Summary: The AIA Board Knowledge Committee and College of Fellows provide base matching funds for applied research projects that advance professional knowledge and practice through the Upjohn Research Grants. The AIA seeks proposals for research projects to be completed in 18 months beginning December 1, 2009, and will award up to four grants between $15,000 and $30,000 each, for selected projects.

Awarded funds must be hard-dollar matched, and a maximum of 10 percent of funds may be used for overhead. Another benefit of this grant is that it qualifies recipients to have their findings and outcomes published both electronically and in a nationally distributed publication.

The jury will give selection preference to proposals that have teams composed of both academics and practitioners, that have a long record of team collaboration, and that present a budget in which less than 10 percent is allocated to indirect costs.

The call is for research proposals that address practice issues, building typology, or materials and methods of construction. The research must relate to one or more domains of architectural knowledge:

• Leadership
• Practice
• Design
• Building performance.

Further, proposals must be framed within six broad research areas:

• Social
• Technological
• Environmental
• Cultural
• Organizational
• Design.

AIA research priorities

• Sustainability (e.g., consequences of the global demand for resources, climate change mitigation, carbon-neutral buildings, and regenerative/disassembly buildings)
• Limitations of water availability on buildings
• Urbanization (e.g., the effects of aging infrastructure and optimizing conditions for human development)
• Demographic measures for public health and well-being
• Energy consumption and better metrics for building performance (e.g., benefits of daylighting versus artificial light)
• Ergonomics for users of particular facilities (e.g., movement patterns and next-generation flexible facilities)
• Development of minimum design requirements for facility types
• Relationship of buildings to community identity, heritage, and the broader ecological function (e.g., urban form and wellness)
• Integrated practice collaboration models
• Other novel concepts or innovations.

Format for blind submission
Digital submissions are required, sent by e-mail as a PDF or MSWord document of three pages maximum. Two files are necessary. The first will contain:

• Project title
• 250-word project abstract
• Budget
• Clients and constituencies (and/or knowledge communities served)
• 250-word summary of projected outcomes.

Use the first two words in the title of the project as the file name.

In a second file, list the:

• Principal investigator(s)
• Institutional affiliation
• Names and contact information for three references.

Use the first two words in the title of the project as the file name, plus the letters ID. No cover sheet is required for either file. Images may be used but file size should be kept to a minimum.

Selection process
A panel of seven professionals from the AIA Board Knowledge Committee and the AIA College of Fellows—which includes representatives of both the academic community and the profession—will evaluate each submission and select grant awardees. Please note this year’s submission is blind. Full details on the submission process will be available June 1, 2009, on AIA.org.