Call for CLS Collaborative research proposals, seed funding 2023-2024
For 2023-2024, the Center for Language Science can, again, stimulate collaborative research by providing seed funding, thanks to generous support from the College of the Liberal Arts.
These seed funds are meant to encourage and support collaborative research among CLS faculty members and to provide support for the development of new and innovative research projects aimed at attracting external funding. More specifically, the seed funding grants are meant to enable pilot studies which can be used to inform and increase competitiveness of external grant proposals. The focus is on developing and strengthening collaborative research between CLS faculty. For this reason, teams should be led by two or more CLS tenure track faculty or CLS faculty with continuing multi-year appointments (although external collaborators or non-tenured researchers may be part of the team).
- Seed funding proposals range from $500-$2,500 per project.
- A proposal is submitted by (minimally) two researchers who are CLS tenure track faculty or CLS faculty with continuing multi-year appointments, who are active within the CLS. • Deadline: rolling deadline from September 15, 2023, to January 31, 2024. Proposals can be submitted to: clsseedfunding@gmail.com and in cc to Janet van Hell, jgv3@psu.edu. • Seed funds need to be used within the fiscal year. This means that these funds must be spent and processed with Heather Mann by June 10, 2024.
- Funding is intended to provide support for the development of new and innovative research projects, in particular the funding of pilot studies to inform and increase competitiveness of external grant proposals.
- Funding can be used to pay participants, research expenses, travel costs to field research sites (provided traveling is allowed in light of the pandemic), or research assistant time (only undergraduate RAs on wage-payroll basis; no graduate student RA can be paid because seed funds cannot cover graduate student tuition).
- Allowable travel expenses to field research sites are airfare/mileage and lodging (based on actual costs, so no per diem). Please note that Penn State regulations regarding traveling to national or international research sites are subject to change considering the COVID-19 pandemic, so please take this into account when preparing a proposal.
- Funding is intended for research-related expenses and will not cover costs that are not directly related to research/data collection or costs that are generally covered by departments, such as: team meeting expenses, meals or snacks, conference travel, delivery of outreach programs or services, student projects (masters, dissertation research), publication costs, or course release.
Review:
- A committee, consisting of faculty from different CLS-affiliated departments and who together use a wide range of research approaches within language science, will review the proposals and will make a decision within 3 weeks after the submission.
- Criteria for review: All proposals must meet the points outlined above. Priority is given to collaborative proposals that propose new and innovative research projects in the form of pilot work that can be used to inform (~proof of concept) external grant proposals and increase their competitiveness. CLS seed funding proposals should present theoretically and empirically well-grounded research questions, a well articulated plan of research activities, evidence for access to the research population of interest, a longer-term context including grant application plan, and a budget.
Structure and submission of proposals:
- Proposals must be submitted as one document via email to clsseedfunding@gmail.com, and in cc to Janet van Hell, jgv3@psu.edu.
- The template of the proposal submission form can be found on the next page.
- Please note, if IRB approval has not yet been obtained, researchers are expected to prepare and submit the appropriate requests for IRB approval for the proposed research within two weeks after acceptance of their seed funding proposal.
Project reports:
Investigators are expected to provide a brief (one page) final report upon completion of the project, by June 30, 2024. These reports allow us to track and report research outcomes as well as monitor the successfulness of the seed grant opportunity. Please submit your report to the CLS administrative assistant Brittany Glunt, bdg11@psu.edu.
If you submit an external grant proposal or manuscript that has benefited from seed funding (e.g., using data collected under the seed grant), please send that information to us (Janet van Hell, jgv3@psu.edu), so that we can add it to the CLS annual report we submit to the College.
If you need to make changes to the proposed research, project team, design, or budget, please send a request to budget manager Heather Mann, hmg108@psu.edu, with details of the change(s).
Template CLS Seed funding grant proposal
Fiscal Year 2023-2024
Please complete all sections below and email the document to clsseedfunding@gmail.com between September 15, 2023 and January 31, 2024, and in cc to Janet van Hell, jgv3@psu.edu. Proposals must be single-spaced, in Times New Roman font size no smaller than 12-point, left aligned with one-inch margins. The description for items 1-7 is maximally 2 pages.
Please note, if IRB approval has not yet been obtained, researchers are expected to prepare and submit the appropriate requests for IRB approval for the proposed research within two weeks after acceptance of their seed funding proposal.
- Title of the proposal:
- Names of the PIs:
- If applicable, names and affiliations of other team members:
- Specific Aims/Purpose:
- Describe the specific aims of the proposal. Priority will be given to new and innovative research projects that will increase the quality and competitiveness of external grant proposals, and that develop or further strengthen collaboration among CLS faculty.
- Background/Significance
- Describe the theoretical and empirical background and significance of the proposed research.
- Research Methodology
- Describe the study methods (including target population, stimuli, procedure, planned statistical analysis).
- Longer-term goals and grant application plans
- Describe the longer-term goals of the proposed research, plans for external grant application(s) and how the proposed research will enhance the quality of grant application.
- IRB approval number
- Provide the IRB that covers the proposed research. If the proposed research is not yet covered by an existing IRB, briefly describe plan to obtain IRB approval.
- Timeline
- Describe the anticipated timeline to accomplish the goals of the proposal.
- Budget and justification
- Provide an itemized budget and budget justification. Budget manager Heather Mann can assist with building a budget (e.g., calculating fringe benefits when budgeting RAs). Please give her at least a week’s notice before the deadline.
- References
- Attach NSF or NIH biosketches of the CLS faculty applicants.