The Consortium issued an internal Request for Proposals (RFP) to Consortium members and Joint Degree Program partners and an intramural RFP in November 2009 to University of Minnesota graduate/professional students.
Consortium/JDP Members
In November 2009, we issued an internal Request for Proposals to Consortium member centers and graduate or professional programs or departments participating in the Joint Degree Program in Law, Health & the Life Sciences seeking funding for research, projects, or colloquia in summer 2010 or academic year 2010-11. Applicants were current University of Minnesota faculty members who (1) direct a program or center represented in the Consortium or (2) serve as the head or Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) of a department or graduate or professional program represented in the Joint Degree Program. For the first time, two-year proposals were requested with the provision that adequate progress must be demonstrated in the first year to warrant an invitation to apply for the second year of funding.
These grants are made possible by funds received through the Presidential Interdisciplinary Initiative Process. In October 2003, President Robert Bruininks named the Consortium on Law and Values in Health, Environment & the Life Sciences one of eight Presidential Interdisciplinary Initiatives.
Two grants were awarded, totaling $65,806:
- Center for Science, Technology, and Public Policy (Deborah Swackhamer), Reforming Risk Management of Toxic Chemicals: National Science and Policy Needs to Protect Public Health ($28,828 awarded); and
- Healthy Foods, Healthy Lives Institute (Mindy Kurzer), Creating a Community of Practice to Address the Effects of our Food System on Human Health ($36,978 awarded for year 1 of a 2-year project). View Proposal
Graduate and Professional Students
The RFP to graduate and professional students was intended to provide a stipend for research and writing in the Summer 2010 or academic year 2010-11. We were delighted that the RFP stimulated 31 proposals from students in 21 programs around the University. Ten awards were made for a total of $71,187:
- Mississippi River Basin Inter-Agency Coordination: Institutional Frameworks for Natural Resource Governance—Ryan Aylesworth, PhD candidate in Natural Resources Science and Management ($5,000 awarded). View Proposal View Report
- Biomedicine Confronts Society: Congressional Hearings and the Development of Bioethics, 1960-1976—Frazier Benya, PhD candidate in History of Science, Technology and Medicine, and Masters student in Bioethics ($7,124 awarded). View Proposal View Report
- Competing Values in Carbon Accounting—Luke R. Bergmann, PhD candidate in Geography ($7,810 awarded). View Proposal View Report
- Cloning Practice, Cloning Fear, A Fantastical Experiment for Biologists and Society, 1952-1982—Nathan Crowe, PhD candidate in History of Science, Technology and Medicine ($8,782 awarded). View Proposal View Report
- Managing Harm, Envisioning Nature: The Role of Risk in the Wild Rice Genetic Engineering Issue—Adam Kokotovich, PhD candidate in Natural Resources Science and Management ($9,388). View Report
- The Role of Investigative Journalism in the History of Bioethics—Amy Snow Landa, PhD candidate in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication ($6,457 awarded). View Proposal View Report
- Paradox of Plenty: Hunger, Food Security, and the Making of India’s Gene Revolution—Ilona Moore, PhD candidate in Geography ($10,000 awarded). View Proposal
- Compulsory Licensing: Assessing the Barriers and Secondary Effects on Global Public Health—Angela Morley, MPH candidate in the School of Public Health ($3,000 awarded). View Proposal
- Ordering Life and Land: Agriculture, Science and Environment in the West Bank—Omar Tesdell, PhD candidate in Geography ($6,850 awarded). View Report
- Partners in Prevention: An Examination into the Creation, Operation and Regulation of Online HIV/STD Partner Notification Programs—Richard Weinmeyer, JDP student, JD candidate in Law and Masters candidate in Bioethics ($6,776 awarded). View Proposal