Educational and Research Initiative Fund (ERIF)

The Educational and Research Initiative Fund (ERIF) Award provides seed funding to initiate innovative, multi-investigator, multidisciplinary research and education programs. The maximum award will not exceed $25,000. The budget is limited to tuition and stipend expenses for students, except for a small amount of funding (up to 5%) that may be allocated for supplies. 

Illinois Institute of Technology tenured and tenure-track faculty members are invited to submit multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary proposals for funding from the Educational and Research Initiative Fund (ERIF). Proposals (including the budget and appendices) are limited to eight pages  A routing sheet is required. Please select the sponsor as: Educational and Research Initiative Fund (ERIF). Please submit your proposal to osrp@iit.eduThe deadline is March 7th each year. If the deadline should occur on a weekend or a national holiday, submissions will be due the following business day.

ERIF PROPOSALS:

  • Must be based on the collaboration of two or more faculty members from at least two different academic units. The collaborators may be designated as co-PIs, or as PI and co-PI(s).
  • Must be multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary in scope.
  • Must show substantial promise for developing a larger proposal for external funding. Each proposal must include strong evidence that the PIs have identified external funding agencies with potential interest in the proposal.
  • May not be used to supplement existing grants or contracts.

ADDITIONAL PROPOSAL CHARACTERISTICS MAY INCLUDE:

  • High risk or innovative ideas that need pilot funding at the pre-competitive stage
  • New initiatives for the organization of multidisciplinary research programs leading to the development of research centers or consortia.

Applicants must use a standard proposal format (click here for details).

The budget is limited to tuition and stipend expenses for students, except for a small amount of funding (up to 5%) that may be allocated for supplies. The award period is June 1 of the year the award is issued through May 31 of the following year (12 months). Recipients will be required to submit a midterm progress report and a final technical report.

If you have any questions please contact Fred Hickernell at hickernell@iit.edu or Domenica Pappas at pappas@iit.edu