Internal Grants

Competitive Grants

Seed Grants for Transitional and Exploratory Projects (STEP)

Academic Year 2010-2011

Important Dates

STEP Town Hall Meeting: September 9, 5:00 - 7:00 p.m., Hickory-Hackberry Room, Morris University Center

Program Deadline: All proposals must be submitted electronically by 5:00 PM, Friday, October 2, 2009. PLEASE CHECK WITH YOUR INDIVIDUAL CHAIRS AND DEANS ABOUT INTERNAL DEADLINES. (See Below.)

Announcement Date: December 18, 2009

Purpose

Seed grants for Transitional and Exploratory Projects (STEP) provides seed funding on a competitive basis to SIUE faculty and staff to support research and creative activities. Seed funding is intended to encourage faculty to initiate new research directions or new research projects. Seed grant funding is not intended to sustain or supplement current research programs, but rather to:

• Help junior faculty undertake pilot projects that will aid in establishing their careers as independent investigators and enable them to successfully apply for extramural funding.
• Help established faculty perform transitional and exploratory research, particularly on novel or pioneering ideas, to determine project feasibility, and to develop preliminary data to support extramural applications.

Eligibility

All full-time continuing members of the faculty may apply to the STEP program.  Staff members on continuing appointments who have served as an investigator or co-investigator on an externally sponsored grant are also eligible for the STEP program. All applicants must have completed final reports and fulfilled the terms and conditions of previously SIUE funded research before they are eligible for this program.

Definition of Research and Creative Activities:

Research and creative activities are broadly defined as all creative, critical, scholarly, and/or empirical activity that expands, clarifies, reorganizes or develops knowledge or artistic perception. This definition includes the demonstration, implementation, and application of research. 

Ineligible Activities Include:

Faculty Development – activities such as learning a new technique, language, methodology or completing a thesis or dissertation; Institutional Research – studies related directly to the operation of the University that are not generalizable and have little application beyond SIUE; Public Service and Consulting; and Departmental Curriculum Development, such as the preparation of curriculum materials, curriculum modifications, and student interest surveys. Curriculum Development that includes empirical studies of the effectiveness of new program formats, or techniques and content that are generalizable and have application beyond SIUE may be considered research for this grant program.

Awards:

A total of $325,000 per fiscal year is available for this program. Funding is for one fiscal year (July 1^st – June 30^th ) and is awarded by line item.  All line items are allowable.  Awards will not exceed $16,000; typical awards will range from $5,000 to $10,000.

Annette and Henry Baich Award:

An additional $1,000 will be awarded to the best STEP application out of the pool of eligible proposals. Applicants will indicate their desire to be considered for the Annette and Henry Baich Award on the cover page for the 2009 STEP program. Details will be provided in the electronic application materials. For further information about eligibility, please click here.

Terms and Conditions:
As a condition of the award, recipients must submit a Final Report and a proposal for external funding through the Graduate School’s Office of Research and Projects before they are eligible for any additional funding from the Graduate School.  Failure to submit either the Final Report or a proposal for external funding makes the recipient of an STEP ineligible for all other Graduate School sponsored support.

Deadlines:

The Graduate School will hold this competition annually, the first week in October. Applications are not considered complete without signatures from department chairs and school/college deans. Complete applications including signed cover page should be scanned and emailed in PDF to Patience Graybill at pgraybi@siue.edu.

Evaluation Criteria:

The primary evaluation criterion is the merit of the proposal. The R&D Committee will oversee the review process under the direction of the Associate Dean for Research using a disciplinary-based review system, as described below. Proposals will be evaluated and scored according to the following criteria:

1. The originality/ creativity and significance of the proposed research (25%)
2. The clarity and appropriateness of the research design and procedure (25%)
3. The alignment of the project with the STEP program goals (20%)
4. The appropriateness of the budget and strength of the budget justification (20%)
5. The research proposal’s potential for external funding & anticipated outcomes (10%)

Review Process:

Proposals will be assigned to one of four discipline-based review panels as indicated below. Applicants may request a specific review panel. Panelists may also suggest a specific area of expertise to be represented on the panel. The members of the R&D Committee will secure appropriate panelist commitments for each four panels, and will chair the panel reviews.

    Panel 1: Life Sciences (includes Nursing, Pharmacy, and Dental Medicine)
    Panel 2: Physical Sciences and Engineering
    Panel 3: Social Sciences, Business, and Education
    Panel 4: Arts and Humanities

Each panel will provide scores and comments, which will be entered into the Graduate School’s EPS system using the following scoring scale:
DOES NOT MEET CRITERIA: 1.0 to 1.5
ACCEPTABLE: 1.5 to 2.0
GOOD: 2.0 to 3.0
VERY GOOD: 3.0 to 4.0
OUTSTANDING: 4.0 to 5.0

The R&D Committee will oversee the panel review process, consider the scores and evaluations from the panels, and make final funding recommendations to the Associate Provost for Research and Graduate School Dean.

Application Procedures:
1. Cover Page:

Please download and complete the Cover Page. Include all appropriate contact information along with a brief summary of the research project in terms understandable to the non-specialist. Applicants must identify on the cover page the review panel that should consider their proposal. Panelists may also suggest a specific area of expertise to be represented on the panel. Applicants should also identify any individual who has a conflict of interest or should otherwise not review the proposal. Applicant should also indicate whether they wish to be considered for the Annette and Henry Baich Award.

2. Narrative: The narrative should be no longer than 10 double-spaced pages. The page limitation does not include the cover page, endnotes, bibliography, appendices, budget, budget justification, and vitae.  Please note that proposals may not be reviewed by specialists in your specific discipline and care should be written to be understood by an educated general audience. Your narrative should encompass the following sections:

• Alignment with STEP goals: In a separate section titled “Alignment with STEP,” explain in no more than 150 words how the proposed project aligns with the purpose of the program, as stated in the guidelines above.
• Introduction and Background: Provide an overview of the research project or creative activity including a clear statement of the problem and the objectives of the proposed project.  Describe in more detail the background to the project including a review of the appropriate literature in the field.  Clearly explain the significance of the research or creative activity to the discipline. Clearly explain in what way the proposed project differs from your currently supported research program. 
• Procedures or Project Plan: Provide a detailed description of the methodology used to conduct this research or creative activity.  The description should reflect the nature of the project.  Research projects that are experimental in nature should clearly describe the design of the experiment and the methods for acquiring and analyzing data.  Non experimental projects, such as those in the humanities and fine arts, may wish to describe the works to be examined, research sources (e.g. library and manuscript collections), and an appropriate plan for carrying out the work.
• Timeline and Anticipated Results: All projects should include a tentative timetable and a description of the anticipated results.  The narrative should also describe how the results of the research fit into any larger long-term research plan, including the identification of possible sources of external support for the continuation of the project.

3. Budget: Provide a detailed budget using the cover page (download above).  Applicants may request funding for academic year released time, summer salary, graduate assistantships, student wages, travel, commodities, contractual services, equipment, auto, and telecommunications.  An investigator may request academic year assigned time for research or summer salary.  If the investigator requests academic year assigned time for research, salary dollars are for replacement costs at the call staff rate for released time.  Summer salary is at the investigator’s actual rate for a maximum of 2 summer months.  Under no circumstances will overload be permitted during the term of the grant.  Please note the following when preparing your budget:

• Travel funds are awarded only for non-local travel for the purposes of data collection. Generally, no funds are available for the purposes of consulting or for attending professional conferences.
• No funds are available for equipment maintenance or repair.
• No funding is available for telecommunications, except for the purposes of telephone surveys.
• Funding for equipment is limited and only for specialized items essential to the nature of the research.
• Funding for commodities and contractual services must be documented and justified.
• General supplies and items that should normally be provided by a department are not considered as allowable costs.

4. Budget Justification:
Justify the funding request in narrative form (max. two pages). Each individual line item request on the Budget Request Form must be fully explained and carefully justified in an item-by-item narrative. Applicants are advised to keep in mind that the review committees rely heavily on the Narrative Budget Explanation and Justification when making decisions about funding. Explanations that are cursory or justifications that are weak can result in a project either not being funded or having its requested funding reduced substantially.

6. Bibliography: Include a short, selected bibliography (one page maximum) showing your familiarity with the pertinent literature.

7. Appendices: Information may be included in an Appendix if it is necessary to the reviewer’s understanding of the research project. Such appendixes may include but are not limited to: letters of support from contractors, sub-contractors and supporting facilities; letters of support from foreign contacts and institutions; letters of support from library or archive administrators

8. COS Expertise Profile : Please submit a copy of your Community of Science (COS) Expertise Profile. Please ensure that your Profile is up-to-date. Reviewers will use your completed COS Expertise Profile instead of a traditional curriculum vitae.  If you need assistance completing or updating your Profile, please contact Patience Graybill Condellone or Christa Johnson.

Final Reports:

Final reports are due to the Office of Research and Projects by November 1 following the completion of the research project. Both the Final Report and the submission of an external grant through the Office of Research and Projects are required to remain eligible to receive Graduate School funding.

Timeline:

October 2, 2009: All proposals must be submitted electronically by 5:00 PM to pgraybi@siue.edu in the Graduate School.

December 18, 2009: Award announcement date

Project Period: July 1, 2010 - June 30, 2011