Funding

Collaborators

Illinois Innovation Network

• The Illinois Innovation Network (IIN) is a collaborative effort by the state’s public universities to drive innovation and economic growth throughout the state. Led by the University of Illinois System, the U of I System Office of the Vice President for Economic Development and Innovation is the administrative home of the IIN.
• IIN Research Initiatives
• IIN Collaborative Funding Opportunities and Programs
  • IIN Sustaining Illinois Seed Funding
    • program that seeks to advance collaborative research activity across its 15 member institutions by offering seed grant funding.
    • Rolling deadlines: Typically the first week of December and May.

Finding Collaborators

• Contact the Director of Grant Development for ideas and assistance
• Access GrantForward to identify potential research partners at SIUE and other member institutions. Please create an account if you currently do not have one. Contact us if assistance is needed.
• Participate in a speed networking event

SIUE Research Centers

        which provide opportunities for interdisciplinary collaborative research and include:

• C-PAN  The Center for Predictive Analytics    The Center for Predictive Analytics (C-PAN) was founded in response to the growing need for data scientists across all disciplines. Although computational power continues to advance, and high volumes of data can now be collected and stored, many data resources remain untapped. C-PAN is dedicated to the development of innovative data analysis solutions that enable our industry, government and academic partners to utilize their data to its fullest potential while also providing real-world training opportunities to the next generation of data scientists.

  Does it involve using data to make informed decisions? Then we work on it! Although this list is not all-encompassing, these are the more typical services we provide:  Research Collaboration, Workforce Training, On Campus and throughout the SIU System.

• CCSVP (Center for Crime Sciences and Violence Prevention) -  Our primary focus is to assist all stakeholders in the criminal justice field in their efforts to reduce crime and violence. Our Center works with criminal justice agencies, community organizations, vendors, faculty, and students to improve public safety in the St. Louis and Southern Illinois regions.

  We provide a range of services, including grant development, data analytics, crime analysis, mapping, dashboard development,  and (evaluation) research. Please browse our pages to explore the work we have recently completed and projects currently underway. We are always happy to talk with you to see how we can support your approaches to improving justice and public safety. Reach out to us at any time at ccsvpbelleville@siue.edu or connect with us on social media. 

• GeoMARC (Geospatial Mapping, Application, and Research Center)   GeoMARC is a research center that is focused on the use of advanced technologies in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), remote sensing, geospatial imagery processing, geospatial automation and machine learning, and UAS/terrestrial data collection to help solve a wide range of issues within government, private, institutional, and local communities. The center’s primary goal is to foster cross-disciplinary, multi-institutional, intra-university partnerships in order to develop and promote the use of geospatial technologies to conduct, lead, and influence research and innovation.

  GeoMARC is evolving into a geospatial “think tank” that operates similarly to a teaching hospital. GeoMARC provides technological and intellectual support to local and regional communities by engaging in geospatially related projects, educating the next generation’s workforce, and providing solutions to geographic problems through applied research and development. 

• IRIS  The IRIS Center at SIUE is an interdisciplinary facility designed to support individual and collaborative scholarship that applies digital content as a primary methodology. The center's mission is to facilitate cross-disciplinary projects that involve innovative uses of technology in the humanities and social sciences, support these projects with facilities, equipment, and human resources, foster active collaboration between faculty and students, encourage the development of curricular innovation that makes use of digital applications, and promote digital endeavors that intersect with community initiatives and organizations.

• NCERC (National Corn to Ethanol Research Center) is a nationally-recognized research center dedicated to the development and commercialization of biotechnologies, including biofuels and bio-based chemicals and products. Our staff includes veteran engineers, operators, and scientists who have decades of cumulative experience and offer the experience needed to ensure the success of a research project.   For twenty years, NCERC has achieved a legacy of success by playing an instrumental role in commercializing more than eighty products that are now used in the commercial marketplace, leading to the creation of more than 5,000 jobs and generating in excess of $5.6 billion in annual revenue.  Through our contractual research services, NCERC's business model behaves similarly to that of a Contract Research Organization, and the facility is appropriate for testing for technologies ranging from Technology Readiness Level 1 through 8. Clients benefit from the ability to take their process from the lab- to pilot- to demonstration-scale, conveniently in one state-of-the-art facility. Companies of all sizes from around the world use the NCERC’s facilities to increase yield, optimize processes, test new technologies, and evaluate new products.

• STEM The SIUE Center for STEM Research, Education and Outreach   provides a variety of programming and services to broaden STEM education throughout the region. From organizing and hosting engaging STEM events to developing and testing innovative curricula, our team of researchers, educators, and creators works to define best practices in STEM initiatives. With everything we do, we strive to learn what make STEM education work no matter the setting or audience.        Our team of researchers and content creators works to define best practices in STEM initiatives. From organizing and judging Science Fairs to providing innovative curriculum advancing computational thinking, we engage communities to broaden STEM teaching and learning in southwest Illinois. Our research is as diverse as our activities! From cognitive science to computer usability, we strive to understand how people best learn and teach STEM in formal and informal settings. Visit our Research and Outreach pages for a complete list of our current activities. Support the STEM Center with a donation. Please take the time to designate that the donation is for the STEM Center.

Successful Collaborations

(Based on University of Massachusetts ADVANCE Program. 2021. Resources for Equitable Research Collaborations: What to Consider in Proposing and Conducting Research.)

Collaboration can improve your project proposals and offers the opportunity to increase your scholarly output.  In addition, funders are increasingly requiring collaboration on externally funded projects. 

In collaborations, each member needs to take responsibility for their individual work while owning the success (or failure) of the overall project.  To be successful, the collaboration needs to contribute to all members’ intellectual and career growth.

Characteristics of successful collaborations include:

• commitment to stated research goals and values
• respectful and equitable environment in which each voice, intellectual input, and effort is valued
• trust, physical and psychological safety, and mutual respect among all members of the collaboration
• openness and transparency, including about progress, challenges, and financial issues
• agreed upon processes for professional communication in person, via email, and in virtual environments (including considering differences in time zones)
• for interdisciplinary teams and multinational teams – clarity about disciplinary frameworks and terminology.

Below are some items to consider during various phases of a collaboration.  In addition see Research Collaboration Best Practices.  

• Decision made to collaborate  
  • Consider creating and having members sign an MOU that:
    • defines the purpose and structure of the research partnership
    • identifies project members
    • clearly articulates roles and responsibilities
    • describes project activities, timelines, and responsibilities
    • describes products and associated responsibilities
    • describes intellectual property and resource allocation
    • establishes a mechanism to resolve challenges.
• Pre-proposal and proposal
  • Address mutual expectations through open discussion.
  • Keep a written record (e.g., meeting agendas and notes).
    • For jointly developed parts of the proposal that emerge from team discussion, assign a notetaker and person to draft the initial section.
  • Clearly divide and establish who is responsible for  various parts  of the proposal and ensure that these roles are assigned in an equitable way.
  • Align budget with roles and responsibilities. 
    • Remember to align the scope of work with the allowed budget.
  • Communicate frequently about progress, concerns, and questions; communicate periodically about what is going well and what needs to be strengthened.
  • Establish authorship and credit processes.
    • Have a conversation about the following questions and how decisions will be made once papers develop.  Where will the results be presented and/or published? Who will be included as authors? What will be the order of co-authors? Who will have the final authority to approve presentations or publications?  Consider using the authorship checklist.
  • Establish access to and use of data. 
    • What type of access will members of the collaboration have to each other’s original data and/or notes? How might members take commonly acquired data in different directions? (Goes back to authorship and credit)
  • Consider potential intellectual property that may be developed.
    • Who has the rights to patentable inventions discovered in the performance of the research? (Note that typically the institution or sponsor has these rights.  See the SIU Office of Technology Management and Industry Relations for assistance.)
  • Identify a conflict resolution strategy.
    • Revisit the agreed upon working approach, norms, and timeline as a tool to frame and resolved conflict.
    • If conflicts should arise that can’t be resolved internally, ask an outsider to facilitate resolution.
  • Determine a succession plan.
    • How are departures of original team members and addition of new team members handled? 
• Funded project start-up
  • Revisit scope of work and budget; make revisions as needed and/or determined by budget changes.
  • If needed, further define roles and responsibilities, including project administration, and outline plan for monitoring those activities.
  • Outline plan for internal and external communication (e.g., with funding agency).
  • Develop decision tree—who makes day to day operational decisions, who weighs in on significant changes to scope of work, budget oversight and budget allocation, grant-funded personnel, pivots in response to ongoing data acquisition.
  • Expand role of Advisory Board to evaluate collaborative activities (e.g., through regular interviews with team members or open-ended questionnaires).
• Project implementation
  • Revisit expectations, roles and responsibilities, and revise as needed.
  • Revisit proposed project timeline and deliverables and revise as needed.
    • Use milestone tracking to determine progress and identify potential problems.
  • Revisit authorship and credit, if needed.
  • Discuss research accountability. 
    • How frequently will the members of the collaboration meet to discuss and evaluate their results?
  • Revisit as needed the data management plan.
• Next steps
  • Discuss next steps – e.g., potential next funding opportunity.