ICD Graduate Student Small Grants Program

ICD graduate students may apply for small grants of between $250 and $500 to support their independent research. These grants are competitive. They will be reviewed by the ICD Small Grant Committee consisting of 3 faculty and 3 graduate students (selected from the pool of recent award recipients). It is expected that 5-10 grants may be awarded during each application round. Students may apply individually or two or more may apply together. However, if several students plan to request more than $500 for a multi-investigator study, they should submit separate proposals and separate budgets, but indicate how the two proposals interface and the parts of the work that will be unique to each student.

Application: Grant application proposals will be solicited for Fall Semester and Spring semester awards, with start dates of October 1 and February 1. Proposals will generally be due the first week of September and the first week of January, with specific dates to be announced.

Awards will be based on the following criteria, and thus information related to these criteria must be addressed in the application:

1. Merit
   1. Relative independence of student’s research (more = higher rating)
   2. Quality of proposed work: Provide information on background and significance of the work, study design, statistical analysis
   3. Opportunity urgency. This means the relevance of the work to linked activities or possibilities such as (not in order of importance)
      1. getting matching money contingent on this money
      2. getting work together preparatory for dissertation proposals
      3. getting record built up for grant application
2. Availability: Availability of money from other sources. What money might also be available from other sources such as CCS, research advisor’s discretionary funds, or other sources? This must be addressed.
3. General effort: What other efforts have been or are being made to find money?
4. Has the student received money from the fund in past years, and if so, how much? (Priority will be given to those who have received less total cumulative support from the department.)
5. What is the cumulative total of graduate student grant support from department? How much have you gotten from this well, total. (Priority will be given to those who have received less total cumulative support from the department.)

Format of the application: Please submit both an electronic and paper copy of your application.

1. Face Page: Name, Title of Study, Year in Program, Advisor(s), Phone, E-mail (Note that in cases of 2 or more co-PI’s, list all applicants and in item IV below, address all prior graduate student research grant support.)
2. Statement of specific aims, background & significance, and methods (3 pages, double-spaced, max).
3. Budget and justification (1 page, double-spaced, max). Justification must include discussion of whether some or all of the study could be covered under the advisor’s research grant, the availability of other funds that might cover this study, and the student’s attempts to secure other funding.
4. Context of Request (1 page, double-spaced, max). Is this research independent from the advisor’s research? How urgent is this request? That is, if this project isn’t funded on this round, will the opportunity to conduct the study pass? Is this study the student’s dissertation?
5. Curriculum Vitae(s)

Condition of award: Student grant reviewers are selected from the pool of recent award recipients, therefore award recipients must be willing to serve on a subsequent grant review panel.

Revised February 2003