Mizzou Advantage to award up to $1.5 million in grants
The venture looks to increase inter-departmental communication and jump-start new projects.
Published Nov. 16, 2010
Monday marked the deadline for grant proposals to Mizzou Advantage, a collection of five dynamic initiatives meant to increase MU’s visibility, stature and impact in higher education.
In April, the venture funded 26 different research projects with more than $900,000 in funds.
“The facilitators are the ones on the ground, and they have encountered a whole lot of enthusiasm and not very much cynicism, which is a really great indicator,” Mizzou Advantage Program Coordinator Meg Phillips said.
The next round of grants, which will be awarded in February, will provide up to $1.5 million. Phillips said it would depend on the projects and the current budget situation to determine how much money will be granted.
“Generally speaking, we are looking for intellectual merit, evidence of sustainability, external funding it might attract down the road and furthering the mission of Mizzou Advantage, which is to further the stature and the impact of the university,” Phillips said. “There has to be a clear path of how that will be done.”
Phillips said there are two types of grants: network and seed.
Network grants are meant to gather people together in the same room who might not know they are doing similar things across campus so when opportunities come along, they are better positioned for them.
“The purpose of seed grants is to get a project going that then can be jump-started,” Phillips said. “It could be research that will enable a group to apply for a multimillion dollar grant.”
Phillips said the seed grants are not far along because they were just awarded in April. The project end dates for the seed grants are in December 2011. Nevertheless, people are making progress.
"Some of the projects are long-term, but some are shorter-term,” said Jo Britt-Rankin, faculty facilitator for the Food for the Future initiative. “Some people on this campus are working on healthy new food products that have probiotics in them, such as ice cream. The food science department has developed a plant-based product that actually has the texture and taste of chicken breast, giving another protein option to vegetarians. We’re seeing immediate results there.”
Britt-Rankin said MU is one of only five or six universities that has a veterinary school, a medical school and a land grant with the Cooperative Extension System on the same campus.
“We rank eighth in the United States and 15th internationally for universities that have an animal science and plant science division,” Britt-Rankin said. “We just have a world-class faculty here, and those are some real strengths that we bring to the table.”
Phillips said an advisory committee has selected a faculty facilitator for each initiative area to help unite people in similar departments.
“They’ve gone out and talked to a lot of people across campus and tried to learn everything that’s going on around campus,” Phillips said. “Previously, I don’t think there’s been a central repository of knowledge as far as everything that goes on. So, what they’re trying to do is bring people together.”
The total number of grant proposals has not yet been determined. However, Mizzou Advantage received approximately 80 summary sheets for this round of grants. Phillips said she expects the number of proposals to exceed the number of sheets.
“The overall goal is that what we are doing through Mizzou Advantage and the faculty that are working with us will cause our campus to be uniquely positioned for working with the private sector or preparing us for larger center-type grants and large funding initiatives,” Britt-Rankin said.