Second-annual Dean’s Innovation Fund awards a total of $200,000 to projects spanning the College of Arts and Sciences

For the past two years, Dean Glen Krutz has asked the college for innovative ideas, and this semester he announced eight winners of the second annual Dean’s Innovation Fund awards, with funding totaling $200,000, at the University of Colorado Boulder’s College of Arts and Sciences.

Krutz created the Dean’s Innovation Fund in late 2022 with the goal of funding new ideas and innovations for the college. He solicited proposals related to spawning new cross-disciplinary research projects, ventures to develop and retain faculty and staff, projects that link more strongly to the community, fresh thinking about how A&S might reduce its carbon footprint, and projects promoting justice, equity, diversity and inclusion efforts to improve student, staff and faculty access to and/or retention in A&S.

“I was thrilled with the applications we received in this second cycle of the A&S Dean’s Innovation Fund, and I was equally impressed with the first round,” Krutz said, adding:

“We had an overwhelming response, with applications from across the college. The response and the innovations were truly inspiring! The proposals were universally strong and worthy.” Selecting the second slate of projects was extremely difficult, and the college encouraged applicants to reapply in the next cycle, Krutz said.

This year, one-time awards range from $3,500 to $40,000.

Projects receiving 2024 funding from the Dean’s Innovation Fund are:

• $40,000 for Nature Based Solutions via Community-Engaged Research and Education, from ecology and evolutionary biology.
• $39,286 for Studio Lab for Undergraduate Research, from political science.
• $38,720 for Research beyond borders: Poster Symposium and Research Fellowship for Underrepresented and Minority Groups in STEM, from physics, mathematics and astrophysical and planetary sciences.
• $30,000 for Failure reframed: Supporting STEM students in developing productive coping skills through scientist narratives of failures, from ecology and evolutionary biology and academic advising.
• $26,494 for CU Boulder Powwow, from art and art history and theatre and dance.
• $12,000 for International Graduate Students' Access to Denver Area International Supermarkets, from psychology and neuroscience, chemistry, political science and JEDI (Justice, Equity, Inclusion and Diversity).
• $10,000 for Reducing Barriers to Equitable Access to Transformative Field Education via Microgrants, from geology.
• $3,500 for Neurodiversity Training for Supervisors, from international affairs.

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