Interdisciplinary Research Grants | Obermann Center for Advanced Studies

Fostering collaborative scholarship and creative work

The Obermann Interdisciplinary Research Grants (IDRG) foster collaborative scholarship and creative work by offering recipients time and space to exchange new ideas leading to invention, creation, and publication. IDRG groups work at the Obermann Center for a month, usually in July and/or August. Applicants propose work on a project with colleagues from across the University, across disciplines within their own department, or with colleagues from other parts of the country or the world. Projects are intended to result in an important scholarly or creative work.

How to Apply

Application Period: Tuesday, September 4, 2012 to Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Checklist

Please include a cover sheet that states:

Title of the project
- Proposed start and end dates of proposed project (any continuous 4-week period between mid-May and mid-August, 2013) when all collaborators will be in residence
- Name, rank, department, office mailing address, and email address for each collaborator
- Short abstract (300 or fewer words)
A narrative (maximum five pages, single-spaced) that answers all of the following questions in the order they appear:
- What do you propose to do?
- Why is it an important undertaking?
- What earlier work has been done on the project and related areas by the applicants individually or collaboratively? What work has been done by others?
- What is the value of the collaboration? Specify the distinctive contribution of each collaborator to the interdisciplinary effort? Include the value of working together, face-to-face, during a specific time period at the Obermann Center..
- How will the work proceed? Include a timetable for the grant period and afterwards until completion. Describe what collaborators will be doing individually or collaboratively. If applicable, describe the methodology.
- What will be achieved by the end of the grant period?
- How will you disseminate your work—through publication, exhibition, other? When do you estimate the project will be completed? Please specify the most likely publisher, journal, or venue and explain. (Edited collections and textbooks generally have not fared well in this competition but are not automatically excluded: the proposal should focus only on the collaborative original research involved.)
Applicants who previously received any Interdisciplinary Research Grants should add a page listing the title and year of each grant and giving full citations for resulting publications or creative work or external research grants.
The curriculum vitae (maximum three single-spaced pages for each CV) of each collaborator. Include current position, dates of appointment, degrees, relevant publications, grants, courses.

A letter from your department chair endorsing the proposed project and four-week residency at the Obermann Center (sent by DEO to neda-barrett@uiowa.edu)