Internal Grants

Competitive Grants

Seed Grants for Transitional and Exploratory Projects (STEP)

Academic Year 2013-2014, Fiscal Year 2014

STEP fy2014 Awardee List

Quick Links:
Dates
Purpose
Eligibility
Eligible Activities
Award Amount
Baich Award
Terms and Conditions
Deadlines and Submission
Review Process
Application: Narrative; Budget: Budget Justification; Previous Funding; Bibliography; Appendices; COS Pivot Profile or CV
Timeline and Contacts
Application Materials/Downloads
Past Winners

Note: Proposals with more than one faculty investigator should receive signed approval from all appropriate department chairs and deans on the Proposal Cover Sheet.

Important Dates

Program Deadline: The deadline for fy2014 has passed. The projected deadline for fy2015 applications is Friday, October 4, 2013. Watch this page for updates regarding deadlines and information.

School/College Deadlines (as reported to the Graduate School):

    College of Arts & Sciences: Sept. 28

    School of Pharmacy: Sept. 28

Project Period: July 1, 2013 – June 30, 2014

Information Sessions:
August 24, 1:00 - 2:30 p.m., Morris Univ. Center, Hickory-Hackberry Room
August 28, 11:00 - 12:30, Morris Univ. Center, Hickory-Hackberry Room

Projected Announcement Date:  December 19, 2012

Summer Salary Contracts Due: March 15, 2013 and March 15, 2014

Final Report Due Date: October 1, 2014

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

This program is limited to tenured and tenure-track faculty and staff with research appointments.  The terminal degree must be obtained prior to submittal.

All applicants must have completed final reports and fulfilled the terms and conditions of previously Graduate School-funded research at least 5 business days before the current STEP deadline in order to be eligible for this program. This includes submission of final reports and external grants.

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 budget line item.  All line items must be allowable costs.  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 STEP program. Details will be provided in the electronic application materials. For further information about eligibility, please visit the Baich Award website.

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. Previous STEP awardees should consult eligibility guidelines above.

Deadlines and Submission

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 emailed in PDF-format to siueresearch@siue.edu. Please refer to your department chair and unit dean for any internal deadlines that may affect collection of the appropriate signatures.

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/Biomedical (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

Download Application Checklist. Submit the following elements as a single PDF to the siueresearch@siue.edu by the deadline date and time. Applications that do not conform to these requirements will be returned without review.

1. Cover Page:

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. Identify on the cover page the review panel that should consider your proposal. Panelists may also suggest a specific area of expertise to be represented on the panel. You may also identify any individual who has a conflict of interest or should otherwise not review the proposal. Identify whether you wish to be considered for the Annette and Henry Baich Award (see Baich Award eligible disciplines at http://www.siue.edu/orp/internalgrants/baich.shtml).

2. Narrative:

The narrative is to be no longer than 10 double-spaced pages, with 1” margins and font sizes at minimum Times New Roman 11 or Arial 10. 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 must 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.
• Facilities: Applicants should address the facilities and equipment, either on SIUE’s campus or at other locations, that are available to them and will aid in the completion of the project. Investigators are highly recommended to outline the investigator’s potential access to such facilities and/or plans for retaining permission to use external facilities.
• Timeline: Include a tentative timeline that shows all projected activities.
• Anticipated Results: Describe how the results fit into your larger long-term research plan Identify 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.   

Please note the following when preparing your budget:

• No funding is available for charges incurred outside the project period (July 1 – June 30).
• Investigators may request academic year assigned time for research and/or summer salary.  When requesting academic year assigned time for research, salary should be calculated at the call-staff rate. 
• Summer salary is calculated at the investigator’s monthly base salary for a maximum of 3 summer months within one fiscal year.  (Up to six weeks during first summer of project period and up to six weeks of following summer.) Commitment overload is not permitted during the term of the grant.* Technical overloads may be permitted if the investigator is teaching during the portion of the summer when not committed to the STEP project.
• * 100% time/effort commitment is required while receiving summer salary from the STEP program.
• When calculating summer salary dollars, applicants should consider the typical 3% annual cost of living increase and any anticipated promotions for the next fiscal year. Fringe benefits should not be included in the total calculation for summer salary.
• Applicants wishing to hire SIUE faculty and staff as consultants in contractual services should calculate the total cost of services according to the consultant’s base salary. The total percentage of time and effort pledged by the consultant to the project should be included in the budget justification.
• Students working on any internal grant must be enrolled as a current student during each semester of the project, in which the student is employed by the grant.
• Travel funds are awarded for non-local travel for data collection only. Generally, no funds are available for consulting or for attending professional conferences. No funds are available for travel or related costs occurring outside the project period, July 1 – June 30.
• Telecommunication costs are limited to the purposes of telephone surveys for research.
• Funding for equipment is limited to items essential to the nature of the research. Those purchasing computers on STEP grants should remember that computers purchased through University funds are University property. Applicants are encouraged to outline a plan for what happens to the computer after completion of the project. Equipment maintenance or repair is not eligible for funding. 
• Purchase of computer software and any copying services should be listed under the Contractual Services line.
• Budget estimates for commodities and contractual services should be well-documented and justified.
• General supplies and items that should normally be provided by a department are not considered as allowable costs.
• Funding is available for incentive payments to study participants. However, guidelines apply. Please consult Patience Graybill Condellone (pgraybi@siue.edu) for more information.

4. Budget Justification:
Justify the funding request in narrative form (max. 2 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.

5. Previous Funding:
Complete and attach the Previous Funding Form. This form applies to funding previously received from the SIUE Graduate School (up to five previous awards). Applicants may use one page per previous grant.

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 or C.V.: If applicants do not have a current COS profile, they may choose to submit a 2-page curriculum vitae with a listing of activities relevant to the proposed project. 

Final Reports

Final reports are due to the Office of Research and Projects by October 1 (90 days) 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

• • September: Submission deadlines to individual units.
  • October 5, 2012: All proposals must be submitted electronically by 4:30 PM to siueresearch@siue.edu
  • December 19, 2012 Award announcement date
  • March 15, 2013: Summer 2013 contracts due to Graduate School (both FY2013 and FY2014)
  • July 1, 2013 - June 30, 2014: Project Period
  • October 1, 2014: Final Report deadline
    (Reminder: in order to be eligible for other internal grant programs, applicants must have completed the final reports and met the terms & conditions of previous internal awards.)

Contacts

Patience Graybill Condellone
Internal Grants Program Coordinator
The Graduate School/Office of Research and Projects
pgraybi@siue.edu
618-650-5618

Susan Morgan
Acting Associate Dean for Research
The Graduate School
smorgan@siue.edu
618-650-2171

Downloads

FY 2014 STEP Guidelines
Application Checklist
FY 2014 Cover Page - for individual investigators
FY 2014 Cover Page - for teams of SIUE investigators
Previous Funding Form

Past Winners

2013-2014 STEP Award Winners
FY2014 Baich Awardee: Jeff Darabi

2012-2013 STEP Award Winners

FY2013 Baich Awardee: David Jennings

2011-2012 STEP Award Winners

Annette and Henry Baich Award Winner: Andrew Neath

STEP 2010-2011 AWARDEES
Annette and Henry Baich Award Winner: Judy Zhang

STEP 2009-2010 AWARDEES
Annette and Henry Baich Award Winner: Louise Flick