VPR Internal Grant Opportunity to Mitigate Pandemic Research Impacts, and More


by Associate Vice President for Research Development

Some Michigan Tech scholars, creators, and researchers experienced significant challenges completing their funded research, creative work, or scholarship due to the pandemic. To work toward addressing these issues, the Vice President for Research (VPR) is announcing a one-time internal funding opportunity for fall 2021 to address pandemic-related research and scholarly productivity impacts.

Grants of up to $25,000 will be available to non-student scholars for a one-year period. Review of applications will begin Aug. 15 and continue until all funds are awarded. Additional information and proposal instructions can be found on the Michigan Tech Research website. Incomplete applications and those that do not follow the defined process will be returned without review. Please direct any questions to rd-l@mtu.edu.

In addition to this internal funding program, the University is also implementing several other initiatives aimed to help scholars post-pandemic. As networking was identified as a particular challenge in the last 18 months, research networking events will be scheduled during the 2021-22 academic year. The first will be an open house event for centers, institutes and shared facilities scheduled for the afternoon of Sept. 10. More details will be announced soon.

Furthermore, Michigan Tech’s ADVANCE initiative has been working with offices across campus, including the Research Office and Provost’s Office, to develop a pandemic impact statement template that will be released shortly. The template suggests language faculty can use to convey how the pandemic has impacted their research, teaching and service activities.

Finally, we ask Michigan Tech scholars to consider sharing your story in the guest blog series about the pandemic’s impacts coming out through Unscripted, the University research blog. The blog series is part of an effort to acknowledge, support and rebuild robust research, scholarship and creative works at Michigan Tech. To share your story, please complete this Google form by the end of today (Aug. 2).