Application Deadline

The application deadline for Summer 2024 IDRG applications was October 11, 2023.
The application deadline for Summer 2025 IDRG applications is October 9, 2024.

Special funding is available for projects in the areas of children’s learning and development, child welfare, and maternal education through the Laura Spelman-Rockefeller Grant. Scholars working in these areas are especially encouraged to apply!

Eligibility

  • Proposed projects should involve 2-3 collaborators who will work together in residence or virtually during a continuous 2-week period during the summer. (Applicants with a specific reason for a longer collaboration should explain this in their application.)
  • Applicants who received this award in the past two years are not eligible. 
  • Unfortunately, graduate students are not eligible to participate in this program.
  • We welcome applications from artists, researchers, and scholars working in any discipline and on any topic. One member of the team must be a UI faculty member whose appointment requires significant research, scholarship, or creative arts practice as a primary responsibility. That team member may be tenure-track or tenured faculty, clinical track faculty, research faculty, or instructional faculty.
  • Special funding is available for projects that pertain to children's learning and development, child welfare, and maternal education.

Application Materials & Submission Guidelines

  • Cover Sheet (If you have trouble downloading the cover sheet, please e-mail obermann-center@uiowa.edu.) Each collaborator should complete a cover sheet, including the following information:
    • ​Title of the project
    • Proposed start and end dates of project (any continuous 2-week period between mid-May and mid-August when all collaborators will be in residence); applicants should indicate a first and second preference
    • Name, position, department/organization, office mailing address, and e-mail address
    • DEO name, approval, and signature (for UI collaborators only)
  • Short Abstract (max. 300 words) 
    • Please ensure that your abstract can be understood by reviewers outside of your field of study.
  • Project Narrative (max. 5 single-spaced pages)
    • 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.
    • How will the work benefit from extended, face-to-face work time between the participants? (Note that participants are expected to be actively working at the Obermann Center and not in separate locations.)
    • 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.)
    • Please ensure that your project narrative can be understood by reviewers outside of your field of study.
  • The curriculum vitae of each collaborator (max. 3 single-spaced pages for each CV)

Submit all materials in PDF form to obermann-center@uiowa.edu.

Additional Notes

  • 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 should include current position, dates of appointment, degrees, relevant publications, grants, and courses.
  • Three people maximum per group. We need approval from each UI participant's DEO. 
  • Each collaborator is awarded a $3,000 taxable research stipend for 2-week residencies. UI awardees will receive their stipend in their monthly paycheck following the completion of the project (pending monthly payroll cutoff dates), and non-UI awardees will receive their stipend 3–4 weeks after the completion of the project.
  • Please ensure that your application can be understood by reviewers outside of your field of study.