The Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) has announced a Second Call for Proposals to create a series of major international research centers. Skoltech anticipates funding about half a dozen research Centers for Research, Education and Innovation (CREI), of up to US$60 million each, over 5 years. By forging strong international research partnerships, CREIs are aimed specifically at building capacity at Skoltech, in particular by helping to attract key faculty, researchers, and students, and developing core components of Skoltech facilities as the new institute is built.
Particular emphasis is placed in the fields of Biomedical Science and Technology, Energy Science and Technology, Information Science and Technology, Nuclear Science and Technology, and Space Science and Technology. See the link below for the research investment strategy of Skoltech, including specific areas of interest.
In addition to CREIs that will drive research and innovation in these areas, proposals for cross-cutting centers focused on advanced materials, computational and data-intensive science and engineering, and human engineering and cognition, that help support and develop research in all areas, are also sought. Skoltech is also developing a Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEI) that will support the CREIs with a research agenda that will include complex system design as well as manufacturing and logistics, and will support Russian industry. Activities in composite materials, oil and gas, and electrical power grids are particularly of interest as they can provide basic research needs to advance important Russian industrial sectors.
A detailed research strategy has been developed over the last year, and includes over 30 specific areas of interest.
Each CREI will typically be a joint collaboration between Skoltech, a non-Russian participant, and an additional Russian participant. They will function as an inter-disciplinary, international research and innovation initiative following novel approaches to solve important problems. It is through this process that the CREIs will create transformational new science and technology, enabling and building this capacity at Skoltech through these collaborations.
As Skoltech develops its own permanent faculty, it may also participate as the primary Russian partner. For this Second Call, a separate Russian partner is not strictly required (and white papers with Skoltech faculty as principal investigators are acceptable in this second round even in the absence of an additional Russian partner). Separate Russian partners are, however, desirable and highly encouraged.
See list of current Skoltech faculty.
It is emphasized that each Center is expected to integrate and contribute not only to research and innovation, but also build capacity at Skoltech by attracting world-class faculty, researchers, and students. The Centers will define and add to the Skoltech research infrastructure and collaborations through and by integration with graduate education at Skoltech by development of educational curricula, material, and approaches.
Concept papers of up to five pages describing the research plans are due November 30, 2012. Based on a review of these concept papers, a smaller number of full proposals will be invited by March 29, 2013. A second webinar session describing the proposal process will be held on November 26, (two sessions). Register for the 11am Moscow Time Webinar (in Russian) and the 8pm Moscow Time Webinar (in English).
If you are ready to submit a white paper proposal, please go to our proposal management system to start the process.
Prof. Edward Seidel, Dr. Mats Nordlund
Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology
Prof. Michael Cima
Massachusetts Institute of Technology