Interdisciplinary Opportunity Award program

Research at the interface is most powerful when it is driven by collaborations of young researchers (graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, not PIs) given sufficient resources and a fast timeline. We therefore present the Interdisciplinary Opportunity Award program.

At the Annual Center Symposium, a topic will be announced. Self-selected teams of interested junior researchers need to produce short abstract-like proposals by the end of the Symposium. The teams must be comprised of members from at least two cross-disciplinary labs (from either mathematical sciences or experimental labs), with at least one group of each team from UCI. A preliminary proposal is due by the end of the Symposium that includes team member names, PI names and affiliations, a project title and very rough description. Full proposals (<3pages) must be submitted within two weeks, which will then be evaluated quickly (~2 weeks) by a Center committee. The winning teams will receive $10,000 to support the collaborative project over one year, and will attend the annual Junior Symposium (scheduled for March 2019) and the next year’s Annual Center Symposium, when they will present their results. Winning proposals are selected for their ambition, their feasibility (within a year), and their potential to lead to lasting long-term collaborations.

For full details, see the Interdisciplinary Opportunity Awards page.