The University of Chicago Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth is pleased to invite proposals for research funding for two programs: (1) the Seed Fund, and (2) the Venture Fund. Across both categories, the Institute supports innovative, ambitious efforts with real-world applications.
Seed Fund
The Seed Fund aims to foster the advancement of innovative, early-stage research to meet the complexity of the global climate and sustainable growth challenge. Through these awards, the Institute seeks to support faculty and researchers from across UChicago in exploring a wide range of topics. Importantly, this includes providing research awards to both traditional climate, energy and sustainable growth researchers as well as those who do not typically study these topics, but who see connections to their areas of expertise that could be explored. There is a strong preference for projects to be interdisciplinary.
Venture Fund
Because balancing climate and growth is a multilayered challenge, understanding and addressing it requires an ecosystem of scholars with varying expertise. The Institute seeks to cultivate this ecosystem of collaboration and break down traditional academic boundaries across the University of Chicago community.
Venture Fund projects are one way in which the Institute aims to advance this goal. Venture Fund projects are larger-scale, interdisciplinary efforts that that take on problems requiring diverse frames of understanding and pathways of thought. Projects will be centers of activity that receive multiyear financial and administrative support from the Institute and are focused on high-impact results that benefit society.
Venture Fund projects may or may not begin by including external collaborators such as government or industry entities, but may seek to grow to include such collaborators in order to pilot and scale real-world solutions and provide impactful tools. The most successful projects will evolve into programs and labs within the Institute, receiving a higher level of funding and administrative support.
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The Institute welcomes proposals on any climate and sustainable growth-related topic. For example, the research could study social or governance questions underlying climate systems engineering, the future role of AI in the energy system, the development of hydrogen as a primary energy source, policy or technology avenues for mitigating carbon, or innovative climate adaptation mechanisms. In the spirit of this broad call for proposals, these examples are meant to be illustrative, not limiting. We encourage creativity and linkages to well-known challenges yet to be solved.
Funding Available
It is anticipated that Seed Fund awards will be made for a maximum of $150,000, with approximately 18-month periods of performance. Within this category, a limited number of PhD student awards will be made at a maximum of $15,000. Venture Fund awards will be multi-year commitments totaling up to $1.5 million.
Research awards can support a number of research activities, including the hiring of research staff, retention of consultants and contractors, purchase of data, lab materials, experimental supplies, and travel. Research awards will not support faculty salaries.
Awardees will receive access to the Institute’s resources, including administrative, programming, communications, and fundraising support. The Institute will work with project teams to help achieve long-term success, visibility, and viability for all awarded projects.
Eligibility
All proposals must include a PI-eligible faculty member or other academic appointee from the University of Chicago. Please find more information about UChicago PI eligibility and policies here. PhD students at the University of Chicago may apply for awards for their own research, but in such cases their faculty adviser must provide a letter of support and indicate willingness to remain involved in a supervisory role throughout the lifetime of the project. For PhD students, preference will be given to those who have completed required coursework. Proposals of all kinds are encouraged to include collaborators from outside the University of Chicago.
Both Seed Fund and Venture Fund proposals must include at least one co-PI from a different unit within the University of Chicago (e.g., departments, divisions, schools) and/or from the Argonne National Laboratory, Marine Biological Laboratory, or Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. It is not an absolute requirement, but preference will be given to applications where the co-PI is from a different discipline.
Selection Criteria
Institute leadership and the Review Committee will evaluate the awards according to a variety of criteria, including:
- Advances transformational research in the fields of climate change and energy, with significant potential to lead to publications in top peer-reviewed journals, new technologies, and significant real-world impact.
- Proposals are driven by a specific and compelling climate, energy or sustainable growth problem or stakeholder need.
- The ability to develop new lines of climate, energy, or sustainable growth-related work and to foster an academic community around an emerging topic.
- Includes strong leadership and representation from a diverse set of disciplines, with a preference for applications that come from at least two disciplines.
- Fosters interdisciplinary research to build community, collaboration, and partnerships across the University.
- How the proposed work complements and enhances ongoing climate, energy or sustainable growth research on campus.
- The prospects for long-term funding to continue the research project beyond the program period.
The Venture Fund will be awarded according to additional criteria:
- The collective, interdisciplinary team has a track record of producing innovative methodology, prototypes, tools, and other research artifacts.
- Has significant potential to catalyze additional cross-disciplinary research.
- Invests in the involvement of students, postdoctoral scholars, and early career faculty.
- Has strong and appropriate connections with external stakeholders such as industry, civic organizations, or government entities. Has the ability to deepen cooperation, information sharing, and potential collaborations with such stakeholders.
- Has significant potential to lead to direct real-world impact. The potential path for the impact should be clear from the proposal.
Key Dates
April 15, 2025 – Application deadline
June 1, 2025 – Announcement of awards
June 2025 – Funds released to award winners
How to Apply
Interested applicants should respond by April 15, 2025, by emailing all materials to: climate@uchicago.edu.
The application should include:
- A title and a clear, 150-word summary of the project. We will display this on our website if your project is selected.
- A three-to-five page proposal outlining: (1) the research team; (2) the importance of the topic for addressing the climate and energy challenge; (3) novelty of the proposed research or project design; (4) the timeframe and parameters of the research project; (5) how the funds will be used, including a detailed budget table and budget narrative using this template; (6) the goals and impact of the research on the field of study, and (7) projected research outcomes (planned publications, conference proceedings, etc.).
- CVs of all relevant personnel.
Terms and Conditions
Funding guidelines: Award funding cannot be used for faculty compensation. Any anticipated external source of support for the proposed project or existing IP relevant to the proposed project must be declared at the time of submission. Associated Conflicts of Interest must also be reported.
Progress reporting: Researchers awarded funding will be required to meet with Institute leadership three times per year to provide progress updates.
Data publication: Our goal is to share all data acquired and generated with the aid of the award as appropriate and as permitted within relevant legal restrictions. Exceptions will be granted in cases where legal or ethical reasons preclude data release.
Publicity and outreach: The Institute expects to publicize all research results. PIs should send publications resulting from the award to Institute communications staff for inclusion on the Institute website. Institute policy and communications staff will work closely with researchers to disseminate research results as appropriate. Awardees are expected to participate in Institute activities when possible. Activities may include public events, workshops, or media events.
Attribution: Any presentations and publications intended for the public domain, including academic papers, policy briefs, press releases, blogs, and newsletters that emerge from projects should credit the Institute. When appropriate, the Institute’s official logo should be included, subject to each prior approval. In addition, all such materials should be submitted to the Institute for inclusion on the Institute’s website as appropriate.
Unspent funds: Any unspent funds must be returned at the close of a project unless written approval of an extension is granted.