Illinois State University is beginning a pilot program to support interdisciplinary research and creative scholarship teams. As announced by President Terri Goss Kinzy during her September 20, 2022 State of the University address, ISU is committed to supporting teams of scholars over the next seven years. The goal of the program is to create teams to solve some of the world’s “wicked” problems, a term coined nearly 50 years ago to describe large, complicated problems.
“Many of the world’s largest problems are interdisciplinary, and ISU is looking to foster areas of interdisciplinary scholarly excellence and grow ISU’s areas of research prominence,” said Provost Aondover Tarhule. “Illinois State University has outstanding researchers and scholars equal to their peers anywhere in the world. Evidence abounds in support of the accomplishments of ISU researchers and scholars in many areas of endeavor. This program will only grow that strength.”
Currently titled, “Connect, Elevate, and Advance Research and Creative Scholarship (CEARCS)”, the program represents an additional investment in research and creative scholarship and will augment existing internal funding streams for research and creative scholarship.
One specific goal of the program is to create a mechanism that encourages researchers and scholars at Illinois State to self-organize around defined research themes that they identify. Ideally, these research themes will align with Illinois State faculty’s research strengths and interests and funding opportunities at major research sponsoring agencies such as NSF, NEH, NIH, DOE, USDA, and national foundations. Providing internal seed funding to these faculty-identified areas should accelerate interdisciplinary research and creative activities at Illinois State.
The program will be managed by Associate Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies Craig C. McLauchlan.
“I’m very excited about this announcement,” McLauchlan said. “We’ve been getting feedback from the University Research Council, the Deans Council, and the Chairs/Directors for nearly a year on this proposal, and I am pleased to see what areas emerge from the proposals.”
Information sessions about the program will be held over the coming weeks, with open forum times to discuss and let people come together to brainstorm.
Sessions are scheduled for:
- Thursday, September 29, 10-11 a.m. – State Farm Hall of Business, room 430
- Wednesday, October 5, 11 a.m.-noon – Edwards Hall, room 306
- Thursday, October 6, 11 a.m.-noon – Stevenson Hall, room 401
- Friday, October 7, 9-10 a.m. – DeGarmo Hall, room 024
- Tuesday, October 11, 3-4 p.m. – Felmley Science Annex, room 325
- Tuesday, October 18, 1-2 p.m. – Milner Library 6th floor SW corner
- Thursday, October 27, 1-2 p.m. – Zoom (link will be sent after registration)
To register for one or more of the information sessions, please complete an online registration form.
It is expected that proposals will be due early in 2023 to be reviewed by an ad-hoc committee, including researchers external to ISU. Details will be communicated in the Research Bulletin and on the Research.IllinoisState.edu website. Questions can be directed to avpresearch@IllinoisState.edu.
