UIC-UIUC Interdisciplinary Collaborative Grant Program

Principal investigators must be tenured or tenure-track faculty (assistant, associate or full professors), or specialized faculty (teaching, research or clinical) in the University of Illinois Chicago College of Applied Health Sciences or at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign College of Applied Health Sciences. Teams must include a co-PI from each campus.

The letter of intent (LOI) should be limited to one page and include: a description of the initial idea or research area; its importance for health sciences research; potential for external funding; and a brief description of the investigators, including the synergism of the team.

LOI submission deadline is Monday October 2, 2023.

The selection of teams to move to Phase 2 will be based on the combined strengths of the interdisciplinary team, the research idea and its potential to secure external funding.

Investigators will be notified of the disposition of their LOI by Monday October 16, 2023. 

If needed and after LOI selection, upon request, we will supply financial support  of up to $1,000 for in-person meetings between investigators at UIC and UIUC to plan the Phase 2 proposal.

We will provide $40,000 pilot grant award for the execution of a project to generate pilot data and demonstrate team capabilities for external funding. All research teams are expected to submit an external grant application for competitive review to a federal funding agency within 24 months of initiating the seed grant. Up to two grants may be funded.

Phase II submission deadline is Monday January 22, 2024.

The grant period is from May 1, 2024 to April 30, 2025. Final report is due June 30, 2025, and should include a list of any abstracts, presentations, papers or grants submitted based on the work.

Funding is contingent on obtaining the appropriate IACUC/IRB protocol approvals (if applicable).

Applications must include all of the following items:

• Title page
  • Project title
  • Investigator names (First Name, Middle Initial, Last Name), rank and year and highest degrees. Note about Investigators. For multiple applicants, put the name of the primary investigator at the top, followed by other investigators. For multiple investigators, the primary investigator is responsible for the administration of funding. The PI must be a faculty member in the College of Applied Health Sciences at UIC or UIUC and each team must include a co-PI or co-I from each campus
  • Contact information for investigator(s) submitting the grant

• Lay proposal summary (100 words or less)
• Budget request and justification
  1. For research assistants: $ amount requested
  2. For research support (non-RA): $ amount requested
  3. Total funding requested: total funding $ requested
  4. How funds will be equitably split between the the two campuses
  5. Non-UIC or UIUC investigators can be on the research team but no salary support
• How does your proposal support collaboration between the two campuses? (Limit one page)
• Proposal narrative (must not exceed three pages not including references), single-spaced, half-inch margins, use font 11-point Arial. Narratives should address each area of the review criteria
• Future grant submission information
  1. How does pilot project support plans to obtain external funding?
  2. Targeted federal agency or other funding opportunity
  3. Targeted submission date
• Include attachments
  1. NIH or NSF style biosketch for each investigator
  2. Any letters of support from community or other partners named in proposal
  3. Approval of each department head (email)

Applications will be reviewed according to the following six criteria:

1. Significance
2. Investigators
3. Synergy of team
4. Innovation
5. Approach
6. Potential for external funding

Funds are intended for direct research costs (e.g. wages for RAs and hourly student employees, supplies, travel relative to research project and small equipment). If graduate research assistantships are to be awarded with the grant, the grant will only cover the stipend and not the tuition waiver.

• Research supplies
• Graduate or undergraduate student salaries or wages
• Equipment/software not currently available
• Subject reimbursement or animal purchase and per diem
• Research services, such as charges for core facilities

• Faculty, post-doc, or research technician salaries
• Full-time appointments
• Dissertation project research costs which are not clearly also faculty research costs
• Tuition
• Conference travel
• Publication fees
• Workshop/conference attendance
• Remodeling or construction expenses
• Non-research costs
• Meals/refreshments (unless for subjects and participants)