New Harmonies Collaboration Incubator

Program Description

The College promotes and celebrates interdisciplinary work by faculty and students. Doing this work well, rather than at a merely surface level, is time consuming and takes considerable dedication. Faculty new to this kind of work, but eager to engage in it, may not get past the “ideas” stage without support. External funding tends to be based in specific disciplines or designated for areas, and thus unavailable for this kind of scholarship and professional development. This program fills the gap, by supporting early stage interdisciplinary collaboration. 

Program Structure

The CRS and URC will support teams of 2-3 faculty collaborating on a new or existing interdisciplinary project. Support will include:

• $2500 stipend per faculty member 
• Optional Student Support during the academic year: 
  • for 1-4 students to participate in Student Research Assistant Program for 2024-2025 academic year (work expectation is about 150 hours total per student for the year; max $2250 study award per student) 
  • Please note that in some cases, a research team may require summer research student support that cannot be met during the academic year. If this is the case for your team, please do the following:
    • Discuss these needs in advance of your application submission with the CRS Director
    • Encourage your students to submit an application through the regular SRP process (i.e. Feb 1, 2026). Note that faculty support from a cross-disciplinary collaboration is likely to be viewed favorably by the UR Committee.
• Additional publication and travel funding up to $1500 per team
• Mentoring from CRS Director, including support in application development and external grant funding 
• For Community Based Research (CBR) Projects: If a faculty team works with community partner(s) on a CBR project, the CCBL will provide $1000 stipend(s) to community partners and ongoing consultation for project development. 

Expected Outcomes/Products

• End of funding report on accomplishments, progress, and next steps with respect to professional output, and reflections on experience 
• College-wide presentation by group (hosted by the CRS) 
• Appropriate professional output: for example, paper, book, professional presentation, creative work, new workshop/conference, external grant application, etc. 

Application Requirements

• Each team must submit as a single pdf to crs@oxy.edu: 
• (max) 2-page single-spaced project proposal that describes the project, its current stage of development, how it fosters interdisciplinarity, and the professional outcomes/product goals 
• A (max) 1-page project timeline that includes a clear collaboration plan (e.g. how you expect your collaborative process to unfold) 
• (max) if applicable, 1-page description for the student support that the team requests. This should clearly describe how students will be integrated into the project, a mentoring plan, and if applicable, why student support is needed during the summer. For SRP requests, please include which students have been identified.
• CV from each faculty member 

Eligibility

• All faculty at the College are eligible to apply. 
• Preference given for:
• Teams that cross departments, divisions, and/or methodologies; 
• Projects that have yet to receive other (internal or external) grant support 
• Projects that are in earlier stages of development

Please note that staff are typically not eligible to receive additional stipends. However, if you are a staff member interested in working on a collaborative research project with faculty, please sign up to join our mixers and contact crs@oxy.edu to discuss options. 

Selection Process

• For AY-26-27 cycle DUE FEB 1, 2026
• Applications will be reviewed by CRS Director, URC Director, and the CRS committee
  • If SRP students are requested, UR Faculty Committee will provide input
• CBR projects will also be reviewed by CBLR Faculty Committee
• Notification by: March 1, 2026
• Funds available July 1, 2026 until August 2027

Current Awardees