As part of an aggressive push to expand collaborative multidisciplinary and clinical translational research at Temple, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Lisa Staiano-Coico announced the availability of new seed grants for faculty research collaborations.

The Office of the Provost will offer one-year seed grants of up to $50,000 to support pilot research projects led by interdisciplinary teams of two or more Temple faculty members in the 2007–08 academic year.

Seed grants will support two types of research collaborations: multidisciplinary research and clinical translational research.

According to Staiano-Coico, the types of collaborative multidisciplinary research projects that will be supported by seed grants "are only limited by the range and scope of our collective intellectual horsepower." Funded research may be theoretical or applied, and collaborations involving faculty members in the performing and studio arts are encouraged.

Seed grants supporting collaborative clinical translational projects — research that begins with investigations at the molecular or cellular level before progressing to the clinical level, benefiting patients or the community — must include at least one clinician and at least one non-clinician, such as a biomedical, physical or social scientist.

"With Temple's extraordinary disciplinary breadth and many outstanding professional schools, our faculty members have unique opportunities to participate in collaborative research of every imaginable type that will make real differences in the world," Staiano-Coico said. "The increasingly complex issues facing the planet and humanity today offer our researchers the kinds of challenges that can be tackled only by a multidisciplinary approach."

A major goal of the program, according to the Office of the Provost, it to encourage pilot research that will help generate subsequent additional funding. The ideal seed grant applications will demonstrate "synergistic interactions between collaborating faculty members" and a high probability that the research will continue beyond the seed grant period.

A selection committee consisting of Temple faculty members will rank all proposals. Applications for 2007–08 seed grants must be received by Jan. 15, 2008.

For more information about the new seed grant program, including application instructions, go to www.temple.edu/provost.