Principal Investigator (PI)Academy
In the fall of 2017, the Research & Innovation Office (RIO) launchedthe Principal Investigator (PI)Academy program to orient early career, tenure-track faculty to CU Boulder’s research community and resources. Through the PI Academy, faculty are actively engaged on a series of “core” research topics to ensure early investigators are well-positioned to apply for and secure external funding for their research, scholarly and creative endeavors.
Since its inception, PI Academy has had great success, more than doubling participation from its first to second year. CU Boulder is home to more than 100 PI Academy graduates across campus, and over 20 more current participants. The PI Academy community includes a range of departments, colleges, and institutes, with participants from the College of Arts & Sciences, the College of Engineering & Applied Science, the College of Media, Communication and Information, University Libraries and more.
Note: The PI Academy provides a deep dive into CU Boulder’s research and creative work ecosystem, setting it apart from Thriving at CU through the Office of Faculty Affairs. We encourage you to look through both programs to ensure you maximize your first few years at CU Boulder.
Participation in the PI Academyincludes the following benefits:
- Faculty Network—Build a network with faculty leaders and peers from across campus.
- Workshops—Priority workshopregistration plus foundational offerings that will support you in your research.
- Identify Funding—One-on-one assistance in identifying relevant funding opportunities.
- Get to Know Campus Leaders—discussions with campus leaders; past sessions have included the Provost,Vice Chancellor for Research & Innovation andAssociate Deans for Research.
- Proposal Development Support—Priority access to services including strategic grant writing advice and proposal development, editing, proofreading, and rigorous proposal review.
These offerings provide a basic, beginning foundation to support you in your research at CU Boulder. You are committing to attend these 1.5 hour sessions, which will be virtual for the 2025-26 Cohort. In addition to these core offerings, we will provide opportunities for casual in-person networking events you may attend at your discretion.
September: PI Academy Kickoff: This event, required for the new PI Academy cohort, will welcome participants and provide an opportunity to network and learn about various resources and components of the PI Academy, the Research & Innovation Office, and research across CU Boulder. Previous participants will be in attendance to offer their insights into the program and its benefits.
October: Avenues to External Funding: Learn how to use freely available databases of external funding opportunities for fellowships and grants. Including set up of funding alerts specific to your scholarly research or creative work through SPIN. Learn to use Dimensions to identify potential funding opportunities using a description of a current proposal idea. Including information on how best to move forward after identifying a funding opportunity.
November: 1-Pager, Concept Note, Letter of Intent: A project summary has multiple uses. Participants will be introduced to the key components of a clear and persuasive one page project summary, concept note, and letter of intent.
February: Engagement - Broader Impacts: We will present best practices for building and sustaining transdisciplinary research relationships in this webinar. Transdisciplinary research approaches are being applied to today’s complex scientific, medical, and societal problems. Diverse forms of disciplinary and experiential knowledge are required to understand these challenges, develop workable solutions, and increasingly garner external support for your projects (Broader Impacts, Societal Impacts, etc.).
March: Collaboration, External partners, Program Management plans: Practical how to's for building relationships with Industry and Community, and how to manage those relationships for a successful academic career.
April: Building a business – Budgeting: Best practices on building budgets, research security and integrity and Innovation and Entrepreneurship on the CU Boulder campus.
The PI Academy is geared toward tenure-track faculty who are within the first three years of their CU Boulder academic appointment at the level of Assistant Professor or the equivalent. If you are interested in participating but do not fall into this category, please contact the RIO Research Development Team at: rio@colorado.edu.
2025-26PI Academy Mandatory Webinars
Once you are registered for the PI Academy, you will be added to the Canvas course, where you can fill in When2Meets for each of the events. All events for the 2025-26cohort will be via Zoom unless otherwise denoted in the meeting request.
* Zoom is committed to providing accessible meetings for all. Additional information regarding specific features, documents, and support .
- w/ ► March 16, 2022
- Note: You may need to log intowith yourto access this recording.
- ► September 9 & 15, 2021
- ► September 2, 2021
- ► September 1, 2021