The Minnesota Futures Grant Program encourages University of Minnesota faculty to advance bold and creative new ideas that reach across academic disciplines to address societal challenges.
The program, offered annually by the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) and modeled after the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative, provides two awards of up to $250,000 each over two years to help interdisciplinary groups of researchers who have never collaborated before to develop ideas to a point where they become competitive for external funding. Since its first round of awards in 2009, Minnesota Futures has provided a total of $5.5 million to 25 projects, supporting research in disciplines ranging from plant biology to history to computer science.
Many past award recipients have leveraged outside funding to further support their research, with an estimated $4 in external funding attracted for every $1 of Minnesota Futures funding received. The additional funding gives innovations that result from the research a stronger chance of reaching the market to potentially improve the lives of millions.
Minnesota Futures is one of several internal grant programs offered through OVPR.
Apply for the 2020 Minnesota Futures Awards
To apply for a Minnesota Futures award, first send a letter of intent to facgrant@umn.edu by February 17. Principal investigators must then submit applications to approvers by March 17, and approvers must submit applications to OVPR by March 20.
Principal investigators who currently hold an AHC Faculty Research Development Grant, or who have applied within the past year, are not eligible to apply as a principal investigator for this competition.
Learn more about the eligibility requirements and application instructions.