The Center for Ideas and Society’s Being Human Initiative and the Office of the Vice Chancellor of Research and Economic Development invite proposals for multi-disciplinary MiniLabs in the calendar year 2026.

MiniLabs support innovative multidisciplinary collaborations on campus in an open format and are designed as short-term think tanks to encourage exploratory conversations that have a strong potential to lead to a variety of activities, such as conference and research grants, multi-campus research groups, and public outreach grants, among others.

MiniLabs are open to all disciplines in CHASS and their topics must be grounded in Humanities methods and approaches. Eligible groups will consist of at least three UCR faculty, with at least two faculty from CHASS. Up to two graduate students may also be included. Collaborations with faculty and graduate students from outside of CHASS is strongly encouraged, but not required.

MiniLabs receive $500 in research funds per faculty member and $250 per graduate student. The funds can be used individually or pooled for group activities. In addition, each group receives $500 for group expenses such as meetings, creative events, speaker invitations, regional excursions, or other research-related needs.

Outcomes

MiniLabs will document their activities and outcomes in a short, written report that is due at the end of their quarter of funding.

Evaluation Criteria

• The importance of the questions, issues, or problems the collaboration seeks to address.
• The capacity of the project to enhance or develop insights into these questions, issues, or
• problems.
• The extent to which the project has appropriately taken account of existing scholarship.
• The clarity of the outline and its arguments.
• The ability of the participants to make a significant advancement on the project.
• The potential to lay groundwork for future research, programs, and grant applications.
• The potential to establish innovative collaboration across disciplines and/or colleges.