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Call for Proposals

Center for Collaboration Science (CCS) – 2026 Call for Research Proposals

This call for research proposals is open to current UNO teams and collaboration researchers. Research proposals must examine some aspect of the domain/topic area of collaboration, such as teamwork, teams, and collaboration within or between groups (small or large - including cross-sector collaboration).

Submission Information

Due Date: May 1, 2026

Estimated Funding

Five (5) grants will be awarded at $5,000 per award. The period of performance is anticipated for June 1, 2026, through December 1, 2026. All approved and funded projects that require human subject research require IRB approval prior to fund disbursement.

Funding will be awarded to individual paid stipends, summer effort or to a University of Omaha cost center. Allowable include research materials, supplies, equipment, operating expenses, data collection, travel for data/information collection, instrument development, data management/analysis, or development of a scholarly activity product (e.g., publication).

  • Stipends will be paid to individuals, not through University payroll, and the awardees is responsible for all associated taxes.
  • Summer Effort must be paid through university payroll and with the assistance of the awardee’s College Business Manager.
  • Hourly salary for student workers is allowed. Students must be from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and in active hired status with Human Resources.

Eligible Grantees

  • Graduate students: must be enrolled and in good academic standing at UNO through Spring 2027 Session (May 6, 2027), however, enrollment in summer credits is not a requirement.
  • Faculty: full-time faculty members (including tenure-track, tenured, full-time instructors, full-time lecturers, and full-time research faculty or research specialists.

Requirements

  • Awardees must disclose the award on their COI/COC form at time of renewal.
  • Awardees must take or have taken within the past three years required Bridge training University of Nebraska Responsible Conduct of Research Training.
  • Awardees must present their final project in a lunch and learn in late Fall 2026.
  • All graduate awardees or projects with student workers must submit, and if approved, present their project at the ORCA Student Research and Creative Activity Fair in Spring 2027.

Submission Guidelines & Timeline

Proposal Due: May 1, 2026

Awardee Notification: May 18, 2026

Proposals must be submitted as a single PDF document containing the following sections:

  1. Title of Project
  2. Project Description (3 page maximum, single spaced, 11 pt font minimum) This section should include:
    1. A description of project
    2. An explanation of how the research will contribute to the knowledge base in the field of teamwork, teams, and collaboration
    3. A description of the research activities, research processes, and research methodologies
    4. A project timeline that includes a schedule of activities. At least 50% of your project work should occur during the Summer 2026 (June, July, August) to qualify for funding.
    5. A list of previous internal and/or external funding received (FUSE, GRACA, and/or UCRCA, NSF, NIH etc.), with a description of how this project builds on or differs from previously funded projects.
  1. Budget and Budget Justification (1 page maximum)
    1. All expenses should be listed and well justified.
    2. If travel is required, a rationale for travel funding should be provided. All airline travel must be booked through University Travel Procedures. Mileage reimbursement or per diem requests should use the University approved mileage rate and the GSA Per Diem Rates for their domestic destination.
  2. References and/or Citations (no page limit)

Additional Information

  • Applicants are expected to write their own proposals. Students may receive input from faculty mentors if applicable.
  • Adhering to UNO’s policy towards plagiarism, proposals will be screened for original work.
  • Proposals not meeting submission guidelines or poorly written proposals may be rejected without review.
  • If the proposed project involves any form of work with human subjects or their personal data (including interviews), vertebrate animals, and/or biohazardous materials, the applicant must obtain either approval or a waiver from the IRB (human subjects), IACUC (vertebrate animals), and/or IBC (biohazards).
  • CCS does not fund activities for which students receive academic credit (e.g. study abroad, independent study courses).

About The Center for Collaboration Science | University of Nebraska Omaha

Collaboration science is the study of individual, group, organizational, and societal factors affecting groups of people working together toward a shared goal. Teams only create value when they achieve more as a group than individual members would have achieved on their own. Collaboration is essential for all types of organizations (e.g., business, government, education and non-profit) because the problems facing most organizations are of such complexity that no individual has all the relevant information, knowledge or resources to solve such problems alone.

The University of Nebraska at Omaha recognizes that collaboration is sufficiently complex that it requires the application of knowledge across many different academic disciplines. In other words, there is no single discipline that provides all the required knowledge, theory, methods, and techniques necessary for understanding collaboration. Successful collaboration requires the optimal alignment of people, process, information, technology, facilitation, and leadership.

Researchers at the Center study important phenomena such as productivity, creativity, satisfaction, achieving consensus, and implementing effective change-of-practice. They use this knowledge to develop new collaborative work practices for practitioners who are then provided with the capability to utilize the new work practices in their daily work without the ongoing intervention of professional collaboration specialists.

CCS Management Team

Dr. Roni Reiter-Palmon, Director

Dr. Lynn Harland, Management Team Member

Dr. Gina Ligon, Management Team Member