The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign administers a number of special funding programs to provide support for the Illinois research community.

Eligibility requirements and application deadlines vary from program to program and year to year. For specific details, click on the name of the program in the list below.

Current Programs

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Start Date7/2/2018 Deadline Date7/2/2021
Academic Professional Development Fund

The Office of the Provost and the Council of Academic Professionals (CAP) thank the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research in hosting the online application for the Academic Professional Development Fund (APDF). APDF provides a source of funds for academic professional staff members (permanent/non-visiting) to take advantage of professional development opportunities. The Office of the Provost provides up to $75,000 per fiscal year in APDF awards.

What is asked of the units?

The APDF is a supplemental fund and is not intended to be the only source of funding for academic professional development. It is expected that the units will share the cost of these professional development opportunities. A matching contribution from the applicant’s unit is required.

How will the APDF be dispensed and how much will be given?

  • The applications for funding will be reviewed by representatives of the Council of Academic Professionals and the Office of the Provost.
  • Each academic professional staff member shall be eligible to receive a maximum of one award every two fiscal years.
  • Individual awards will not exceed $750, unless there are unusual circumstances.
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Start Date2/19/2019 Deadline Date3/27/2019
ACES Future Interdisciplinary Research Explorations 2019

The College of Agricultural, Consumer and Economic Sciences (ACES) Office of Research (OR) is issuing a call for Future Interdisciplinary Research Explorations (FIRE) grant applications. This grant encourages creativity and collaboration between ACES faculty and research partners (internal and external to UIUC). Accordingly, the OR solicits outstanding interdisciplinary team research proposals to initiate new and enhance existing collaborations among faculty. The aims of FIRE proposals are for faculty to:

  • Develop exploratory research ideas that require the involvement of multiple disciplines
  • Identify a research theme or question that gives coherence to the project and relates to the scope of programs within ACES
  • Collect preliminary data or other relevant information to address research questions
  • Prepare, develop, and submit research proposals for external funding
The expected product of the FIRE seed grant program is a fundable interdisciplinary research proposal. The lead Principal Investigator must be a faculty member within the College of ACES. Ideally, the lead PI should have an active Hatch project related to the proposed activities. If an applicant receives an award, the lead PI will need to have a Hatch project in which it contains objectives that overlap those in the FIRE proposal. We encourage active participation of researchers from social sciences and humanities disciplines and incorporation of both junior and senior faculty into teams. Proposals should include a description of the innovative nature of the research and the team’s capabilities, where the contribution of each collaborator’s expertise is evident. For additional details and the evaluation criteria, please see the FIRE Request for Proposals.