UCLA launched a series of workshops this quarter about funding opportunities and multidisciplinary research to encourage faculty, staff and students to collaborate with people in multiple fields of study.
The events, collectively the UCLA Research Escalator program, are part of the recently launched Grand Challenges Initiative, which aims to bring researchers together to help solve several large societal issues. UCLA recently announced that the issue of sustainability and energy in the Los Angeles region will be its first grand challenge.
The workshops are meant to support faculty and student researchers by providing access to resources for research projects across campus, said Jill Sweitzer, co-director of UCLA Grand Challenges and the coordinator of the program.
The workshops and events focus on finding funding opportunities and learning about how to apply for research grants. Separate sessions are organized by different grants and foundations.
“The benefit is that (the campus) wouldn’t have had access to this information otherwise, and we’re just providing that service,” Sweitzer said. ”It’s really about providing support to the research community in any way that we can.”
The program also includes brainstorming events that aim to develop ideas to solve the grand challenges that UCLA adopted.
Zachary Price, an assistant researcher at the Bunche Center for African American Studies, said he attended all of the workshops so far that pertained to his research.
Price said he is currently partnering with researchers in film and media studies to analyze diversity in network television and film. Although the project already has some funding, Price said he is hoping to obtain a $25,000 transdisciplinary seed grant, which puts people from different departments in conversation with each other so they can create a project that incorporates many fields of study.
Price said the workshops helped teach him the process of applying for the grant and brought people from different areas of campus together.
“Someone from education can talk to someone from engineering, for example,” Price said. “I hope they continue to provide these kinds of resources for new, cutting-edge projects.”
UCLA plans to expand the program to incorporate more online conferences and live interactive workshops to create more team building around tackling societal problems, said Michelle Popowitz, assistant vice chancellor for research and executive director of the Grand Challenges Initiative.
Sweitzer said she hopes to see more students at the workshops. Since the UCLA Research Escalator program is new, not many students are aware of the workshops, she said.
David Yao, a UCLA alumnus, and Michael Chang, a second-year biology student, are co-creators of an undergraduate synthetic biology research laboratory. They attended a past UCLA Research Escalator workshop on Nov. 20 which introduced the Grand Challenges Initiative.
Chang said he first heard about the grand challenges and the UCLA Research Escalator Program through an email from Popowitz. Chang and Yao have since attended many of the workshops.
“We do have the means to execute research projects that we decide on, but we’re just trying to learn more information about the research escalator as well as the grand challenges project itself,” Yao said.
Sweitzer said they plan on holding workshops about how to apply for grants to the U.S. Department of Defense, how to use library technology to perform interdisciplinary research, and another grand challenges brainstorming session next quarter.