The Rural Futures Institute (RFI) is accepting proposals for 2017 RFI Competitive Awards. Deadlines are March 1 and March 15.
Award categories
There are two types of awards.
Teaching & Engagement
Submission deadline: March 1
These awards foster faculty-led community engagement and service learning. Community engagement and service learning pedagogies develop a structure that forms partnerships between faculty and community agencies/programs and encourages college student involvement in providing services to meet the community’s needs.
Research & Engagement
Submission deadline: March 15
These awards develop research and engagement that addresses critical challenges and opportunities facing rural Nebraska and the Great Plains. The projects are to function as “seed grants” that are designed to lay the foundation for larger requests to funding sources external to the University of Nebraska.
Since 2013, these awards have fostered important discoveries and opportunities for rural people and places thanks to the contributions of 160 University of Nebraska faculty from all four campuses and 200 community, education, government, organization and company partners.
“We continue to be impressed by the quality and ongoing impact of the projects from this program,” said Chuck Schroeder, RFI executive director. “Now we are asking for bold, innovative and transdisciplinary research and teaching ideas to be brought forward for 2017. The knowledge and applications that come from these projects are critical for the future success of rural communities.”
Applicants for the 2017 awards are strongly encouraged to collaborate across disciplines, campuses, fields, organizations and institutions. RFI Competitive Awards Director Kim Peterson can assist in identifying potential partners.
UNMC Associate Vice Chancellor for Clinical Research Chris Kratochvil, M.D., served as principal investigator on the RFI Competitive Award project, “Nebraska Primary Care Practice-Based Research Network.” In collaboration with Rob Schwab, M.D., assistant professor, internal medicine-general medicine, and their team, the project helped develop the strategies and resources to involve rural Nebraskans in research and served as a foundation for future projects they are pursuing.
“The RFI award allowed UNMC to develop the infrastructure for a rural research network,” Dr. Kratochvil said. “Professionally this is exciting, because it allowed our team to focus on rural Nebraska. As a native Nebraskan, I loved the opportunity to explore ways to further engage individuals who live in rural areas.”
For more information about RFI Competitive Awards, including full details and how to submit, click here.