Published: Jan. 12, 2023

Inaugural group of proposals was ‘universally strong and worthy,’ Dean Glen Krutz notes


Dean Glen Krutz recently asked the college for innovative ideas, and this week he announced 17 winners of the first Dean’s Innovation Fund awards, with funding totaling $317,896, at the University of Colorado Boulder’s College of Arts and Sciences.

Krutz created the Dean’s Innovation Fund in late 2022 with the goal of funding new ideas and innovations for the college. He solicited proposals related to spawning new cross-disciplinary research projects, ventures to develop and retain faculty and staff, projects that link more strongly to the community, fresh thinking about how A&S might reduce its carbon footprint, and projects promoting justice, equity, diversity and inclusion efforts to improve student, staff and faculty access to and/or retention in A&S. 

“I was thrilled with the applications we received in this first cycle of the A&S Dean’s Innovation Fund, which will be an annual process,” Krutz said, adding: 

“We had an overwhelming response, with 74 completed applications from across the college. The response and the innovations were truly inspiring! The proposals were universally strong and worthy.” Selecting the initial slate of projects was extremely difficult, and the college encouraged applicants to reapply in the next cycle, Krutz said.

This year, one-time awards range from $2,500 to as much as $40,000. 

Projects receiving 2023 funding from the Dean’s Innovation Fund are: