ArtSci Cross-Disciplinary Collaborative Grants

In 2025-6 the ArtSci Steering Committee identified the need for “dedicated incentives to foster cross-disciplinary work.” The College of Arts & Sciences therefore invites proposals for Cross-Disciplinary Collaborative Grants (up to $4,000) to support collaborative faculty projects in teaching, experiential learning, or research/creative work within the College.

These projects should leverage existing strengths and opportunities to strengthen curriculum, expand experiential learning, or launch collaborative research/creative activity across the arts, humanities, sciences, and social sciences. For teaching-focused proposals, projects must also demonstrate alignment with career readiness and/or enrollment outcomes. Primary investigators (PIs) should be from at least 2 different ArtSci departments.

Project Types & Activities

A variety of proposal types and activities will be considered for this award. Proposed activities may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Development or redesign of cross-disciplinary courses, modules, or shared curricular experiences at the undergraduate and/or graduate levels.
• Development of career-readiness and/or industry/community-engaged teaching programs.
• Creation of experiential learning opportunities that connect students to research, fieldwork, community engagement, or public-facing work.
• Early-stage collaborative research/creative projects designed to generate pilot data, archival findings, creative exhibitions, or other groundwork for future scholarship and funding.
• Cross-disciplinary community-engaged research/creative work.

Many more types of opportunities will be considered that support teaching and/or research/creative work.

Award Amounts & Allowable Expenses

Teams may apply for up to $4,000 per project.

ArtSci plans to award up to $24,000 in funding for this program across multiple projects. The College may make fewer than the maximum number of awards, or fund proposals at amounts below the requested level, based on proposal quality, available funds, and distribution across areas.

Allowable expenses

Funds may be used only for project-related operating expenses and travel. Funds must be expended by June 30, 2027. Any unused funds will be swept back to the college. Examples of allowable expenses include:

• Graduate or undergraduate student interns/assistants (minimum of $15/hour for undergraduates; $20 for graduates)
• Research or course-development travel, including site visits, fieldwork, archival visits, and travel directly connected to project planning or implementation.
• Materials, supplies, data access, printing, exhibit costs, and other project operating needs.
• Survey costs including participant costs.
• Modest event expenses directly connected to the project, such as workshop materials, speaker costs, or student-facing project activities. Must follow USU Policy 1223: Meals & Entertainment.

Unallowable expenses

Grant funds may not be used for:

• Faculty or staff salary, including summer salary, overload compensation, or course buyout.
• General equipment purchases or routine office/computing upgrades not directly tied to the approved project.
• Conference travel primarily for presenting completed work rather than conducting project development or research activity, unless explicitly approved in the award terms.

Eligibility

Proposals must be submitted by a team of at least two faculty members from different departments within the College of Arts and Sciences. Tenured, tenure-track, and term (professional practice, lecturer, clinical) faculty are eligible to apply. Cross-disciplinary collaboration should be substantive and intentional, not simply parallel contributions from separate fields.

Faculty may only serve as PI on one mini-grant at a time.

Projects may include additional collaborators beyond the minimum 2 faculty from ArtSci, such as staff, students, community partners, or faculty from other colleges but the ArtSci faculty team must serve as the project leads and are responsible for the proposal, budget, and final report. Funding must primarily support ArtSci faculty, staff, and students.