Funding Opportunities
Research Computing offers funding opportunities for faculty, researchers, and graduate students at U of M. RC funding enables U of M faculty and graduate students across all disciplines to advance their informatics research by supporting research proposals that are innovative, align with new or existing initiatives, seek to develop new multidisciplinary collaborations, and identify means to sustain University of Minnesota-based research. More information on funding opportunities and instructions on how you can apply is provided below.
DSI-MnDRIVE PhD Graduate Assistantship Program
Eligibility: Applicant must be a current PhD student at the University of Minnesota. Applicants must have completed their preliminary oral exam by the start of the assistantship. Post-docs are not eligible for these awards.
The Data Science Initiative (DSI)-MnDRIVE graduate assistantship program provides funding for PhD graduate students currently pursuing research at the University of Minnesota at the intersection of data science and any of the five MnDRIVE areas: Robotics; Global Food; Environment; Brain Conditions; and Cancer Clinical Trials.
“Data Science” in this case is defined broadly as the collection of approaches and disciplines encompassing the entire data pipeline. Proposals for this program must align with one of the Data Science Tracks:
Foundational Data Sciences: Topics that are foundational to data science applications including data-intensive and data-informed topics and applications along with methodological research in areas such as signal processing, data mining, machine learning, artificial intelligence as well as topics in ethics and privacy. Fundamental methods dealing with data storage, archiving, sharing, acquisition, compression, or transmission are included. This includes, but is not limited to, disciplines that underlie data science such as statistics, mathematics, computer science, philosophy, and social and behavioral sciences.
- Digital Health and Personalized Health Care Delivery: The broad scope of digital health includes disciplines such as mobile health (mHealth), public health, health information technology (HIT), wearable devices or tech, telehealth and telemedicine, and personalized healthcare and medicine. It includes enhancements to patient and consumer health and healthcare delivery through capacity-building activities and continuous, personalized, predictive, participative, and preventive approaches.
For more program information, or to submit an application, click the "Apply Now" button below.
DSI Seed Grants
Eligibility: The primary applicant must be faculty or research staff (P&A) at the University of Minnesota. Adjunct faculty are not eligible for funding under this program.
Funding Limit: Up to $120,000
DSI Seed Grant funds are intended to promote, catalyze, accelerate, and advance UMN-based data science research so that UMN faculty and staff are well prepared to compete for longer-term external funding opportunities. Proposals from all disciplines and across all campuses, including interdisciplinary collaborations, intersecting with Data Science are encouraged to apply, with priority given to proposals that will enable or bridge applications to larger funding opportunities and/or create new cross-disciplinary or cross-system collaborations. Priority will be given to proposals that align with at least one of the areas of the MnDRIVE initiative and the current DSI focus areas. These grants are divided into two funding categories, Small and Medium/Large.
Click on the buttons below to learn more about each of the Seed Grant programs.
DSI Small Seed GrantsDSI Medium/Large Seed Grants
Apply for Funding
To create a new application for any of our programs, or to view more information on funding opportunities, please follow these instructions:
- Visit the RC Funding Portal.
- Log in with your UMN credentials by selecting UMN Login from the dropdown in the top right corner of this page. If you do not have a UMN login, you will need to create and log in with a SurveyMonkey account by clicking "SurveyMonkey Apply" in the login dropdown.
- Once you are logged in, click Programs to view all programs. Select one of the available programs to submit a proposal.
To find and continue an existing application:
- Log into the the RC Funding Portal (following the instructions above).
- In the top right, select My Applications.
- On the My Applications screen, select the application that you wish to continue.
See past programs and funding recipients on our Past Awards page.
Other Funding Opportunities
Research Computing provides funding in support of other programs administered by our partners. Please see the links below to learn more about these opportunities.