Excellence and Innovation Fund Awards

(Note: Departments submitting successful proposals have also allocated their own resources and sought extra-Collegiate funding in support of the project.)

Awards made in 2018

  • The School of Music received $5,000 to support the University of Iowa String Quartet Residency Program during Academic Year 2018-2019.

Awards made in 2015

  • The Department of Theatre Arts received $5,350 to support a Summer Apprentice Program in West Virginia on June 1 - July 31, 2015.
  • The Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences received $9,000 to support the T32 Behavioral Biomedical Interface Training Program.

Awards made in 2014

  • The Department of Communication Studies received $10,000 to support the Sam Becker Memorial Conference held on campus February 27-March 1, 2014.
  • The School of Art & Art History received $1,000 to support a student exhibit in Charlotte, NC March 14-16, 2014 and $4,000 to support MFA painting exhibitions in New York May 12-26, 2014.
  • The Department of Communication, Sciences, and Disorders received $4,000 to support an Instructional Resource Kit Project.

Awards made in 2013

  • The Department of Philosophy received $655 to support the summer 2013 Iowa Lyceum held on campus June 11-15, 2013.
  • The Department of Rhetoric received $2,200 to support the Institute for Digital Assignment Design.
  • The Department of Communication, Sciences, and Disorders received $1,600 for the BE SOCIAL Project.
  • The Department of Political Science received $5,000 to support The Rise of Public opinion in China Conference, to be held on campus October 18-19, 2013.
  • The Department of Communication, Sciences, and Disorders received $8,000 for the UI-SAFE Project.
  • The Department of Biology received $5,000 to support two faculty members’ attendance at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and National Academies Summer Institute on undergraduate Education in Biology held July 8-12, 2013.
  • The Division of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures received $1,100 to support Open Access Week Events to be held October 21-22, 2013.

Awards made in 2012

  • The Department of Biology received $5,000 to support two faculty members’ attendance at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and National Academies Summer Institute on Undergraduate Education in Biology.
  • The School of Art & Art History received $4,000 to support the Midwest Matrix Symposium & Exhibition held on campus December 1-2, 2012.
  • The Delta Center received $15,000 to support its interdisciplinary collaborations and student training in learning and development.
  • The Department of Theatre Arts will receive $5,000 to support the Mask, Jazz, Dance, and Cultural Studies Performance Project.

Awards made in 2011

  • The Department of Biology received $5,000 to support the Darwin Day Celebration, featuring world-renowned scientists sharing their research in a series of professional seminars and public talks.
  • The Department of Biology received $1,800 to support the Contractility and Motility symposium held on campus.

Awards made in 2010

  • The Department of Biology received $5,000 to support two faculty members’ attendance at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and National Academies Summer Institute on Undergraduate Education in Biology.
  • The Department of Spanish and Portuguese received $500 to support a visiting scholar in Hispanic cultures and literature for a lecture, classroom visits, and other activities.
  • The Department of Cinema and Comparative Literature received $1,500 to support faculty member Sasha Waters Freyer in the completion and presentation of her feature documentary film, Chekov for Children, in summer/fall 2010. Chekov for Children had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival in September 2010.
  • The Department of Mathematics received $4,000 to support bringing to campus the Spring 2011 Central Section Meeting of the American Mathematical Society.
  • The Department of Health and Human Physiology received $6,000 to support the Spring 2011 Recreation and Sports Business Symposium.
  • The Department of Philosophy received $5,000 to support the Midwest Epistemology Workshop held October 2011 on campus.

Awards made in 2009

  • The Department of Biology received $10,000 to support the annual meeting of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution on campus.
  • The Department of Classics received a commitment of $6,000 to support the Department's bid to host the 2013 meeting of the Classical Association of the Midwest and South.

Awards made in

  • The School of Music was awarded $8,000 to support the Iowa Bach Festival.
  • The Department of Physics & Astronomy was awarded $5,000 to support the Midwest Solid State Physics Conference in October 2008.
  • The Department of Political Science was awarded $7,000 to support the conference “Understanding 2008 Presidential Elections” in January 2009.

Awards made in 2007

  • The Center for the Study of Group Processes was awarded $5,000 to support a summer 2007 research workshop. The workshop will teach faculty and graduate students to use the Center's instrumentation for the analysis of non-conscious responses to social stimuli.
  • The Department of Psychology was awarded $2,500 to support a September 2007 conference on learning and behavior in honor of the centenary of Dr. Kenneth Spence, former chair of the Department.
  • The Social Science Research Center was awarded $1,000 to support its Interdisciplinary Methods Speakers Program in 2007-08.

Awards made in 2006

  • The Department of Biological Sciences and the Roy J. Carver Center for Comparative Genomics were awarded $12,500 to support their hosting of the International Conference on Sex and Recombination in June 2008.
  • The Department of Mathematics was awarded $4,000 to support its hosting of the Conference on Representation Theory in October 2006.
  • The Department of Statistics & Actuarial Science was awarded $4,000 to support its hosting of the 2007 Conference on Time Series in September 2007.

Awards made in 2005

  • The English Department was awarded $10,000 to support its hosting of the Nonfiction Now conference in fall 2005, whose participants included leading practitioners and teachers of creative nonfiction.
  • The Department of Spanish & Portuguese was awarded $8,000 to support the relocation to our campus of the Jorge Luis Borges Center for Studies and Documentation.

Awards made in 2004

  • The Department of Mathematics was awarded $5,000 to support the Heartland Mathematics Partnership, an outreach program designed to encourage students at 12 regional colleges to pursue graduate studies in mathematics.
  • The Department of American Studies was awarded $7,200 to support a two-day national symposium in spring 2005 that assessed the past, present, and future roles of the arts within the field of American studies.
  • The School of Music was awarded $5,600 to sponsor a series of guest lectures to be presented at the thirtieth anniversary celebration of the Iowa music therapy program in spring 2006.
  • The American Indian and Native Studies Program (AINSP) was awarded $5,000 to support visits by distinguished speakers in American Indian studies in 2004–05, as well as consultation with a senior scholar and administrator about the program’s direction, curriculum, and national visibility.

Awards made in 2003

  • The Classics Department was awarded $3,000 to underwrite a two-year symposium on Roman culture held in conjunction with the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art’s exhibit “Villa to Grave: Art in Roman Life.”
  • The English Department was awarded $3,500 to support its successful bid to host the 2004 Association of Departments of English Summer Seminar.
  • The Sociology Department was awarded $2,500 per year in each of two years to support the establishment of a Center for the Study of Social Inequality.