Pilot Funding Procedures

Kent State University Institutional-Level Small Grant

($5000 Award)

Pilot Funding Procedures for BHRI, ESDRI, HCRI and AREI

 

Institutes offer varying levels of awards (see institute websites for more details). However, BHRI, ESDRI, HCRI, and AREI all offer $5000 awards. The following guidelines apply to these small grant ($5000) awards. When applying for these $5000 awards, you can also be considered for supplemental funding from the URC. Specifically, if you would like to be considered for a supplemental URC-sponsored award of $2500 ($3500 if the submission involves an undergraduate) beyond the funds awarded via the Institute, you should:

  1. Note this on your application
  2. Provide two budgets (one with and one without the supplemental funding).
  3. Provide sufficient rationale for the additional funds.

Requests for supplemental funding will undergo standard URC review and are not guaranteed to be funded.

Guidelines

  • You may apply for as many pilot funding opportunities as you wish in any given year; however, you may only receive one award in a year. Further, proposals should be submitted with a specific institute in mind; THE SAME PROPOSAL SHOULD NOT BE SUBMITTED TO MORE THAN ONE INSTITUTE.
  • A faculty member acting as a primary investigator (PI) is not eligible for any institutional-level pilot funding for one year following the completion date of a prior pilot grant award funded through any institutional-level pilot funding for which that faculty member served as a PI.
  • Priority will be given to faculty who have not received an institutional-level pilot grant as a PI in the previous three years. Although new investigators are encouraged to apply, funds are not intended to replace new faculty start-up funds.
  • Successful pilot funding recipients are strongly encouraged (and may be required depending on policies associated with the pilot funding mechanisms)  to participate in research development/mentoring opportunities designed to increase the quality of subsequent grant proposals.

Review

  • Faculty applying for the $5000 pilot awards should submit a completed application (see KSU Institutes' Small ($5000) Grant Support Request form) to the Small Grant Application Portal by the published deadline.
  • Three institute-specific reviewers will review/rank applications and provide recommendations to the Institute leadership, who will make the final decision on which applications will be funded
  • If the applicant is selected for funding by the  Institute and also requested supplemental funding by the URC, the application will be reviewed by the URC. Whether or not the URC approves supplemental funding, institutional funding will still be provided.
  • If the application is not selected for funding by the Institute, the applicant may still apply to the URC for funding.

Reporting

At a base, pilot funds are an investment in a faculty member's scholarship and are expected to result in a return on this investment. Whereas this is often thought of as pilot data leading to an externally funded grant proposal, outcomes differ depending on faculty member's discipline. All recipients of pilot funding (regardless of source or amount) will complete a semi-annual report (1-2 pages) until the outcome/deliverable is achieved (e.g., grant submitted, performance conducted, etc.). Failure to complete semi-annual project reports or fulfill the promised deliverables associated with the funding (external grant proposal, book, manuscript, artistic endeavor, etc.) will be a barrier to applying for any subsequent institutional level pilot funding.

Semi-annual reports (see KSU Institutional-Level Pilot Funding Semi-Annual Report) should summarize:

  1. Progress made on your stated goals/proposed outcomes/deliverables for this pilot funding
  2. Impact of the award on scholarship (Presentations, publications, or grant submissions linked to Award)
  3. Other tangible outcomes that provide evidence of scholarly success including commercial impact/viability
  4. Engagement of students and public
  5. Future plans related to this award

For more information about the AREI Pilot Grant opportunity, please contact Carla Goar.

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