Last update: December 15, 2023
Proposal Due Date: March 1, 2024
The College wishes to encourage and support the development of faculty research programs. This year’s seed funding is intended to encourage junior faculty (assistant level) to expand their research agendas with the support of senior faculty (associate level or above), in consultation with the CRC Committee.
The Bureau of Educational Research and the College Research Committee, honoring faculty research and scholarship, invite College of Education junior faculty researchers to apply for Seed Grants. This opportunity is made possible, in part, by an endowment from Charles Dunn Hardie to support faculty scholarship.
The purpose of these funds is to promote new research efforts and to enhance the collaborative research culture in the College, providing initial support necessary to begin activities that will develop proposed research projects to the point where they can be considered either: (1) competitive for external funding; or (2) ready to proceed as a sustained project.
Eligible proposals are those with a junior faculty member as the primary investigator (PI), with a senior faculty member identified as an additional investigator or mentor. If junior faculty are unsure of which senior faculty member to identify in this role, the Bureau of Educational Research (Beth Niswander, eniswan1@illinois.edu) and College Research Committee can assist in this effort. CRC co-chairs are Amber Ray (amberray@illinois.edu) and Rachel Roegman (roegman@illinois.edu).
Project Types: The following project types are eligible for funding:
Planning projects likely to be competitive for external research funding.
Examination of a topic where external funding is unlikely, but a sustained research program would be possible and productive.
Projects that engage interdisciplinary and synergistic collaborations across the College and/or from other campus units.
Competitive Preferences: Proposals on any research topic area will be considered, but competitive preference will be given to one or more of the following:
Relate to diversity, equity, and inclusion in education.
Address and comply with new standards established by major federal funders in education research (e.g., NSF Open Data, NIH Open Science, IES SEER Standards, and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Year of Open Science) to produce research data that is quickly made publicly available and accessible, with transparent methods and processes to enable reusability and replicability.
Research that works toward addressing the grand challenges of education.
Applicants can request funds of up to $10,000. Expected project duration is six months to a year; where a longer project period is necessary, this should be clearly explained in the proposal. The PI should be a junior faculty in the College of Education.
Funds may be used to support: (1) Undergraduate and graduate student hourly wages; (2) Other research expenses, including materials and supplies, participant incentives, data access expenses, programming costs, meeting expenses; (3) Costs for collaborating organizations to participate. Fringe benefits will be assessed on all student hourly salaries budgeted. Indirect costs (F&A) will not be assessed. Only 10% of funds may be earmarked to support senior faculty costs.
Proposals must include:
Title of the proposed project.
Team member names, titles, affiliations, and contact information, project roles.
250-word abstract.
3-page single-spaced project narrative outlining the proposed project (motivation, research plan, and an outline of how future work might grow beyond the efforts funded by this program).
Excel Budget, with budget narrative, that breaks down a proposed use of funds, with dollar amounts for each item. Anticipated costs for collaborating organizations should be specific.
Please contact BER pre-award staff via grants@education.illinois.edu (Kim Darnell and Laura Cooky) for assistance in developing this budget.
1-page single-spaced plan outlining the mentor/collaboration plan.
Address how your mentor/s will aid you in acquiring new expertise and guide your development as a scholar.
Address each person’s role in the project and how you will structure the mentoring/collaboration.
1-page single-spaced plan for work beyond the funding period:
For projects targeting external funding proposals, indicate what future external funding will be pursued, including (if known) identification of intended funder(s), program(s), and submission due dates.
For projects not readily aligned with external funding sources, provide a projected timeline to pursue sustainable research activity beyond the seed-funded period.
Proposals will be submitted to BER’s application interface [link to Webtools Form].
Proposals may be submitted at any time between January 4 and March 1, 2024. Bureau initial screening and support will be available prior to the submission date to provide submitting teams the opportunity for improvements and modifications to meet the funding criteria.
College Research Committee proposal review will be conducted in March 2024. Seed funding decisions will be announced at the Spring Faculty meeting.
Submissions will be reviewed according to the following process:
Initial screening by the Bureau. Submitting teams may receive advice on modifications to their proposal to help ensure clarity, completeness, adherence to the review criteria, and fundability. BER feedback will be provided promptly, within two weeks of submission.
Once a proposal has passed internal BER review, it will be presented to the College Research Committee (CRC) for review and funding recommendation. CRC recommendations will be made within one month of receipt by the Committee.
The Associate Dean for Research and the Bureau will resolve any questions arising during CRC review, including follow-up communications with the submitting teams, and will prepare recommendations to present to the Dean.
Final decisions for funding rest with the Dean.
Proposals will be reviewed by the College Research Committee along the following criteria:
A. Required Elements:
Intellectual merit:To what extent does the proposed work advance knowledge?
Innovation potential: Does the proposal clearly articulate theoretical and/or methodological innovation?
Research quality: Is the proposed plan feasible in the given time frame? Is it clearly described and logically organized?
Impact:Does the proposal address the needs of stakeholders in education (students, the COE, the State of Illinois, and society)? Is the work consistent with the mission of the College of Education?
Quality of resources:Are sufficient resources available to conduct the proposed work? If the proposed work will involve human subjects, are intended tools consistent with the latest campus technology guidance? (See Seed Funding FAQ for details and latest guidance updates.)
Academic Collaboration: Does the project establish explicit roles for the junior (assistant level) faculty PI and senior (associate level or above) faculty mentor(s)?
Plan for work beyond the funding period (as applicable):
Identified external funding sources: Is the proposed project aligned with the priorities of the identified external funders?
Projects for non-funded sustained efforts: Are the arguments presented for the growth and sustainability of the proposed project detailed and compelling?
B. Competitive Preferences:
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Does the proposed project incorporate explicit DEI elements in the research design and/or anticipated outcomes?
Open Data Research: Does the proposed project present a clear plan to design research compatible with federal open science principles for data collection and sharing, to the extent this would be feasible with proposed research participants?
Grand Challenges: Is the proposed project organized to address a specific challenge using a defined approach likely to produce new findings or practices?
Awarded applicants will be expected to present a talk, based on their findings, in a College venue within six months of completion of specified project activities in the proposal. Research product(s):
For projects targeting external funding: One or more ready-to-submit external funding submissions will be expected to further the work of the project.
For projects organizing a sustained research effort: a creative product (e.g., academic publication, podcast series, video) to engage audiences with emerging research findings.
For additional information
Visit the Seed Funding FAQ for relevant information as it emerges.
Contact: Elizabeth (Beth) Niswander, Director of Strategic Initiatives, Bureau of Educational Research with questions.