Interdisciplinary Innovation Initiative Program
Introduction
In response to the recommendations of the Illinois Innovation Summit and building on the legacy of the former Critical Research Initiatives (CRI) Program, the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research (OVCR), with partial support from the Beckman Institute, is launching the Interdisciplinary Innovation Initiative (In3) program to stimulate innovations in interdisciplinary research and education across campus. The Illinois Innovation Summit, attended by over 600 faculty members and students through 25 pre-summit workshops, galvanized a campus dialogue of interdisciplinary research and education. What is urgently needed today is a targeted investment program to incubate research and education initiatives to promote interdisciplinarity and innovation that would have major societal impact.
The In3 program will facilitate collaborations that support innovative research and education activities that will chart new directions and enhance campus interdisciplinarity, including innovations focused on the integration of research and education through, for example, the creation of new interdisciplinary curricula that build upon strong research programs. In3 will support transformative, high-risk/high-reward research and education activities with the potential to obtain long term funding from external sources. These can include initiatives not yet ready for external funding; and those in areas where there is presently little prospect for external funding. Proposed projects must be interdisciplinary in nature, involving faculty members from at least two distinct disciplines and preferably more. In3 welcomes all variety of innovations. The In3 program will invest $1,500,000 in FY12, of which at least $400,000 will be devoted to projects in interdisciplinary health sciences research and education.