Program Description
The Faculty Small Grant Program (FSGP) provides grants of up to $10,000 over one year to support scholarly publications and creative research. The VPR Office defines scholarly activity as a work of scholarship that is peer reviewed and publicly disseminated. Examples of scholarly activity should demonstrate the discovery and/or integration of new knowledge, technologies, methods, or materials. The VPR defines creative activity as original contributions to an investigator’s field of study that are produced through writing, creating, composing, designing, recording, performing, curating, etc.*
*Listed definitions of scholarly and creative research work are not meant to be comprehensive. Questions about whether your research idea would qualify for the FSGP should be directed to vprgrants@utah.edu.
Eligibility Criteria
Career and tenure-line faculty members who hold at least a .50 FTE appointment are eligible to apply. Adjunct faculty are permitted to act as co-PI on FSGP applications. Applicants must not have any outstanding final reports on past VPR-funded projects and must be prepared to dedicate enough time to complete the proposed project within one year of the award. Each submitted project may have up to five co-PIs.
Program Deadlines
The FSGP conducts two cycles per year – once during Fall semester and once during Spring semester. Deadlines for the 2023-2024academic year are below. Late applications are not accepted.
Fall 2023 Cycle Deadline: 11:59pm (MST) on Tuesday, October 3rd, 2023.
Spring 2024 Cycle Deadline: 11:59pm (MST) on Tuesday, March 12th, 2024
Budget Guidelines
Please carefully review all budget requirements and restrictions (in the table below) prior to preparing an application. Applications that do not follow these requirements and restrictions will not be considered for funding.
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- All applicants are required to use the FSGP Budget Template. Add lines to the FSGP Budget Template to include all pertinent items. Enter all amounts in whole dollars.
- Hourly wages of research assistants must be listed and justified. Please utilize current fringe rates for all assistance benefit estimates.
- If Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) students are a part of the project, their wages are paid by UROP. Students must apply separately to UROP.
- Please ensure all requested travel is in line with most up to date UofU Travel policies (including any current COVID-19 Travel restrictions)
- The basis for figuring travel related to the project and per diem costs must be itemized and made clear, and may not exceed rates for per diem and travel set by the Travel Office
- Careful justification should be given for the purchase of equipment (including computer software, books, or supplies) which may already exist in the University. Equipment purchased by the research grant becomes the property of the University of Utah. Where leasing equipment is a possible option, the purchase must be justified.
- PI’s may not make any changes to the original objectives in their research plan or budget outline without written permission of the VPR. Should the investigator wish to use the funds for something other than what was previously established in the budget, a modified proposal must be presented to the VPR for reconsideration of funding. Modifications are not approved until the PI receives written confirmation from the URC.
- Once the grant is awarded, the awardee is responsible for managing the budget. All funding distributed by the VPR is subject to audit. The VPR will not bear the burden of over-expenditures, which must be rectified by the faculty member and his/her academic unit.
- ALL expenditures must follow relevant UofU Regulations (including 3-010, 3-030, 3-040, 3-100, 3-111, 3-003, 3-001) and use best judgment.
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- Grant funding may not be used for faculty salaries, graduate student-initiated projects, support to write dissertations or theses, curriculum development, career development (e.g., taking courses, attending professional meetings/conferences, etc.), and benefits on hourly wages (excluding those required by law.)
- Grant funding may not be used to purchase computers or computer hardware, unless the applicant can provide strong evidence that the project cannot be pursued without procuring that specific computer hardware or workstation.
- Grant funding may not be used to conduct research at other entities or institutions. Faculty are expected to conduct their research at the University of Utah, apart from fieldwork connected to scholarly or creative research project.
Required Application Materials
- Executive Abstract (up to one-page max):Abstract should include project goals or research questions, plan of action or research methods, planned outcomes, and plan for dissemination. Abstract should also include up to 10 keywords that help identify the key objectives, disciplines, research types, and associated departments of the FSGP proposal. Example: DEI, global, air quality, interview research, and junior faculty
- Proposal Narrative (up to three pages max):The proposal narrative must be limited to three single-spaced pages with a font size of 12 points. A one-page bibliography may also be submitted. Those with more than 3 pages will be returned to the applicant without committee review. All proposal narratives must include:
- A clear description of the project with strong objectives, specific research questions/creative objectives, justification for the project, a detailed, concise description of methodology and procedure, and verification that the proposed project will not duplicate research already undertaken by other researchers.
- A clear description of how the proposal addresses a clear funding need i.e., identify areas of research that have limited funding options, identify components of project that are challenging to fund (and why), identify why the FSGP program is an ideal mechanism for accomplishing a specific goal as part of a larger research effort, etc
- Budget Outline:Please reference the FSGP Budget Guidelines and Restrictions section of this webpage and required FSGP Budget Template when completing this section. Budgets should be well-justified, accurate, and reflect the full scope of the proposed work. In general, budgets should not exceed $10,000. In exceptional circumstances, the committee may elect to support an outstanding proposal at a higher level of funding. If additional funding is needed, substantial justification is required. Budgets must be well-justified and reflect the actual funding need of the project. Projects with deliberately inflated budgets will not be considered for funding.
- Abbreviated CV OR Biographical Sketch:Please provide the abbreviated CV or biographical sketch of each investigator listed on the project. CVs/bio-sketches are not required for associated parties who will not be considered PI or co-PI on the project. There is no maximum number of pages for the CV/Biosketch upload, however, please ensure all relevant entries are uploaded as a single PDF.
- Health, Safety, and Compliance Documentation:The applicant must submit evidence that the proposal has been submitted to the required health, safety, and compliance officials, including Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval for research on human subjects, and IACUC approval for research involving comparative medicine. Note: The URC will not release funds for an awarded project if not approved by the relevant health, safety, and compliance officials. Documentation of relevant IRB and/or IACUC application submissions must be provided with the grant application for the application to be considered.
- Resubmission Statement (if applicable):All resubmissions must include a point-by-point response to all previous reviewer comments, explicitly stating how the new proposal has addressed or clarified those comments and concerns. New proposals are not required to complete this step.
- Appendices & Attachments (up to three pages max – optional):Examples of relevant attachments include applicant’s relevant publications (include first page of publication or link to publication), descriptions of how the project will be disseminated to the public, etc. Appendices & Attachments should be kept to a minimum.
Important Note: Letters of Support will no longer be required for the FSGP starting FY24 (including Fall 2024, Spring 2024, and all future cycles.) If you have optional letters of support you would like to include for review consideration, please upload them to the Appendices section.
Review Process and Evaluation Criteria
FSGP applications are reviewed by the University Research Committee (URC). The URC is a campus-wide faculty committee tasked with reviewing creative and scholarly research proposals and making funding recommendations to the VPR.
FSGP proposals are evaluated on the:
- Overall quality and significance of the proposal
- Strength of the proposal's research questions, methodologies, personnel, facilities, etc.
- Articulated need for funding
- Importance of the work for the growth of the investigator
- Potential impact on the investigator's department, college, and discipline
- Potential Impact of the work on the UofU and surrounding communities
Important note: The FSGP review process may take up to 90 days to complete.
Final Report Information
The recipient of any VPR Internal Grant mechanism is required to submit a Final Report identifying a summary of the project, outcomes, next steps, etc. Final Report information will be shared in the award letter to selected applicant. The VPR Office will not consider new applications from an investigator until any delinquent final reports are received for any previous VPR grants awarded to that investigator.
Acknowledgment Information
The recipient of any URC award is required to acknowledge the URC grant in any published results, catalogs, videos, or other products using the following URC Acknowledgment Statement: “This project was supported by the University Research Committee (URC) at the University of Utah. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors, and do not necessarily represent the official views of the URC, the Vice President for Research Office, or the University of Utah.”
Submit an Application
Applications must be submitted via InfoReady.
Past Awardees
Information on 2019-2024 Faculty Small Grant Program (FSGP) awardees is available HERE.
Contact Information
Questions about the above program guidelines, eligibility criteria, application materials, etc. should be directed to Whitney MacKay in the VPR Office.