Research teams pursing work across multiple disciplines will have a chance at landing funding from a new $2.3 million initiative established by RTI International, N.C. State University and the Kenan Institute for Engineering, Technology and Science.
The partners announced the program Wednesday afternoon.
The program is called “Game-Changing Research Incentive Program” and provides “seed funding.”
The statted goal:
“GRIP is intended to seed, incentivize and amplify visionary research that will result in a high return on investment in terms of extramural funding, award-winning research impacts, and first-class interdisciplinary graduate education and training.”
The aim is to “stimulate the growth of interdisciplinary research and promote collaborative innovation,” the partners said in the announcement.
Funding will be spread over three years and be divided among as many as four teams.
“We want these projects to target research problems that are truly complex and require an interdisciplinary team approach to lead to what we hope will be solutions to grand challenge issues,” said Alan Rebar, N.C. State’s Vice Chancellor for Research, Innovation and Economic Development. “We hope that the projects will form the foundation of long-standing, impactful research programs that cross disciplinary and institutional boundaries.
“We are pleased to have RTI and the Kenan Institute as our collaborators and funding partners,” Rebar said. “My hope is that our faculty will use this opportunity to think big, be creative and marshal expertise within and outside N.C. State that will be game-changers for N.C State, North Carolina, the nation and the world.”
One project will be supported by RTI that it says is “consistent” with RTI strategic research objectives. Researchers will be from NCSU and RTI, serving as co-investigators.
“It is an honor for RTI to be a part of this bold, new N.C. State research initiative,” said Jim Gibson, Chief Operating Officer at RTI. “We embrace the GRIP vision, and we see in this program an opportunity for researchers from our two institutions to come together to advance research in a way that neither of us could alone.”
