Graduate Collaboration Grants

Each group may consist of two or three graduate students, with at least one in the arts/humanities and one from the sciences, who work together over the course of five months to investigate a subject from the perspectives offered by each of their disciplines. Projects will be conducted from December 2024 through May 2025, with a public presentation scheduled at the end of the academic year. The projects may take the form of a publishable paper, photographic documentation, film, music score, performance, theater piece, exhibition, documented research experiment, or another agreed-upon format. Proposals will be reviewed and selected in November.

Each applicant of each group must have an endorsement by a faculty member. UChicago students must be supported by a UChicago full-time faculty member and SAIC students must be supported by a SAIC full-time faculty member. These faculty members will serve as advisers to the grantees over the course of the grant period.

The objective is to identify and encourage innovative interactions between students of the sciences and the arts. The review process will be competitive and the proposals will be evaluated on the basis of a number of criteria, including trans-disciplinary innovation and scholarly risk-taking. Successful proposals may request up to $3,000 to cover costs for materials, use of media labs, computation facilities, and in some cases machine-shop time, as well as costs associated with the design, implementation, literary documentation, publication, and/or presentation of the project.

This fund is supported by the University of Chicago, Office of the Provost, the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, the Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and is managed by the Arts, Science + Culture Initiative. The Initiative and faculty members establish the criteria for submissions, set the timeline, publicize the program, and select recipients.

• Collaborative team members must be graduate students and in residence during the academic year in which the project is to be funded.

• Each team must have at least one member from the arts or humanities and one from a science discipline.

• Each team member must have the endorsement of a faculty member who will be aware of the project and be available to advise the team during the grant period. (This can be submitted through Slideroom.) We ask each faculty member to attend a critique session and the final presentation.

• Each team must agree to a public presentation of their project on May 14, 2025.

• Monthly conversations with their cohort, during which they will gain and provide constructive feedback and engage with and learn about their peers' projects. In-person meetings will include dinner.

• A critique to be scheduled in March and attended by their advisors, other faculty, and academic peers.

• The Final Presentations event at the Logan Center at which each team will deliver a presentation about their project.

November 4, 2024, 11:59pm. Late applications will not be considered.

No later than November 11, 2024

• Extent of trans-disciplinary innovation.

• Degree of scholarly risk-taking.

• Integration of concept explored and forms in which it is executed.

• Feasibility for completion within the grant period (approx. 5 months).

• Relevance to each individual team member’s discipline.

This grant does not fund food or drink or receptions, computer, or other technical equipment that can be borrowed or rented from the student’s institution, University of Chicago faculty and student honoraria, production of CDs, conferences and symposia, or (with some exceptions) travel for research.

Incomplete applications will not be considered for funding. *All team members must each submit a faculty recommendation.*

If awarded an Arts, Science + Culture Graduate Collaboration Grant, each team will be required to agree to allow The University of Chicago to include the final work in publications, websites, or other media forms.

Failure to follow through on your commitment to the grant could result in the rescinding of funds for your team.

Follow this link to the grant application on Slideroom.

*For technical issues with Slideroom, please contact Nicole Hall at SAIC.