The Center for Evolution is once again accepting applications for its Venture Fund, with the goal of connecting evolutionary biology and topics related to medicine or public health. The fund provides opportunities for ASU/Mayo faculty and students to earn funding of a research project.

To apply, at least one of the investigators must be a core or affiliated faculty member in the Center for Evolution and Medicine, but collaborations with scientists and students from other units and institutions are especially encouraged.

There are two main mechanisms of support offered through the Venture Fund. The first is pilot project grants (of up to $30,000) to provide seed funding. The second offers working group support, which allows multidisciplinary faculty, doctors and trainees to discuss and develop research collaboration. Those that are interested in either opportunity are encouraged to speak with Anne Stone or Randy Nesse to ensure their intended proposal falls into CEM’s area of interest.

To apply for seed funding, please send a letter of intent to Anne Stone at acstone@asu.edu by close of business on April 15. For more details on the letter’s content and formatting, please read the in-depth guide on the CEM website. From there, invitations to submit full proposals will go out to a subset of applicants by April 20. For those interested in working groups or workshop support, the deadline for letters of intent is May 1.

For those interested in reading more about previously accepted proposals, brief details on the 2015-2016 awardees are listed on the CEM website. For a more in-depth look, CEM and ASU now have covered the research of Maria Nieves Colon, Genevieve Housman and Pierce Hutton.