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The Office of the Provost, in close collaboration with Vice Chancellor for Research and Engagement Mike Malone, has announced a call for proposals for the Strategic Partnerships to Advance Research and Creative activity (SPARC) fund, a new combined program to streamline and replace the Interdisciplinary Research Grant (IRG) and the Large-Scale Integrative Research Awards (LIRA) programs.

With this combined approach, SPARC seed grants propose to engage scholarly teams to launch or advance interdisciplinary work to address prevailing challenges or explore new areas of inquiry, empower creativity, strengthen the campus’ areas of excellence, promote equitable collaborations, attract external funding, and bring other forms of recognition to the university faculty.

“There was great success from the IRG and LIRA funds in past years. The research, creative activities, and other engagement projects resulting from these collaborations has been phenomenal,” said Laura Vandenberg, associate vice chancellor and vice provost for research and engagement. “Streamlining these programs into the SPARC program was an important step in simplifying the application process and strengthening opportunities to fund new faculty collaborations. We are eager to review this next group of innovative proposals for the upcoming academic year.”

A total of $800,000 in available SPARC seed grants will be awarded to teams of faculty members and librarians, with strong preference for teams that include members from at least two different schools/colleges within the university. The award start date is June 1, 2025.

The projects proposed by each team are expected to represent a new direction or aspect of interdisciplinary collaboration, align with one of the themes of interdisciplinary excellence identified above, and generate significant and tangible outcomes that “spark” continued momentum in research and creative activity.

Four tiers of funding initiatives are available under the SPARC program: 

• SPARC 1 – Grants up to $10,000:  To support conceptualization projects that bring together new teams to pursue research and creative projects and develop new working themes. Strong preference will be given to teams with faculty members with no prior collaborations.
• SPARC 2 – Grants up to $20,000: To support advanced collaborative projects that lead to one or more interdisciplinary publications or the development of a proposal to pursue smaller external funding opportunities (including state, corporate, foundation or federal funding).
• SPARC 3 – Grants up to $50,000:  To support grant development projects from foundations or federal agencies (average of $1M+ total costs per year for at least three years). Teams in this tier are provided professional consultation and staff support from the Office for Research Development on developing a proposal for external funding. A target funding opportunity should be identified prior to applying for SPARC 3 funds.
• SPARC 4 – Grants up to $75,000: To support proposals for center-level funding or other large-scale grants from federal agencies (average of $3M+ total costs per year for at least five years). Teams in this tier are provided professional consultation and staff support from the Office for Research Development on developing a proposal for external funding. A target funding opportunity should be identified prior to applying for SPARC 4 funds.

Applications for internal submissions are due Monday, Feb. 3, through the InfoReady form. Recipients will be announced later in the spring semester.

More information is available on the Research and Engagement News webpage and the SPARC Request for Proposals form. For questions, email the Office of Research and Engagement at ord@umass.edu.