MSU is uniquely positioned to be a world leader in novel interdisciplinary research that synthesizes STEM/biomedicine, arts/humanities, and social sciences. This is foremost because MSU is home to not only a group of world-class STEM/biomedicine scholars but also one of the largest and most diverse groups of scholars who study science itself—philosophers of ecology, anthropologists of medicine, historians of physics, fine artists who engage with chemistry, etc.
Since 2014, Science and Society @ State (S3) has been promoting MSU’s goal of fostering interdisciplinary externally-funded research by offering $10,000 seed grants to new interdisciplinary teams on campus. It is co-funded by the VPRGS and by stakeholder colleges/offices across the university, led by a director and a board of representatives from contributing colleges/offices.
The S3 Interdisciplinary Seed Grant supports new or emerging interdisciplinary collaborations between a MSU’s science studies scholars (sociologists/historians/anthropologists/artists/STS scholars, etc. who study science and technology) and STEM/health scholars. These interdisciplinary seed grants help create opportunities for collaborative research projects between the scholars working within a scientific/medical field, and the humanists, artists or social scientists who study that field.
Until now, S3 has focused on administering its current interdisciplinary seed grant program, but this forum is intended in part to spark additional conversation about what other roles S3 and other campus institutions can play in fostering interdisciplinary research that cuts across arts/humanities-social sciences-STEM/biomedicine interdisciplinarity.
We aim to gather a diverse group of campus stakeholders to tell about what S3 has accomplished, generate an idea for what it could accomplish in the future, and begin discussions of how other campus programs can synchronize related efforts.
Co-Sponsored by the MSU Center for Interdisciplinarity. The MSU Center for Interdisciplinarity (C4I), located in the College of Arts & Letters, is an academic center of excellence for interdisciplinary activity. C4I works to maximize college and university strengths in interdisciplinary research and teaching and serve as a hub for interdisciplinary activity on campus.