The Cancer Center at Illinois (CCIL) was founded to build campus capacity in cancer research. The CCIL Seed Funding Program provides support for Illinois cancer research teams to develop new ideas and innovative approaches bridging the engineering–biology continuum. The expected outcome of this seed grant program is a fundable interdisciplinary research proposal. The CCIL anticipates funding two or three interdisciplinary research proposals during the 2018-2019 cycle, if meritorious applications are received.
The program has four distinct aims:
- Build Collaboration: Develop novel research ideas that require the involvement of multiple cancer investigators from different disciplines.
- Build Thematic Research: Formulate either a hypothesis-driven or technology-focused research project that relates to the scope of the two CCIL programs and their accompanying themes.
- Support Data Collection: Collect preliminary data or other relevant information to support a feasible approach.
- Develop Competitive Proposals: Garner external funding for multi-investigator research projects, using CCIL support as a catalyst.
The program has the following Timeline
Activity
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Deadline
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Call for Proposals
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November 9, 2018
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Open Date (Earliest Submission
Date)
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January 9, 2019
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Proposal Deadline
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February 15, 2019
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Award Notification
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March 15, 2019
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Award Funding Begins
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March 15, 2019
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Eligibility
Tenure-track Illinois faculty members are eligible to apply for CCIL seed funding. Active participation of faculty from more than one academic department is required and must reflect each CCIL program (see program descriptions). 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.
Principal Investigator Requirements
Each project will identify a lead principal investigator (PI), who assumes organizational leadership for the project. A faculty member may only serve as PI on one submitted project. However, there is no limit to being a co-investigator on other projects. Applicants are highly encouraged to include faculty at the Assistant Professor rank on their teams.