The ETC Summer Research Fund supports faculty research and creative work that advances the field of entertainment technology. Created to help sustain innovation in a changing funding landscape, the program provides resources for projects that push creative and technical boundaries. Each year, ETC faculty can apply for competitive funding to support work ranging from experimental storytelling and immersive experiences to new tools, systems, and methods.
Through this initiative, the ETC continues its commitment to interdisciplinary exploration, empowering faculty to pursue ambitious projects that shape the future of entertainment technology.
Applications are currently closed.
Eligibility and Criteria
Summer Research Funding is available to all faculty members within the ETC. Once a year, the SRF committee will evaluate applications and can distribute up to $40,000 in awards.
Selection Criteria
Proposals are competitively evaluated upon:
- The vision, originality, boldness, quality and potential impact of the proposed project
- The professional, artistic and/or technical capabilities of the applicant(s)
- The feasibility of the project
- The potential impact of our funding and services on the project and for the artist(s) or researcher(s)
Your application is your chance to tell us about your proposed project, why it's interesting and how you plan to use the grant. Your finished application will include:
- A full proposal, following the criteria provided (provide a proposal that is written in clear layman's language (i.e., for someone with no knowledge of your project and area of academic pursuit)
- A detailed budget for the project (including student hires and faculty summer salary)
- Pertinent supporting materials, including prior work samples, preliminary research, etc.
Apply via email before January 9, 2026. If you have any questions about your application, please reach out to the ETC Director, Derek Ham. Sample budget sheets will be available (via Gretchen Graff) at a later date.
Applicants can request SRF support to obtain research materials, hire student assistants or outside contractors, purchase equipment, rent time in a recording studio, etc., as required to create the work. Collaborative projects are welcome, and partnerships across disciplines are encouraged. Projects are to be primarily faculty research projects.
This grant is NOT intended to support:
- Student research that is being overseen by faculty
- Initiatives that are primarily pedagogical in nature. Research projects that have a pedagogical element are welcome, but if your project is primarily aimed at course development or classroom innovation, then the Wimmer Faculty Fellows Grant and other resources aimed at teaching would be more appropriate funding sources
- Symposia, conference or lecture series development
- Conference fees or travel expenses, except where such travel is an integral part of making and/or realizing a project supported by the fund
- Computer hardware or equipment that can be obtained through other funding venues such as departmental funds, startup accounts or external sources of funding. If you are requesting funding for computer hardware or equipment, you must clearly explain the need and use related to your proposal and what becomes of the computer hardware/equipment after your project has concluded.
Grants are given as cash awards for materials and supplies related to your project only, and will not affect the financial aid of students employed on the project. The IP rights of finished work will remain with the scholar(s) or artist(s).
The award is a one-year award: the expected period of performance is one year. Awards are cost-reimbursable. Funds not allocated toward completion of the project at the end of the period of performance will be returned to the SRF. If the project is not complete at the end of the period of performance, the awardee may apply for an extension of up to one year. After that additional year, the funds revert to the SRF.
Recipients of Summer Research Funds from previous award cycles are eligible to apply for new or repeat funding, on the strict condition that all reporting requirements for prior support have been satisfactorily met.
Final reports are due within three months of project completion and should include the following:
- A narrative summarizing the project's process and outcome
- Documentation of the supported project, which could include any combination of photographs, video and/or audio recordings. Please note that videos should be delivered as high-resolution movie files (.mov, .avi, .mp4, etc.) and not as links to streaming services such as YouTube or Vimeo.
- A financial report itemizing all income and expenses for the project
Wherever the works are exhibited, it is to be noted that "The work was supported in part by funding from the Entertainment Technology Center as part of the work's provenance". A request for a public presentation or exhibition of your work during the academic year may be made upon its completion. It is the intention for these outcomes to live on an ETC website to celebrate the ongoing work of faculty recipients of the grant.
- Derek Ham: ETC Director
- Keith Webster: UIES Dean
- John Balash: ETC Head of Outreach, Extension, and Engagement
- Christine Barnes: ETC Alum / Sr. Customer Experience Architect at Lockheed Martin
2026 ETC Summer Research Fund Recipients
Moshe Mahler
Assistant Teaching Professor
Kara Cakes
This animated film tackles serious topics of death and grief, while testing out experimental film techniques across animation and VFX.
Charles Johnson
Assistant Teaching Professor
[E]Motion to Robots: Designing the Performance Persona
Addressing the "performance poverty" of current humanoid platforms, this project builds on elite sports performance innovation to design a Performance Persona for humanoid robots.