Project Incubator

Call for Proposals 2020-21 Open 9/24 to 10/15

We are delighted to officially open the Call for Proposals for Academic Year 2020-2021! Please fill out the application form to apply. Questions? Contact us at DSLab@msu.edu.

About the Project Incubator

In order to support longer-term projects involving transformative research activities in digital scholarship, the Digital Scholarship Lab is piloting a more formalized research project support program. We will be functioning as a project incubator for a small number of research projects starting in Fall 2020. We anticipate being able to support up to three of these projects this academic year.

Application Information

Digital scholarship projects most likely to be accepted will meet one of the following criteria:

  • Early-stage or transitional/transitioning projects - we will prioritize:

    • New, early-stage, short-duration projects, or projects with new-to-us partners

    • Projects without significant institutional resources - specifically, projects without significant (grant) funding or labor resources

    • Transitioning projects that (for example) have a finished prototype but are not sure how to move to the next step

  • Projects for which access to lab technology and expertise is required; we will prioritize projects requiring technologies only available in the lab, that significantly rely on lab/librarian expertise.

In order to have your project considered for the Incubator, we will ask for the following:

  • A brief application, including:

    • A summary of the project's research question and methodology

    • How you hope the lab will be able to help your project

Accepted Projects

Projects that are accepted into the Incubator will get the following support from the lab:

  • A point person on the lab staff with relevant expertise and ability to collaborate on or coach the project, and/or to make referrals across the university

    • Our particular areas of experience include projects related to: digital collections, public humanities, data, XR (extended reality - VR, 360-degree media, augmented reality), audiovisual design, and ethical project design

    • We will facilitate semesterly Incubator Cohort meetings to foster community-building

  • Guidance using a project lifecycle management framework that includes planning, defining roles on, delivering, and closing your project

  • Coordinated project assistance from lab student interns, based on availability and a suitable match-up of interest and skills

  • Access to the new, more-private lab extension co-working rooms (once the Library re-opens more fully) for focused and/or team project work

  • Coordinated access to Library colleagues with relevant expertise - we will facilitate lab and library colleagues' inclusion on project teams, subject to their availability and interest

Expectations of project teams:

  • Participants in projects that have been accepted will meet with a lab team member to complete a project charter which will delineate roles, timelines, etc.

  • An identified project lead or team that is willing to dedicate the time and effort to the project while it resides in the Incubator

  • We will ask folks to report out to lab stakeholders near the end of their engagement window on what was accomplished and the project's next steps

Questions?

Contact us with questions, comments, or concerns at dslab@msu.edu, or fill out a consultation form to brainstorm with us.

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