CBBC Home Page >> Grants
2008 Grants
Deadline: Friday May 9, 2008
Center for Brain Basis of Cognition
In 2008 the CBBC is offering two kinds of grants: (1) seed grants for graduate students working with faculty in both campuses (up to $5,000 per grant); and (2) seed grants to support cross-campus research collaborations between faculty (up to $10,000 per grant).
Graduate Student Seed Grants. Two graduate student seed grants, each up to $5,000 for one year of research, will be awarded. The primary purpose of these grants is to encourage graduate students to work with faculty across the campuses. This is expected to strengthen graduate programs across both campuses, and to catalyze research (and potentially teaching) collaborations between faculty in the two campuses. In addition, these seed grants are designed to encourage grant applications by graduate students. Thus, a requirement is that students receiving the grants must apply for funding (e.g., NIH, NRSA, NSF dissertation grant, NDSEG, Ford foundation, Javits, Spencer) within one year of the grant being awarded. We expect that the experience gained from writing the seed grant proposal, and the evidence from the funded project, will significantly enhance the quality of these proposals for external funding.
Faculty Seed Grants. Two faculty seed grants, each up to $10,000 for one year of research, will be awarded. These grants are designed to support collaborative research projects conducted by faculty from the two campuses, leading to subsequent external funding. Recipients of these grants are required to submit a research grant proposal to the NIH, NSF or an equivalent funding agency with similar indirect costs at most one year after the grant expires (that is, two years after the grant is awarded). The seed grant application is expected to propose a focused project that is likely to generate data that can be presented as preliminary evidence in the external grant application.
Selection Criteria. The following selection criteria will be used to evaluate both the graduate student and faculty grants:
- The project should be consistent with the goals of the CBBC. See the mission statement above.
- The project should be interdisciplinary.
- The project should ideally involve faculty in both campuses, although projects involving two or more faculty within one campus will also be considered, particularly if the research is highly interdisciplinary.
- The project should be innovative.
- The project should be likely to lead to a successful external grant application.
- The seed funding from the CBBC should be important, if not necessary. That is, without this funding, the proposed project should be significantly less likely to be carried out, and the likelihood of the ensuing external grant being awarded would also be significantly lower.
The Application Process
- An abstract (maximum 400 words) outlining the background, aims, methods and significance of the proposed one-year project. The abstract should be pasted into the cover sheet (see below).
- The research proposal. This should be no more than three pages (not including the reference list) of single-spaced 12-font text, with all margins at least one inch wide. Within this three-page limit the proposal should include:
- A background section describing the issues and relevant evidence.
- The specific aims of the one-year project in terms of the hypotheses being tested.
- The design and methods of the one-year project, including predictions, and a schedule.
- A description of the broader project that will be proposed in the grant submitted for external funding, including aims and an outline of the methods.
- The scientific significance and potential broader impacts of the project to be proposed for external funding.
- An explanation of how the proposed one-year project will contribute to the external grant application.
- Two likely sources of external funding, with a brief explanation as to why they are appropriate.
- A one-page budget (12-font text, 1-inch margins) for the one-year project, outlining expenditures with clear justifications. Funds may be requested for any reasonable costs specifically and directly related to the proposed research, including non-faculty personnel costs (e.g., partial student stipend, or partial salary for a research assistant or post-doctoral fellow), participant compensation, supplies and equipment, and travel for data-gathering purposes. Funds may not be used for travel for other purposes or for faculty salaries.
Deadline. All materials must be received by 5 pm, Friday May 9, 2008. We will announce the recipients May 30. Funding will commence by June 22, 2008.
The review committee will consist of the center co-directors and the center advisory board.
Please send all questions and materials to Cristina Sanz (sanzc@georgetown.edu).
The cover sheet for the grant application can be downloaded here.
Previous Grants