The Arts, Science + Culture Initiative Graduate Collaboration Grants encourage independent trans-disciplinary research between students in the arts and the sciences. Graduate students from areas such as art history, English, music, cinema and media studies, theater and performance, creative writing, or visual arts are encouraged to pair up with graduate students from astronomy and astrophysics, biological sciences, chemistry, computer science, geophysical sciences, math, physics, psychology, or statistics areas for joint research projects. Each group may consist of two or more graduate students, with at least one in the arts and one from the sciences, who work together over the course of the academic year to investigate a subject from the perspectives offered by their disciplines. During these two quarters, grant recipients are invited to participate in a series of "dinner table" conversations with faculty and visiting scholars or practitioners who work across the arts and the sciences. 

Applicants must have an endorsement by a faculty member. The objective is to identify and encourage innovative interactions between students of the sciences and the arts. The review process is competitive and evaluated on the basis of a number of criteria, including trans-disciplinary innovation and scholarly risk-taking. Successful proposals may request up to $3,000 to cover costs for materials, use of media labs, computation facilities, and in some cases machine-shop time, as well as costs associated with the design, implementation, literary documentation, publication and/or presentation of the project. Find application information here.

Beginning in 2014, the Arts, Science + Culture Graduate Collaboration Grant program initiated a partnership with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) and yearly supports 2-3 teams that bring together MFA candidates from SAIC with graduate students in the sciences or social sciences at UChicago.