Provost Harvey V. Fineberg has announced the establishment of a new fund to promote intellectual interchange across Faculties of the University. The fund will support faculty discussion and collaboration on topics of mutual intellectual interest to faculty members in several schools.

"There is already important work going on across Faculty lines at Harvard," said Fineberg, "and we would like to make faculty discussion groups of this sort even easier. I hope that this will have several results: first, that collaborative research and teaching will emerge, and second, that this will have a positive effect on the work of individual faculty members."

Faculty may apply for grants of up to $10,000 from the fund on a yearly basis. Typically, the fund will support "working groups" of faculty. To be eligible for support, each group should have a designated leader, and at least six faculty members from at least three different schools. The Fund will cover expenses of the working group such as meeting costs, student assistance, and travel costs for outside experts.

"Discussion and intellectual exploration across traditional Faculty boundaries is increasingly important in many fields for discovering new problems and for developing fresh approaches to familiar problems," said Associate Provost Dennis Thompson. "We hope that this Fund will encourage faculty to explore new areas of interest, and to reach out to colleagues across the University."

The Fund will have a Web page, where working groups in the making will be described. Faculty who want to recruit others interested in joining their working groups, or to explore whether there is sufficient interest in a topic to support a working group, can post listings on the site. The site will later serve as a place for listing the scheduled meetings and progress of supported groups, so that other faculty may be kept informed and consider taking part.

Applications received by Dec. 31, 1997, will be eligible for the initial set of awards expected to be made on Jan. 15, 1998. More detailed information, including how to submit an application, is available electronically on the Provost's Fund Web page at www.provost.harvard.edu/provost_fund, or by contacting Assistant Provost Sarah Wald at 496-5775.