals from junior faculty members at all CAREER-eligible organizations and especially encourages women, members of underrepresented minority groups, and persons with disabilities to apply.
For more information please go to NSF 08-557
NEH - Preservation and Access: Humanities Collections and Resources - Deadline July 31, 2008
The possibilities presented by advances in digital technology require a new grant category that encompasses the range of activities funded through the previous programs and encourages the development of digital methods and tools to increase the availability and long-term preservation of humanities collections and resources. Grants support projects that preserve and create intellectual access to such collections as books, journals, manuscript and archival materials, maps, still and moving images, sound recordings, art, and objects of material culture. To ensure that significant collections are preserved and available for research, education, or public programming in the humanities, applications may be submitted for the following activities:
- digitizing collections;
- arranging and describing archival and manuscript collections;
- cataloging collections of printed works, photographs, recorded sound, moving image, art, and material culture;
- preservation reformatting;
- deacidification of collections; and
- preserving and improving access to humanities resources in “born digital” form.
For more information please go to the NEH Program Guidelines
NSF - Science, Technology and Society - Deadline: August 1, 2008
STS considers proposals that examine historical, philosophical, and sociological questions that arise in connection with science, engineering, and technology, and their respective interactions with society. STS has four components:
- Ethics and Values in Science, Engineering and Technology (EVS),
- History and Philosophy of Science, Engineering and Technology (HPS),
- Social Studies of Science, Engineering and Technology (SSS),
- Studies of Policy, Science, Engineering and Technology (SPS).
The components overlap, but are distinguished by the different scientific and scholarly orientations they take to the subject matter, as well as by different focuses within the subject area. STS encourages the submission of hybrid proposals that strive to integrate research involving two or more of these core areas.
STS provides the following modes of support:
- Scholars Awards,
- Standard Research Grants and Grants for Collaborative Research,
- Postdoctoral Fellowships,
- Professional Development Fellowships,
- Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants,
- Small Grants for Training and Research,
- Conference and Workshop Awards,
- Other Funding Opportunities.
For more information please visit the NSF Program Solicitation NSF 08-553
NSF CISE Computing Research Infrastructure - Deadline: August 5, 2008
The Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Computing Research Infrastructure (CRI) program supports the acquisition, development, enhancement, and operation of research infrastructure that enables discovery, learning, and innovation in all computing fields supported by CISE. Supported infrastructure includes instrumentation needed by research or research and education projects, major experimental facilities for an entire department or for multi-institutional projects, and testbeds or data archives for an entire subfield of CISE researchers.
The CRI program aims at providing infrastructure that enables high-quality computing research and education and extending the set of individuals and departments that are able to conduct such activities. The CRI program is committed to maintaining a broad portfolio that supports research and education across a diverse population and lessens the digital divide. The program encourages proposals that are from or that include minority-serving institutions.
The CRI program is designed to complement the funding available in CISE research programs: Infrastructure Acquisition/Development awards support infrastructure that is used for the proposing team's research; and, Community Resource Development awards support the development of resources that serve broad research communities.
The CRI program will support a variety of infrastructure needs, such as general or specialized research equipment, technical support, and/or software. CRI will also support the development of infrastructure that can be used by others, such as data archives or libraries of software tools. The infrastructure must facilitate high-quality research and related education, and cannot be acquired or developed without funding resources beyond those available from individual research and education grants and the host institution.
The CRI program will make three kinds of awards.
- Infrastructure Acquisition/Development. These awards have budgets from $50,000 and up to $2,000,000.
- Community Resource Development. These awards have budgets from $300,000 to $2,000,000. Community Resource Development projects create a resource for an entire CISE research community, such as a testbed for evaluating research results or a large data resource for use by a research community (e.g., annotated speech data).
- Planning. These awards facilitate the preparation of a proposal for a medium or large Infrastructure Acquisition/Development or Community Resource Development grant. They have budgets up to $50,000 for one institution or up to $100,000 if more than one institution is involved.
The program supports projects in four size categories: large projects have budget requests from $800,000 and up to $2,000,000; medium projects have budget requests from $300,000 and up to $799,999; small projects have budgets from $50,000 and up to $299,999; Planning proposals may request budgets up to $50,000 for one institution or $100,000 for two or more institutions. Project sizes affect page limits, review processes, and eligibility.
The CRI program replaces and expands upon three previous CISE programs: Minority Institutional Infrastructure (MII), Research Infrastructure (RI), and Research Resources (RR). The most significant changes from the former programs are that CRI will support Community Resource Development grants in addition to Infrastructure Acquisition/Development grants.
For more information please go to the NSF Program Announcement NSF 06-597
NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM)- Deadline: August 12, 2008
- Letter of Intent Due Date (optional): July 10, 2008
This program makes grants to institutions of higher education to support scholarships for academically talented, financially needy students, enabling them to enter the workforce following completion of an associate, baccalaureate, or graduate level degree in science and engineering disciplines. Grantee institutions are responsible for selecting scholarship recipients, reporting demographic information about student scholars, and managing the S-STEM project at the institution.
The program does not make scholarship awards directly to students; students should contact their institution’s Office of Financial Aid for this and other scholarship opportunities.
For more information please go to the NSF Program Announcement NSF Program Announcement 07-524
NSF Advances in Biological Informatics (ABI)- Deadline: August 12, 2008
The Advances in Biological Informatics (ABI) program seeks to encourage new approaches to the analysis and dissemination of biological knowledge for the benefit of both the scientific community and the broader public. The ABI program is especially interested in the development of informatics tools and resources that have the potential to advance, or transform, research in biology supported by the Directorate for Biological Sciences at the National Science Foundation.
For more information please see NSF Program Solicitation 08-563
NSF Expeditions in Computing - Deadline: September 10, 2008
- Preliminary Proposal Deadline (required): September 10, 2008
- Full Proposal Deadline: February 10, 2009
The Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) has created the Expeditions in Computing (Expeditions) program to provide the CISE research and education community with the opportunity to pursue ambitious, fundamental research agendas that promise to define the future of computing and information. In planning Expeditions, investigators are encouraged to come together within or across departments or institutions to combine their creative talents in the identification of compelling, transformative research agendas that promise disruptive innovations in computing and information for many years to come.
Funded at levels up to $2,000,000 per year for five years, Expeditions represent some of the largest single investments currently made by the directorate. Together with the Science and Technology Centers CISE supports, Expeditions form the centerpiece of the directorate’s award portfolio. With awards funded at levels that promote the formation of research teams, CISE recognizes that concurrent research advances in multiple fields or sub-fields are often necessary to stimulate deep and enduring outcomes.
CISE anticipates hosting an Expeditions competition annually, making three awards in each competition that over five years will result in steady-state support for fifteen projects. The awards made in this program will complement projects supported by other CISE programs, which target particular computing or information disciplines or fields.
For more information please see NSF Program Solicitation 08-568
ALISE/OCLC - Library and Information Science Research Grant Program - Deadline: Sept 17, 2008
OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Incorporated, and OCLC Research in collaboration with the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) announce the Library and Information Science Research Grant (LISRG) program for 2009 and invite research proposals. In recognition of the importance of research to the advancement of librarianship and information science, OCLC and ALISE promote independent research that helps librarians integrate new technologies into areas of traditional competence and contributes to a better understanding of the library environment. To aid new researchers, priority will be given when possible to proposals from junior faculty and applicants who have not previously received LISRG fund.
For more information please go to ALISE/OCLC/LISRG Guidelines
International Council for Canadian Studies - Research Grant Program - Deadline: September 30, 2008
The Research Grant Program promotes research that contributes to a better knowledge and understanding of Canada, its relationship with the United States, and its international affairs. The grant is designed to assist individual scholars, or a team of scholars, in writing an article-length manuscript of publishable quality and reporting their findings in a scholarly publication and at scholarly conferences, thus contributing to the development of expertise on Canada in the United States. We welcome efforts to integrate the research findings into the applicant's teaching load.
We are particularly interested in projects that have policy relevance for Canada and Canada-U.S. relations. Topics that are highly relevant to Canada-U.S. relations include smart and secure borders; North American economic competitiveness; regulatory cooperation; Canada-U.S. trade and investment partnership; energy security and sustainability; environmental sustainability; emergency planning and management; Canada-U.S. security and defense cooperation; Canada in Afghanistan; global health policy; and changing demographics in North America. We strongly encourage projects that include collaboration with researchers at Canadian institutions.
Applications will be considered in accordance with the procedures, guidelines and conditions described below. Over the past three years, applicants have had a 39 percent success rate.
This program is intended for faculty members at accredited U.S. four-year colleges and universities, as well as scholars at American research institutions. Recent Ph.D. recipients who are citizens or permanent residents of the United States are also eligible to apply. Applicants are ineligible to receive the same grant in two consecutive years or to receive two individual category Canadian Studies grants in the same grant period.
For more information please visit the Washington Canadian Embassy Website
International Council for Canadian Studies - Doctoral Student Research Award - Deadline: October 31, 2008
The Doctoral Student Research Award promotes research that contributes to a better knowledge and understanding of Canada, its relationship with the United States, and its international affairs. The grant is designed to give doctoral students an opportunity to conduct part of their research in Canada. We welcome efforts to integrate the research findings into the applicant's conference presentations.
We are particularly interested in projects that have policy relevance for Canada and Canada-U.S. relations. Topics that are highly relevant to Canada-U.S. relations include smart and secure borders; North American economic competitiveness; regulatory cooperation; Canada-U.S. trade and investment partnership; energy security and sustainability; environmental sustainability; emergency planning and management; Canada-U.S. security and defense cooperation; Canada in Afghanistan; global health policy; and changing demographics in North America. We strongly encourage projects that include collaboration with researchers at Canadian institutions.
Applications will be considered in accordance with the procedures, guidelines and conditions described below. Over the past three years, applicants have had a 37 percent success rate.
This program is intended for doctoral students at accredited U.S. and Canadian four-year colleges and universities whose dissertations are related in substantial part to the study of Canada or Canada-U.S. relations. Candidates must be citizens or permanent residents of the United States and should have completed all doctoral requirements except the dissertation when they apply for a grant. Applicants are ineligible to receive the same grant in two consecutive years.
For more information please go to the Washington Canadian Embassy Website
