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Program and Academic Venture Funds

A gift of seed money to an academic venture fund is a great way to make a meaningful contribution to a department, program, discipline or initiative of your choosing. These funds include the Faculty Research Venture Fund, funding for Targets of Excellence Initiatives and support of specific departments and programs.

Faculty Research Venture Fund

Faculty replacement and expansion requires significant investment of start-up funds, particularly in the sciences. The College requires one-time funds to support the expected high volume of new faculty in the near-term and endowments to provide a sustainable funding source for this critical ongoing need. Further, we seek funds to support ongoing infrastructure needs in the sciences and a venture fund for the Dean to seed promising ideas for faculty research, particularly in those areas involving collaboration across disciplinary and even school boundaries.

Targets of Excellence Inititatives

We seek support for new centers or institutes and faculty research support through gifts targeting individual initiatives. Signature gifts to centers and institutes often include naming opportunities. Identified priority areas include:

  • Energy research
  • Global environmental change
  • Morphogenesis and regenerative medicine
  • Human lifespan development
  • Global humanities
  • Social science research
  • Asia Institute

Department and Program support

To learn more about the needs of some of the College’s departments and programs, please browse the following list. In addition, if you are interested in providing seed money or otherwise contributing to a department, discipline or particular academic venture not listed below, please contact us to talk about ways in which you might help the College while maximizing your impact within your particular field of interest.

To learn more, please contact the Arts & Sciences development office.