This RFP is only for projects related to immigration. All other proposals for year-long Bass Connections project teams should be submitted through our normal RFP process, which will open on September 3, 2019 with a deadline of November 4, 2019 at 5:00 p.m. To learn more about our normal RFP process, check out our project proposal guidelines.
Bass Connections supports interdisciplinary, collaborative research to address pressing societal challenges. The five interdisciplinary themes of Bass Connections support research related to persistent societal challenges such as health inequities, education, environmental sustainability, the intersection of technology and society and the brain’s role in making us human. As broad as these themes are, they are not all-encompassing, and we recognize the need to respond nimbly to new challenges confronting society. As a result, in 2018, Bass Connections launched its first “pop-up theme,” focused on hurricane recovery and resilience with a specific focus on the local impacts of Hurricane Florence. This call is for project proposals related to a new pop-up theme around research related to immigration.
For a country that has defined itself as a “nation of immigrants,” immigration raises complex issues about identity, culture, economics, social services, health care and security. In a June 2019 Gallup poll, nearly a quarter of Americans cited immigration as the most important problem facing the country. At the same time, 76% of Americans agree that immigration offers more benefits than costs. Another June 2019 Gallup poll found that 37% of Americans want to maintain current immigration levels; 35% want to decrease immigration; and 27% want to increase immigration.
Elsewhere across the globe, spikes in immigration, whether the result of geopolitical conflict, economic crisis or climate change, have also generated sharp debates over refugee and asylum policy, the boundaries of national sovereignty and the extent and limits of moral responsibility.
This is a special call for proposals for faculty interested in addressing research questions related to immigration through a Bass Connections project. Proposed projects may begin in 2019-2020 or 2020-2021. Project funding ranges from $5,000 to $25,000.
Deadline: Oct. 28, 2019
Budgets typically range from $5,000 to $25,000. Generally speaking, projects that involve summer funding for student work, graduate student support for project management roles, international travel and/or special research materials/equipment tend toward the higher range.
