The CWRU Vice President for Research and Technology Management is pleased to announce a campus-wide internal grant competition to promote research, scholarship, and creative endeavors. Intended to foster the incubation of new ideas and their cultivation for production of knowledge, this program will provide faculty the freedom to address new and expanding areas of research, scholarship, and creative endeavor, and will serve as a catalyst for major breakthroughs.
The CWRU VPR Catalyst Awards will be divided into three funding categories.
Track 1: Research Travel
These awards may be used for travel, lodging, and food (up to per diem). Faculty time is not an allowable cost for this track.
Up to $3,000 will be awarded per project with the expectation of 1-1 match from the Faculty member's discretionary funds, her Department, her Dean, or other institutional resources (such as the Baker-Nord Center).
To plan or conduct research, including trips to bidders' conferences and meetings with program officers; travel to collections such as libraries, museums or other archives with materials not otherwise available; and travel to a study center or research institute. Travel may be domestic or international and is subject to the University's travel policies. All funds must be spent within 12 months of the award. Unspent funds will be pulled back.
Track 2: Publication Subvention
These awards may be used for copyright fees, cover art, illustrations, permissions, journal publication, or other publication-related expenses. Faculty time is not an allowable cost for this track.
Up to $3,000 will be awarded per project with the expectation of 1-1 match from the Faculty member's discretionary funds, her Department, her Dean, or other institutional resources (such as the Baker-Nord Center).
To help cover the costs associated with publishing books, plays, journal articles, or other means of scholarly or creative production. All funds must be spent within 12 months. Unspent funds will be pulled back. .
Track 3: Seed Funds
These grants support early-stage program development and research, and often set the stage for successful pursuit of large-scale funding from sources such as NIH, NSF, NEA, or NEH as projects evolve.
Up to $10,000 will be awarded per project with the expectation of 1-1 match from the Faculty member's discretionary funds, her Department, her Dean, or other institutional resources (such as the Baker-Nord Center).
To help cover a variety of research activities, including but not limited to: pilot and feasibility studies, secondary analyses of existing data to test a new hypothesis, activities in the digital humanities and arts, development of research methodology, and planning for development of large, interdisciplinary proposals for external funding. All funds must be spent within 12 months. Unspent funds will be pulled back.
Review Criteria
Proposals will be reviewed by a selection committee empaneled by the VPR. The following criteria will be considered:
- The significance of the research problem, scholarship or creative endeavor
- The novelty of the proposed project or activity
- The application of interdisciplinary and convergent approaches
Varies
Eligibility
Applicants are encouraged to consult with their Associate Deans for Research prior to internal submission to assure they meet eligibility criteria and their projects meet stated program objectives.
Principal Investigators/Scholars must hold faculty appointments at CWRU. All full-time CWRU faculty are eligible to apply. Although there is no limit on the number of proposals a faculty member may submit, only one award will be made to any faculty member in a given cycle.
Submission Process
Proposals and match commitment letters should be submitted as PDF attachments by email to Dr. Suzanne Rivera at suzanne.rivera@case.edu no later than 11:59pm EST on Friday, March 30, 2018.
Proposals should be no more than three pages in length and must include:
- Identification of funding category: Research Travel, Publication Subvention, Seed Funds
- Faculty member name, department, school/college, and title/rank
- Title of project for which funding is sought
- Narrative description of proposed activities to be funded, including:
- clear explanation of problem/hypothesis/phenomenon/activity
- concise description of planned strategy/procedures
- compelling rationale for using institutional resources
- degree to which activity/product will be novel and/or interdisciplinary
- Expected outcome of efforts, with a deliverable and timeline (less than 12 months)
- Detailed budget* with narrative justification for each line item and identification of source of matching fund
In addition, the match commitment letters accompanying the proposals must be signed by the individual responsible for the speedtype (account number) that will be the source of the match (whether a Chair, Dean, or Director of a campus entity such as the Baker-Nord Center), and should state clearly that if a Catalyst award is made to the Faculty member, matching funds equivalent to the award amount will be made available for spending within the 12-month award period.
*Note: Faculty time is not an allowable cost for Track 1 or Track 2.