funding
HLP Lab is looking for graduate researchers
The Human Language Processing (HLP/Jaeger) Lab in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Rochester is looking for PhD researchers to join the lab. Admission is through the PhD program in the Brain and Cognitive Sciences, which offers full five-year scholarship. International applications are welcome.
Funding for international collaborations with HLP Lab and other labs at the U of R
Rochester just joined WUN, a world-wide network of universities, and there a funds for collaborations and research visits to and from Rochester. If this is of interest let me know.
NSF post-doctoral funding opportunities
Thanks to Jeff Runner, I just became aware of this post-doctoral program of the NSF (in SBE, i.e. the Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences, which includes psychology, cognitive science, and linguistics). This program also recently underwent some changes. The program provides 2 years of funding. As for eligibility, let me quote the linked page: Ph.D. degree of the fellowship candidate must have been obtained within 24 months before application deadline (previously was within 30 months) or within 10 months after the application deadline (previously was 12 months).
Good luck to everyone interested.
The NSF in 2020: The future of the Social, Behavioral,and Economic Sciences
The NSF/SBE released its executive summary of 252 short white papers on the future of the social, behavioral, and economic sciences. Among other things, the report identifies four focus areas (population change; sources of disparities; communication, language, and linguistics; and technology, new media, and social network) and three properties of future research (data-intensive, multidisciplinary, and collaborative). But read for yourself. The report summarizes what the community (authors that submitted white papers) had to say about what works well and what needs to be improved in terms of the processes that are currently employed by the NSF to distribute its funding. On p. 24 an onward, you can read a summary of the many many linguistic white papers that seem to have been submitted (see p. 39 for a summary of which disciplines the white papers came from). On p.29 an onward the report lays out possible scenarios as to how the NSF might change in order to get to the outlined vision.
some (relatively) new funding mechanisms through NSF
This might be of interest to folks, in case you haven’t seen it. First, there’s RAPID and EAGER. RAPID is a mechanism for research that requires fast funding decisions (e.g. b/c the first language with only one phoneme was just discovered but its last speaker is just about to enter into a vow of silence). EAGERs are “Early-concept Grants for Exploratory Research” for exploratory work – i.e. high risk research with a high potential for high pay-off. One important property of both mechanisms is that submissions do not have to be sent out for external review, which should substantially shorten the time until you hear back from NSF.
Second, there is now a new type of proposal that is specifically aimed at interdisciplinary work that would not usually be funded by any of the existing NSF panels alone – CREATIV: Creative Research Awards for Transformative Interdisciplinary Ventures.
Note that all three of these funding types allow no re-submission.
CI fellow application for 2010 and onward due soon
If you’re thinking about joining HLP lab (or other computational labs) for 2010-2011/12 as a post-doc, consider applying to a CI fellowship. It’s highly competitive, but a super sweet deal. Here is what it says about eligibility and funding:
Eligibility. A CIFellow must have completed (or be prepared to complete) all requirements forgraduation from a U.S. Ph.D. program between May 1, 2009, and August 31, 2010. The Ph.D.must be in computer science, computer engineering, information science, or a closely relatedfield. Preference will be given to U.S. citizens and permanent residents, but others will be considered.
Award Size and Duration. We anticipate that awards will be for $75,000 salary for 12 monthswith approximately $25,000 for fringe benefits and a $15,000 allowance for moving, travel, anddiscretionary expenses. Host organizations will receive indirect costs at the 25% rate. The 12-month assignment must begin by November 1, 2010.
Good luck. (regardless of where you apply 😉
Sweet! Provost’s Multidisciplinary Award
We just received word that our group (Florian Jaeger, BCS; Dan Gildea, CS; Lenhart Schubert, CS; Mike Tanenhaus; BCS) was among the six reciepients of the first Provost’s Multidisciplinary Award at the University of Rochester. This will fund a one-year project furthering interdisciplinary collaborations between the Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Computer Science on Computational Psycholinguistics: Integrating Computational and Behavioral Methods to Study Human Language Processing. Thanks to Benjamin Van Durme (CS), Austin Frank (BCS), Celeste Kidd (BCS), and Matt Post (CS) for help with conceiving this project. Let’s get crackin’.
HLP/Jaeger lab blog 