OVERVIEW

The Brain and Behavior Institute (BBI) at the University of Maryland (UMD) advances neuroscience by fostering collaboration with diverse partner disciplines, developing cutting-edge tools and promoting the translation of basic science. The BBI seed grant program promotes this mission by cultivating new collaborations among neuroscientists, engineers, computer scientists, mathematicians, physical scientists, cognitive scientists and humanities scholars. The program funds innovative collaborative work focused on solving the most pressing problems related to nervous system function in development and aging, and it enables the generation of pilot data to increase competitiveness for external awards. To date, BBI seed grant investments have yielded an over 700% return in funding from government and private organizations, including the NIH BRAIN Initiative, National Institute on Aging, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, National Institute for Mental Health, National Science Foundation, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, AT&T, and Lieber Institute for Brain Development

GUIDELINES FOR PROPOSALS

Priority for funding will be given to proposals that target one of the two BBI research foci identified for growth and expansion: neuro-development or neuro-aging. Neuro-development and neuro-aging are the two temporal epochs most critical to the acquisition and maintenance of sensation, perception, cognition, mental health and physical health as well as most vulnerable to disruption by changes in the internal or external environment. Proposals should be high-risk, high-impact exploratory research to collect pilot data necessary to compete for external funding from sources that support innovative and interdisciplinary projects, such as the BRAIN Initiative and ARPA-H, or for funding by agencies such as NIH, DARPA, IARPA, NSF, etc. Proposals have a maximum budget of $150,000 for 12 months.

PI Eligibility

All proposals must be multidisciplinary with at least two Principal Investigators (PI), both of whom are tenured, tenure-track or professional track faculty at UMD. Having multiple PIs from the same department on the same application is discouraged. Individuals with postdoctoral titles are not eligible to be PIs but can be included in the proposal team. Outside collaborations (UMB, NIH, etc.) are allowed (as co-investigator, collaborator, etc.), but non-UMD investigators cannot be PIs, and no money will be awarded to support non-UMD investigators. Individual investigators may participate in up to two proposals, and if two proposals are awarded to one PI, the funding for each proposal will be administered separately.

STATEMENT OF INTENT

All applicants are asked to provide a brief Statement of Intent prior to submission of a full proposal. Please provide a 2-3 sentence summary of your proposal, which will be used to assist the BBI in the recruitment of external reviewers with the appropriate expertise. Please send the Statement of Intent to bbiumd@umd.edu by Friday, October 1, 2021. Full proposals are due Friday, October 29, 2021.

See below for BBI 2021 Seed Grant RFP.

Questions should be directed to bbiumd@umd.edu.

TOME@UMD, a two-year pilot program of the national TOME initiative, is now accepting applications for three grants of up to $15,000 each that will sponsor the publication of open access, digital monographs by UMD faculty members. With a deadline of November 15, 2021, the process calls for applications from eligible faculty in all disciplines, but with preference given for those in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. 

“Scholarly monographs are a critical form of knowledge dissemination in the arts, humanities, and social sciences,” said Linda Aldoory, Associate Dean for Research and Programming in the College of Arts and Humanities. “Yet, these books are often expensive and not readily available to audiences without institutional access to academic libraries or research libraries. Publishing open access books is one way to disseminate this research freely to a wider audience.”

Funded monographs will be published by a participating university press under a Creative Commons (CC) license and will be made openly accessible through a digital repository, such as DRUM - the Digital Repository for University of Maryland.

TOME@UMD is made possible through a partnership with UMD’s Office of the Provost, the College of Arts and Humanities, and the Libraries. Learn more about author and manuscript eligibility and the application process at https://www.lib.umd.edu/about/deans-office/tome.

Questions about TOME@UMD? Contact Daniel Mack, Associate Dean of Libraries, at dmack@umd.edu.

Last year, the Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities created a COVID Relief Fund to help support TTK faculty in completing scholarly and creative projects. This special purpose fund will continue through spring 2022 to help assistant professors and associate professors who have had limited access to materials and other resources they need for projects that are important for tenure and promotion purposes. 

Funds up to $1,000 will be awarded to TTK faculty who can demonstrate a need for funds due to COVID. The project funded must advance faculty’s promotion and tenure goals. Priority will be given to assistant professors but associate professors are eligible as well. Funds must be expended by the end of the 2022 calendar year.

Examples of acceptable requests are: costs for digitization of materials from an out-of-state library or archive; hiring research assistants or archivists at an hourly rate to obtain research materials from an out-of-state museum; postage and shipping to receive materials to your home. Travel is now eligible, provided that it is necessary and essential to completing the research that was stalled due to COVID. Travel must also fit current UMD travel restrictions. This special purpose fund will not support teaching releases, summer salary, or stipends or cash support for any other reasons.

Required Documents:

1. ARHU Research COVID Relief Fund Application Form: online application form

2. Project Description (two-page maximum, single-spaced with one-inch margins, at least 11-point font): Detail the project’s objectives and how it will meet tenure/promotion goals. Address how COVID has affected the completion of the project. Then explain how the funds will eliminate the barrier. 

3. Budget and Justification (two pages maximum): Provide an itemized budget and justify each expenditure. 

4. You must include documentation (web info or email) from sources outside of UMD confirming proposed costs associated with the project. 

Submission Process:

Complete the application form and upload all required documents via the online application found here. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.

Award Expectations:

Awardees will work with their department budget manager to arrange for payment of itemized costs or reimbursements.

A report (two-page maximum) will be required within a year of award date and should summarize use of funds and how they helped achieve tenure/promotion goals. All awarded funds must be spent by the end of 2022. Funds not spent will be returned to the college. Successful applicants will receive additional guidance in their notification letter.

The Graduate School invites applications for the Faculty-Student Research Award. Full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty members and full-time professional track faculty who advise and mentor graduate students at the University of Maryland at College Park are eligible to apply.

The wide variety of faculty research, scholarship, and creative projects on campus provide unique opportunities to mentor and support graduate students. The Faculty-Student Research Award provides $10,000 to support a faculty project that directly involves graduate students. Proposals require a detailed description of the faculty-led project, an explanation of how graduate students will benefit, and a proposed budget.

FSRA complements the Independent Scholarship, Research, and Creativity Award (ISRCA) offered by the Office of the Provost and the Division of Research and replaces the former Research and Scholarship Awards (RASA) and Creative and Performing Arts Awards (CAPAA). Unlike FSRA, ISRCA has no requirement for graduate student involvement. Faculty may not apply for both the FSRA and ISRCA in the same academic year.

By Jessica Weiss ’05

A $790,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will fund the creation of a new sculpture at the University of Maryland’s David C. Driskell Center and the identification, cataloging, preservation and digitization of prominent archives in the field of African American art.
 
The sculpture commemorating Driskell, a legendary artist, art historian and UMD distinguished university professor emeritus who died in 2020 at age 88, will be created by well-known African American artist Melvin “Mel” Edwards, a longtime friend. The stainless steel abstract artwork—tentatively measuring 12 feet long, 12 feet wide and 20 feet high—will be erected outside Cole Field House, home of the Driskell Center, by the end of the three-year grant.
 
The Dr. Tritobia Hayes-Benjamin Archive, a gift to the Driskell Center from the late art historian’s estate, will be the first collection made accessible by the grant. It includes thousands of primary source materials related to African American art, including photographic prints and contact sheets of works by major African American female artists, artist biographies written on index cards and a collection of 35 mm slides of artworks previously unknown to researchers. A longtime faculty member at Howard University, Hayes-Benjamin Ph.D. ’91 was Driskell’s first doctoral student in art history at UMD.
 
Professor Curlee R. Holton, director of the Driskell Center, said the grant exemplifies the center’s commitment both to advancing appreciation of African American art and creating a home for artists and scholars.
 
“Driskell impacted and transformed the American art canon by bringing African American art to the forefront,” Holton said. “Our mission is to continue that goal and to enhance and expand on it. We’re overjoyed at the opportunity to do so and honored to receive this major grant.”
 
Driskell, best known for his groundbreaking exhibition “Two Centuries of Black American Art: 1750-1950,” joined the faculty of the Department of Art at Maryland in 1977 and served as its chair from 1978-83. The Driskell Center was established in 2001 to exhibit the work of African American artists at all stages of their careers and to house Driskell’s extensive archive: a public collection of his letters, photos, handwritten notes and catalogs.
 
The grant dedicates $500,000 to supporting the center’s work to expand on its collection by cataloguing and preserving additional archives.
 
Hayes-Benjamin (1944-2014), who concentrated her Ph.D. studies at UMD on African American art, went on to serve at Howard as professor of art history, associate dean of the College of Fine Arts and director of the Howard University Gallery of Art.
 
“The university is committed to maintaining and building upon David’s dedication to develop future generations of Black artists and students of African American and African diasporic art,” said Bonnie Thornton Dill, dean of the College of Arts and Humanities. “This grant helps us continue the important work of extending the research capacity and impact of the center by digitizing materials and making them accessible and available worldwide to scholars, researchers and all those interested in African American art.”
 
The award from the Mellon Foundation will support a full-time archivist position and a graduate student and other expenses to inventory, catalog and digitize the 75 linear feet of materials from the Hayes-Benjamin Archive, estimated to contain some 20,000-25,000 items. The center’s staff will also identify and acquire additional archives for the center’s archive.
 
At the Driskell Center, Holton said, the archives will be “cared for and respected.”
 
“An archive is full of assets, full of jewels, and we are the caretaker of that,” he said. “This validates our history and our commitment.”