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Funding to Support University-Wide Conferences and Symposia

From its inception in 2003, the President’s Interdisciplinary Conference Series fund has been invested strategically to help build a foundation at the University of Minnesota in emerging areas of research and scholarship deemed to be of critical institutional importance.  The funds have brought together faculty—and in some cases, relevant experts from industry and other sectors—to explore some of the most difficult questions and challenges of the 21st century, and have supported conferences in interdisciplinary fields of inquiry likely to lead to breakthroughs in knowledge and innovative solutions. 

The transfer of the fund from the Office of the President to the Graduate School in 2007 provided an occasion to re-imagine the fund’s purpose and potential for seeding the next phase of institutional ambitions related to interdisciplinary inquiry.  Based on the fund’s initial success, and following consultation with President Bruininks in spring 2008, we have re-directed the funds in new ways that:

• support interdisciplinary collaborations between University of Minnesota faculty and faculty at other research universities nationally and internationally to further interdisciplinary research and graduate education, and

• support graduate student-initiated interdisciplinary conferences and related activities that provide national and international venues for presenting student scholarship and creative work.

The Graduate School issued a Call for Proposals for Interdisciplinary Conferences and Symposia on October 15, 2008 to support activities in the following areas: 1) faculty driven initiatives, and 2) proposals to benefit graduate students. 

Those submitting proposals must be current tenured or tenure-track University faculty or enrolled Graduate School students.  Requests for funding will be considered on a rolling basis throughout the fiscal year, and should respond to the criteria set forth in the Call. 

A portion of the funding will also support the recruitment of postdoctoral scholars who will advance the University’s strategic priorities in areas of interdisciplinary research and education and community-engaged scholarship, while contributing to the diversity of the faculty.  Please see http://www.grad.umn.edu/postdocfellowship/index.html for information about nominating potential postdoctoral scholars for this program.  

Additional information, including details on the types of activities that will be supported, proposal requirements, and selection criteria is contained in the Call for Proposals. A brief cover sheet is also required.

Please direct questions about this initiative to Vicki Field, Director, Office of Interdisciplinary Initiatives, field001@umn.edu or 612-625-6532.