Research & Development Grants

A. Purpose
The purpose of the Research and Development Grant Program is to help defray the costs to faculty members who initiate and carry out research projects or who further their development of teaching skills and competencies. Given the limited resources of the committee, applicants for grants ranging in the thousands of dollars are encouraged to seek outside funding.
Note: All funds allocated in the Fall must be used by May 31 of that year. All funds allocated in the Spring are for the following year and can only be used for expenses incurred after June 1st and before May 31st of the following year.
B. Eligibility
Any member of the Faculty Senate (or emeritus faculty member) is eligible to apply for a grant under this program. Proposals of faculty members on or due for sabbatical are considered in the same way as those of other applicants.
C. Application Process
A full application consists of a completed application form together with all supporting material requested on the form. Applications should be submitted via email to [email protected] as Word attachments. The Committee reviews applications twice a year according to the following schedule:
 
Term Application Deadline
Fall October 1 (funds for current fiscal year)
November 1 (funds for current fiscal year)
Spring March 18 (funds for upcoming fiscal year)
D. Evaluation Criteria

1. All receipts for reimbursement must be for expenses incurred during the fiscal year (June 1-May 31) for which the grant is approved.

2. There is no limit to the number of applications an eligible faculty member may submit to the Committee for funding, including multiple applications within a single fiscal year. In addition to the merits of the current proposal, the Committee will consider the applicant's history with Research and Development programs. The Committee will not consider proposals for new grants from applicants who have outstanding project reports.

3. It is the responsibility of applicant at time of application to demonstrate compliance with all relevant college policies (for example, with the Institutional Review Board where the research involves human subjects, or with Information Technology).

4. R&D grants may be combined with other sources of funding, internal and external. If a grant recipient receives funding for the same project from another source after receiving an R&D grant, the recipient is required to report the award to the R&D Committee ( [email protected]) and to return any duplicate funding. (That is, a recipient cannot be reimbursed more than once for any given expense.)

5. The following expenses are eligible:

a. Cost of Le Moyne student assistants.

b. Cost of services, including,  for example, transcription, translation, and other specialized research assistance.

c. Subject fees for participants on human subject research—please provide documentation to confirm that such fees are not covered by departmental budget.

d. Specialized hardware and software—application should include documentation from appropriate member of Information Technology team to support claim that the purchases cannot be accommodated elsewhere in the budget. Like all non-consumables, such hardware/software becomes the property of the grantee's department.

**Faculty are not authorized to purchase technological devices to be owned by the individual  faculty member using College resources. All technological devices purchased using College resources are the property of Le Moyne College and are serviced by the College's IT department.

e. Cost of materials, including,  for example:

--supplies used in laboratory research or fieldwork—please provide documentation to confirm that such fees are not covered by departmental budget;

--photocopying (for example, at an archive);

--access to subscription databases (according to the Director of the Library, the library budget cannot accommodate faculty requests for database subscriptions [April 2018]) ;

--electronic data collection and analysis (please provide documentation to confirm that such fees are not covered by department budget);

f. Reasonable costs of transportation, lodging, and meals incurred while conducting research or contacting sources of funds, such as government agencies or foundations. Reimbursement for travel expenses complies with policies and procedures specified in the Travel Policy manual, which is available through the College’s Financial Office.

--Meal receipts must be itemized;

--The mileage reimbursement allowance for personal vehicle use is specified in the Travel Policy manual. The cost of personal vehicle use cannot exceed the cost of airfare.

g. Standard academic charges incurred during the publication process that are required for publication by the publisher such as submission fees, page charges, maps, and image permissions. Applications for funding to publish in academically credible open-access publications will be weighed against overall availability of funds.

h. Academic charges an author chooses to incur prior to publication may be reimbursed at a lower rate or receive lower priority in funding. Such expenses might include proofreading, copyediting, or indexing. It will be helpful to the committee to receive an explanation of any special circumstances surrounding an author’s choice to incur such an expense.

i. Activities (seminars, summer workshops, internships) to improve pedagogical skills, learn about new resources for teaching, share insights and classroom-tested strategies, or enhance the ability to teach or advise students. The application should explain how the proposed activity is expected to enhance the faculty member’s teaching. Note: Because Committee funds are insufficient to support faculty travel to academic conferences, the Committee does not ordinarily fund transportation costs related to academic conference, conference registration fees, or lodging/meals during conferences. If a teaching workshop or seminar is offered in conjunction with a scholarly conference, the committee will consider applications for fees for the specific activity, for example, registration for a workshop at the conference. If the activity precedes or follows the conference, the committee may be able to accommodate funding requests for lodging and meals before the conference begins or after it ends.

j. Activities (e.g., seminars, courses, summer workshops, internships) to develop new content areas for research or teaching. Applicant should explain his or her ultimate research or teaching goal, the overall strategy for achieving that ultimate goal, a plan for securing additional funding to pursue overall strategy; and how the particular activity advances the overall strategy. Applicant should also request a letter of support from his or her department chair or program chair explaining how applicant's plan advances institutional teaching and research goals. Note: Because Committee funds are insufficient to support faculty travel to academic conferences, the Committee does not ordinarily fund transportation costs related to academic conferences, conference registration fees, or lodging/meals during conferences. If an appropriate workshop or seminar is offered in conjunction with a scholarly conference, the committee will consider applications for fees for the specific activity, for example, registration for a seminar before, during, or after the larger conference. If the activity precedes or follows the conference, the committee may be able to accommodate funding requests for lodging and meals before the conference begins or after it ends.

k. Cost of innovative use of technology for instruction, research, or development.  Faculty may request funds for materials necessary in designing courses using technology-intensive strategies, specific research on technology and pedagogy, research projects that employ technology in various ways, the creation of research and/or teaching tools that will benefit the faculty's classes and/or outside research interests, or the creation of technology-intensive courses.

5. The following expenses are among those not eligible:

a. Travel expenses in conjunction with conference travel normally supported by the Dean's office.

b. Tuition costs for courses that are part of a degree program.

c. Membership in scholarly societies or subscriptions to scholarly journals.

d. Office supplies or other expenses covered by departmental, library, or other institutional budgets.

 
E. Grant Administration and Report
1. The amount of each grant awarded will be transferred, under the grantee's name, to an individual sub-account of the Committee's account. To withdraw money from the account, the grantee must submit documentation and an authorization form signed by the chair of the Committee, or Committee designee, to Financial Services. The process is similar to that for withdrawing money from departmental accounts.
2. A grant recipient is required to operate within the line items of the budget as approved by the Committee. Any budgetary changes require Committee approval. A grantee may submit a proposal for additional funding should expenses exceed the projected amount. The Committee will periodically review such requests.
3. A grant recipient who receives outside funding for a project after being awarded a grant from the Committee for that same project is required to return to the Committee whatever amount is being covered by the external grant.
4. Each grant is made for a designated fiscal year or years. Projects may be eligible for funding in successive fiscal years. Unfortunately money allocated for a specific fiscal year does not “roll over” into the next fiscal year. The close of the fiscal year is May 31. June 1 begins a new fiscal year.
5. By August 15, a grant recipient must submit a project report to the Chair of the Committee ([email protected]), the provost and the appropriate Dean for any project that received funding in the fiscal year that ended May 31.
Specific Instructions

Please combine requested information—including application form, CV, and any supporting documentation—into a single file and submit as a single e-mail attachment to [email protected]. (For projects involving pedagogy, chair/project director will separately complete and submit a form, as described below.)

Project Information
Prepare a narrative detailing the project or activity for which you seek a grant. Please follow the outline below.
  1. Application: You can edit the application form by first saving the form as a Word document and making your changes.
  2. For projects related to teaching or pedagogy, department chair (and if relevant, program director) must complete a brief form indicating that their project is consistent with the department/program planning needs. Form should be submitted directly to [email protected] .

 

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