2024 Seed Funding for Strategic Research Initiatives
22 Nov 2023
University College of Dublin (UCD) and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (UMass, Amherst) are launching a new 2024 Seed Funding for Strategic Research Initiatives call for academics and researchers tackling three broad strategic themes. The call is announced by UCD Vice President for Global Engagement, Professor Dolores O’Riordan, UMass, Amherst Acting Vice Chancellor for Research and Engagement, Dr. Laura Vandenberg, and UMass, Amherst Vice Provost for Global Affairs, Dr. Kalpen Trivedi. In conjunction with the UMass Amherst Office of Research and Engagement and the International Programs Office, UCD Global and UMass, Amherst are providing grants for researchers to visit one another’s faculty, establish new collaborations, and strengthen existing partnerships.
The 2024 Seed Funding aims to foster novel, multidisciplinary approaches to three broad strategic themes: Sustainability, Empowering Societies and Communities, and Advanced Materials and Manufacturing. The Joint Seed Fund welcomes applications from all disciplines, including STEM, Health, Agriculture, Animal Science, Social Sciences, Business, and Arts and Humanities. The call for applications is open to staff with existing partnerships who wish to strengthen future collaborations, or Staff with existing or potential partnerships between the two institutions may apply to this Fund to strengthen future collaborations.
The University of Massachusetts, Amherst is renowned for cutting-edge research aimed at eradicating diseases, addressing climate change, alleviating poverty, and developing innovative solutions to some of the world's most complex problems. Their staff includes a Nobel laureate, Pulitzer Prize winners, members of the National Academy of Sciences, an American Book Award winner and Fulbright, Guggenheim, MacArthur and Mellon Fellows. Each year UMass, Amherst has more than a dozen faculty members on Clarivate Analytics' list of "Highly Cited Researchers," a list of the top 1% of researchers around the world in science.
The University of Massachusetts, Amherst and UCD have a strong and long-standing partnership in student mobility for over ten years.
UCD Vice President for Global Engagement Professor Dolores O’Riordan said that she is “pleased to announce this call which will further develop and strengthen the partnership between UCD and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. The seed funding is designed to scope future research collaborations in areas of strength for both universities. This funding builds on the already significant partnership between the two institutions and will facilitate researchers to engage an internationalised environment and provide them with global dimensions to key research topics.”
“Faculty and researchers from both UMass and UCD have already been working together across a range of disciplines and issues. Through this new program we hope to deepen these collaborations to seed high-impact research” said Vandenberg. “I am delighted that we can build on our existing connections with UCD, being a strategic partnership between our institutions, which will leverage complementary research strengths and a strong interest in mobility”, added Trivedi.
The applicant form can be found here. UMass will be mirroring this funding call for their researchers.