The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Birmingham have jointly established the BRIDGE Seed Fund of $200,000 to stimulate wider academic engagement between the two universities.
The BRIDGE framework aims to deepen these existing collaborations and develop wider faculty networks to: build cognate research areas; expand educational exchange opportunities; and strengthen strategic aspirations for institutional engagement. To this end, the institutions have established a joint BRIDGE Seed Fund to which permanent full-time faculty member at each institution are encouraged to apply.
Information regarding successful awardees in the 2019/20 BRIDGE Seed Fund call can be found at BRIDGE SEED FUND 2019/20 AWARDS
Applications for the 2023 BRIDGE Seed Fund are now closed.
Applications must be made using the BRIDGE Seed Fund Application Form and provide the following information:
1. Identified UoB and Illinois Principal Investigators.
2. Purpose and timescale of visit/program activity.
3. Anticipated total cost and itemized budget for the proposed activities.
4. Academic rationale for support, answering such questions as: What is the strategic importance or added academic value of the collaboration for your home department and University? What are the anticipated shared outcomes and benefits for the collaboration? Anticipated means of sustaining the collaboration. What funding is available from other sources and what potential is there for future external investment?
5. Head of College approval. Email confirmation of this support will suffice and should be saved in PDF format and attached with the application.
The BRIDGE Seed Fund supports collaborative engagement between UoB and Illinois through three different grant types, each with unique priorities. Read more about the grant types below.
Proposals in Social Sciences and Humanities are particularly encouraged, as are proposals that have identified funding for sustaining the collaboration beyond BRIDGE Funding for example via the NSF, NIH, EPSRC or other external funding bodies.
For this year, we would like especially to encourage proposals:
– In Social Sciences and Humanities;
– That show the intention of leveraging collaborative opportunities with partners from the Global South region in advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Implementation Grants support and strengthen existing faculty-faculty relationships leading to clearly defined outputs. Priority will be given to activities that have the potential to:
Initiation Grants encourage wider faculty involvement and expand institutional engagement, such as funding applications from colleagues interested in developing new research relationships with counterparts at UoB/Illinois. Priority will be given to:
There are no restrictions on the forms of activity undertaken with BRIDGE funding, providing they meet the criteria outlined above. Read more about the activities and use of funds below.
There are no restrictions on the forms of activity undertaken with BRIDGE funding, providing they meet the criteria outlined above.
The fund is available to support planning visits, workshops and exchanges with the partner institution for the purpose of developing the strategic partnership. The fund may also support meetings in third party locations where there is potential to develop and/or showcase collaboration.
Activities may include, but are not limited to:
Applicants are encouraged to apply for reciprocal visit funding in order to widen networks and cement engagement. Applications that can demonstrate potential for relationships to become sustainable beyond the proposed project and initial seed funding term are strongly encouraged, whether through faculty and department commitment or the likelihood of externally-leveraged grants and awards. BRIDGE seed funding will be allocated locally, with UoB paying the travel and accommodation costs of UoB staff traveling to Illinois, and the costs of projects occurring at UoB; and Illinois paying the travel and accommodation costs of Illinois staff traveling to UoB, and the costs of projects occurring at Illinois. BRIDGE seed funding will be subject to the travel reimbursement and other relevant financial policies of the institution providing the funding to its faculty or units. BRIDGE seed funding will not normally support staffing or research equipment costs, though such requests will be considered if a compelling argument is made. Important Note: Usually the maximum amount of funding available to support Implementation grants will be £10,000 from UoB and $10,000 from Illinois, and for Initiation grants £6,500 from UoB and $6500 from Illinois.