Call for Proposals: MindCORE Collaboration Grants

Application Deadline: March 24, 2025

MindCORE is an interdisciplinary program focused on understanding the mind, drawing on tools from
psychology, biology, neuroscience, linguistics and the humanities. The overarching goal of MindCORE
is to support interdisciplinary outreach, research, and education related to the mind and brain.
Topics relevant to MindCORE include, but are not limited to perception, language, memory,
decision-making, social networks, and creativity.

MindCORE Collaboration Grants are designed to support proposals for innovative interdisciplinary
research in mind and brain within the University of Pennsylvania. We will consider proposals for
the following two categories:

• Novel Collaborations. ($10,000-$50,000 per year for 1-2 years) Seed funding to jump- start new
interdisciplinary collaborations among researchers working on a common area or theme, i.e. forming
new research partnerships and/or teams. MindCORE recognizes that important advances can come from
bringing together expertise across domains, but extramural funders often look for evidence of
successful past collaboration in such applications. Our intent is to foster new research
partnerships to clear this hurdle.

• Shared Resources. ($10,000 to $50,000 total) Initial funding to develop shared core facilities
and resources. The shared resource should enable innovative, cutting-edge research for many
scholars in the MindCORE community, and have a plan for continued sustainability.
The director or principal investigator for any proposed project must be a member of the SAS
standing faculty, but the proposal may—and is strongly encouraged—to include collaborators from
other departments and schools. Funds cannot be used for faculty or postdoctoral salaries. Proposals
should be a brief six pages that include the following sections: description of the proposed
project, investigators/collaborators included, measurable outcomes, year-by-year plan, funding plan
beyond MindCORE, and an annual budget.

Applicants are welcome and encouraged to discuss their proposals beforehand with Heather Calvert, MindCORE
Executive Director at hcalvert@sas.upenn.edu or (215) 573-1111.

Award notifications will be sent in spring with funds available beginning in summer.

Please email completed proposals to Heather Calvert (hcalvert@sas.upenn.edu) before March 24, 2025.