Faculty Collaborations

The Progetto Rocca encourages joint projects between MIT and Politecnico faculty through funding for exploratory travel, start up collaborations, doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships and small workshops to discuss research progress. Funding will privilege younger scholars and new innovative projects.

In particular, the Progetto Rocca supports:

Exploratory visits by MIT faculty to Politecnico to discuss joint projects. These travel grants ($ 2,500) are meant to lead to the collaborative initiatives discussed below. To help advertising the Roberto Rocca Project at Politecnico, we ask recipients to make themselves available for a meeting with Politecnico faculty and students to discuss their research at MIT. Interested faculty please submit one page application to Serenella Sferza ( ssferza@mit.edu) explaining the purpose of the trip and identifying their contacts at the Politecnico. No Deadline.
Seed funding for start- up collaborations between MIT and Politecnico faculty. Funding is not meant to cover full blown research projects, but only their exploratory phase, after which the PI’s are expected to apply for outside funding. Grants range between $ 5,000 and 10,000. No deadline.
Funding for shared post-doctoral students from Politecnico. The Roberto Rocca Post-Doc fellowships support two-year collaborative research projects between MIT and Politecnico faculty who share a post-doctoral student (a Politecnico graduate). This post-doc must spend the first year at MIT and the second at Politecnico. The Fellowship will cover the salary of the MIT stay and round trip travel for a total of $ 42,500. In order to be eligible, the participating Politecnico P.I. must assure support for the post-doctoral student’s second year stay at Politecnico, as specified by the Roberto Rocca agreement. Proposals must be signed by two Principal Investigators—one from MIT and one from Politecnico. Funding is currently available for two R. Rocca Post-Doc Fellowships per year—only one fellowship per project. Deadline: October 30th and June 2nd.
Workshop funding in forms and amounts to be determined. Funding is meant to enable MIT-Politecnico teams involved in joint projects supported by the Progetto Rocca to present and discuss their progress. Deadline: October 30th. Please send a one page application to ssferza@mit.edu.
The Progetto also provides funding for MIT graduate students or advanced undergraduates to conduct research at Politecnico, and for Politecnico PhD students to come to MIT as visiting students. Priority will be given to students “hosted” by MIT and Politecnico faculty involved in collaborative projects. No deadline. For more details, please go to Rocca Fellowship.

For further information, please contact Dr. Serenella Sferza ssferza@mit.edu, 452-2693.