The university’s Biosciences Initiative is launching Ideas Lab, its latest funding opportunity based on critical pillars for advancing discovery — high-risk, high-reward research, and freedom to pursue big ideas and multidisciplinary collaborations.
The Ideas Lab is designed to help catalyze innovative ideas and encourage researchers in diverse fields to collaborate on novel solutions. All U-M Ann Arbor faculty are encouraged to apply, especially junior faculty and members of underrepresented groups in the sciences.
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For each Ideas Lab, BSI proposes a new research challenge and seeks applications from U-M faculty with potential solutions. Once those applications are submitted, a selection committee chooses 20-25 applicants to participate in a three-day Ideas Lab workshop. Successful teams will then receive funding to develop their ideas.
Participants from diverse disciplines pursuing similar key ideas in response to the challenge are grouped together during the event. The Ideas Lab workshop is interactive and creates a space for cutting-edge ideas to rise to the top.
All participants selected to attend an Ideas Lab workshop have the potential to receive funding as collaborators in the resulting projects. BSI has allocated $3 million for the first U-M Ideas Lab, titled “Predicting Human Performance.”
Working at peak performance depends on many biological factors including sleep, circadian phase, mood, nutrition, physical activity, genetics, epigenetics and neurocognition. New datasets, such as those provided by wearables and “omics,” the collective technologies used to explore the roles, relationships and actions of molecules that make up an organism’s cells, are creating opportunities for cutting-edge research in this area.
To better address these needs, BSI seeks high-risk, high-reward ideas in the area of predicting human performance. Prior work in this area is not a requirement for acceptance. Apply to be part of this inaugural Ideas Lab by Sept. 5.
Selected applicants will be invited to the 2019 Ideas Lab: Predicting Human Performance on Oct. 13-15. The workshop provides an opportunity to collaborate in teams with other U-M colleagues to develop new funded research programs focused on predicting human performance.
