The deadline for this application has passed. Please stay tuned to the Matrix website and newsletter for future updates.
Social Science Matrix, UC Berkeley’s cross-disciplinary social science incubator, invites proposals from faculty, students, and affiliated researchers for Matrix Research Teams for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Matrix Research Teams are emerging research communities that gather regularly to explore or develop a novel question or growing field in the social sciences. Successful research teams integrate participants from several disciplines, address a compelling research question with real-world significance, and deploy or develop appropriate methodologies in innovative ways. Ideally, all research teams — whether faculty- or student-led — will also involve members of diverse ranks (i.e. faculty, post-docs, affiliated researchers, and graduate students) from the Social Sciences Division (and can include members across the university). Research teams are expected to use their funding to support their community-building and research activities and to support Social Science Matrix’s goals of advancing transdisciplinary research and fostering connections across campus.
- Faculty-led Research Teams can receive funding up to $5000. They run for one to two semesters, meeting at least eight times around a defined research problem. Led or co-led by tenure-track faculty or advanced affiliated researchers from UC Berkeley, these teams can take the form of a reading or discussion group, a working group developing a research project, or a speaker series held at Matrix. We are especially interested in research groups that want to grow beyond their current constituency and promote their work beyond the UC Berkeley campus. Examples of successful teams include: the Network for Adolescent Well-Being and Development and Digital Transformations in Property and Development.
- Student-led Research Teams will receive funding up to $1500. Coordinated by one or more graduate students, they will meet regularly, around 5-10 times over the course of the academic year, and explore an emerging field — a new area or question of inquiry — and assess whether it has potential for further investigation. Funding for student-led Matrix Research Teams is intended to further collaboration among graduate students, provide professional development, and create opportunities for faculty engagement and mentorship. Funds can be used in a variety of ways, including: hosting a reading group, creating a podcast, or holding an event series at Matrix. Examples of successful teams include: Domestic Politics, Foreign Surveillance and the Carceral Labor Mapping Project.
Common uses of funds include: research activities (e.g. database access, purchasing books, or funding local research trips); travel for a speaker series; and food orders for events and group meetings.
In addition to funding, all Matrix Research Teams receive administrative support in coordinating their activities, reserving space in our offices on the top floor of the Social Sciences Building, scheduling meetings, and ordering food. Matrix also provides communications support to help publicize each group’s work, and research teams receive assistance with administering funding, as well as identifying and applying for further funding. All research teams are expected to submit a short report at the conclusion of their term.
For more information — including overviews of past examples of Matrix Research Teams — see https://matrix.berkeley.edu/initiatives/matrix-teams/. For questions, please contact Julia Sizek at jsizek@berkeley.edu.
The deadline for this application has passed. Please stay tuned to the Matrix website and newsletter for future updates.