The Strategic Partnership Grants Program is competitive, and is funded by the Michigan State University Foundation, providing funding for major projects in key areas of research, scholarship and creative activities.

Michigan State University recognizes the value of supporting and nurturing faculty engaging in leading-edge research and scholarship initiatives. These initiatives must be of a caliber that positions the faculty to compete for significant external funding, including the development of research ideas with significant commercial potential, and to raise the stature of the university. Some of these initiatives may have strong potential to develop into a center or institute-level research program.

The SPG program focuses on such opportunities by supporting research and scholarship that is leading-edge, interdisciplinary or futuristic, and capitalizes on the existing intellectual capital at Michigan State University. The SPG program is a continuation of the mission of the MSU Foundation to provide seed funding for the development of new knowledge, to initiate centers of excellence at the university, and to invest in the development of Michigan State University as one of the nation's leading research institutions.

Proposals for new and innovative research initiatives are solicited. The program will not support requests for incremental research/scholarship or the extension of ongoing supported programs. As initiated several years ago, the program is organized in two parts. Pre-proposals are open for university-wide competition, while full proposals will be invited, based on the review of the pre-proposals.

The key SPG program goals are to support the initial development of:

• leading-edge projects that foster highly innovative or conceptually creative research and scholarship in all areas, 
• multidisciplinary investigator initiatives, 
• projects that have the potential for generating significant external funding, 
• projects that have the potential to position MSU as a nationally and internationally recognized leader in a particular research area, 
• projects that have potential to yield significant intellectual property and commercial potential for the university,
• projects that complement the research and scholarship priorities established within departments and colleges.

The maximum funding will be $400K total for projects of up to three years duration. Details concerning all aspects of the Strategic Partnership Grants program can be found online (https://msu.smapply.io).