The Office of Dean for Research offers support for innovative research on projects that have tremendous promise but due to their risk of success may make them difficult to fund through traditional sources. Two funding programs are overseen by the Office of the Dean for Research, the Dean for Research Innovation Funds and the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Transformative Technology Fund. These funds are awarded on a competitive basis each year to faculty research teams.
These competitions encourage bold new ideas that involve the use of the campus as a lab, bold research in the natural and social sciences, collaboration between artists and scientists or engineers, and new partnerships with industry.