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AI TENNessee Initiative: $1M in Seed Funds Announced for AI Research and Team Building

The Office of Research, Innovation, and Economic Development has announced the availability of up to $1 million in seed funding to advance knowledge and team building in multidisciplinary artificial intelligence (AI) – both fundamental and applied – that helps UT grow its capabilities, reputation, and impact in AI-related research across disciplines as part of the AI Tennessee Initiative.

Proposals are solicited for collaborative or exploratory research, or for team building activities. Amounts available per proposal are $75K for exploratory research grants, $50K for collaborative research grants, and $25K for team building activities. Cost sharing is strongly encouraged, but not required. Projects will be funded for 1-2 years. This opportunity is open to full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty, or to full-time research faculty, with a primary appointment at UT Knoxville, the UT Institute of Agriculture, or the UT Space Institute.

The AI Tennessee Initiative is a new research and education initiative focused on the State of Tennessee’s unique AI strengths and opportunities. Led by UT, this Initiative is engaging with academic, industry, and community partners across Tennessee to leverage the benefits of AI across all disciplines and economic sectors in areas such as smart manufacturing, climate-smart agriculture and forestry, precision health and environment, future mobility, and AI for science. Our goal is to make life and lives better through AI research and education.

For questions on proposal ideas, contact Associate Vice Chancellor and Director of the AI Tennessee Initiative, Dr. Lynne Parker (leparker@utk.edu).

For questions on the submission process or InfoReady, contact Paula Brown (pbrown45@utk.edu).

For more information and the detailed solicitation, see the request for proposals at the internal InfoReady site. Proposals are due by March 30, 2022.

Learn More and Submit via InfoReady