SLA Summer 2013 Research, Creative Activity,
and Scholarship Grants

Call for Proposals

Purpose: The SLA Summer Research, Creative Activity, and Scholarship grant program is intended to support research, creative activity, and scholarship, not teaching and/or service activities.

Amounts and use of funds: The committee expects to make 6-7 grants; the typical award amount is approximately $5,000, but exceptional proposals requesting more will be considered.  Proposals for smaller amounts are welcome. A budget with justification is required. Grants will be made for projects requiring at least one month of full-time research. Funds may be used for salary and benefits, research assistance, travel, and collection of materials. They may also be used as matches or in combination with other research grants.

Please note: If you request salary, you must also include fringe benefits in your budget. You may request no more than $4,000 in salary. If you take your salary in June, the fringe rate is 27.41%, for total salary and fringe of $5,096. If you take your salary in July, the fringe rate is 28.59%, for total salary and fringe of $5,144.

Eligibility: Tenured and tenure-track faculty in the School of Liberal Arts who did not receive a SLA internal research grant last year. Applications from non-tenured assistant professors are encouraged.

Submission of Application

• Deadline: Friday, March 8, 2013, 4:30 pm.
• Please use standard 8 ½ by 11 page size with at least ½ inch margins. Use an Arial, Helvetica, Palatino Linotype, or Georgia typeface, a black font color, and a font size of 11 points or larger. Charts, graphs, figures, or custom cover sheets may be in color.
• The Project Plan is limited to 5 pages.
• Proposals should be submitted in PDF form via email to Edith Millikan (emillika@iupui.edu, CA 441, 278-6970).

Criteria: Applications will be judged on 1) the significance and quality of the research project; 2) the clarity of stated objectives and details of methodology; 3) the feasibility of the project relative to funding requested and time frame; and 4) potential for future funding and/or for completion of the project. Applications for new projects are encouraged.

Peer Review Meeting: Although not required, it is strongly suggested that applicants meet with Edith Millikan and/or Associate Dean Jeffrey Wilson (jeswilso@iupui.edu) for an informal peer review of the proposal. We will provide feedback on how well your proposal meets the criteria discussed above, and provide assistance with drafting your budget.

The Application

The application consists of a cover sheet (appended as the last page of this document, a five-page project plan with budget, and a 4-page CV. These may be submitted as a single PDF document, or separate PDFs.

Cover sheet with title, amount requested, signatures of the applicant and the applicant’s departmental chair, and an indication of other applications for funding (this will not penalize this application). This is not included in the 5-page limit. Your email submission serves as your signature on the application form. Your department chair’s electronic signature occurs by copying her or him on your email submission.

Project Plan (Limited to 5 pages) Please use the following outline. Give sufficient detail for each outline item to indicate a well-thought out plan, including tasks, to accomplish the project.

• Purpose and Significance of the research, creative activity or scholarship, including brief review of the relevant scholarly literature and what your research will add to the body of literature (Criterion #1)
• The Specific Objectives of the project (Criterion #2)
• Work Plan, Methods and Materials (Criteria #2 and #3)

o   Describe the work that will be conducted during the summer for which you seek funding. Include, as applicable, tasks you will perform to accomplish your objectives; data sources and/or archival collections you will use; data collection methods if relevant; other participants who will be involved (if any) and their roles on the project; location where work will take place if off campus; and manuscript preparation activities.

• Timeline for the Activities (Criteria #2 and #3)
• Evaluation Process and Plans for Dissemination (Criteria #1, #2, #3, and #4)

o   Describe how you will evaluate the success of your objectives and the analysis performed.

o   Describe your plans for disseminating the results of your research: Conference paper, scholarly article, presentation, etc.

• Connection of this Project to Future Research, including prospects or plans for external funding (Criterion #4)
• Budget and Rationale explaining the proposed use of funds (Criterion #3)

o   Describe the type of expense you wish covered, i.e., salary and fringe benefits, hourly student assistance, travel, data purchase, publications to assist your research, photocopying, rights and permissions, etc.

CV, limited to 4 pages. Please tailor the CV to the proposed project. Please limit your publication list to those most relevant to your proposed project. Limit the sections on teaching and service activity as room permits.

Notification: A sub-committee of the Research Advisory Committee will evaluate proposals and notify applicants by Friday, April 5, 2013.

Final Report: Recipients will be expected to file a report on their research or creative activities by Friday, December 6, 2013. Please mark this on your calendars!

Click here for forms: SLA 2013 Research and Creative Activity Grant