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Faculty Research Grant Proposal Guidelines

The following guidelines should be strictly adhered to in preparing your Faculty Research Grant proposal. Proposals should be submitted using the online FRG proposal​. You may begin filling out the form and save your work by clicking the “save and continue later” button. You will be asked to provide the information below – you may wish to prepare your answers in advance and cut and paste text into the form. If you have accompanying figures, illustrations, graphs or charts which you wish to include, please compile into an appendix labelled with your name, and email to the FRG administrator when you submit your proposal. The Faculty Research Committee may wish to consult your CV as posted on your faculty profile, but if you would like to provide the committee with an alternate CV you may send it to FRG administrator when you submit your proposal. Questions about Faculty Research Expense Grants should be directed to Faculty Research Committee member Martha Risser.

Information required by the FRG proposal:

Title of your project

Abstract of no more than 100 words

Body of the proposal: Using no more than 2,000 words, explain your project. Because this is an expense program, give special attention in the body of the proposal to the rationales for budget items and their relation to the methods you will employ. Requests for expenses that may fall into a gray area between capital and non-capital expenditures must be fully justified in the body of the proposal. You will be asked to provide the following information:

  1. Please provide a statement of the problem/goals of your proposed research;
  2. Explain the significance of the work to your discipline;
  3. Describe the research methods to be used;
  4. Explain how the proposed project fits into your long-term scholarly program;
  5. Outline the plan for dissemination of the results;
  6. If appropriate, include a brief review of relevant literature.

Funding:

  1. Available Funding: List all current and anticipated sources of internal and external funding. This should include, but is not limited to, external grants and/or indirect slush funds, previous FRC awards, other Trinity grants, start-up funds, and funds available to faculty who hold endowed or named chairs. The list should indicate plans for the allocation of these funds during the period of the proposed project.​
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  2. Previous Funding: List all attempts to obtain funding from Trinity and from external sources during the past five years or since coming to Trinity (whichever is shorter). You should include funding for any projects, not just work related to the current application. Include the title of the proposals, amounts requested, sources, periods of proposed funding, and the disposition of the proposals, and provide a brief indication of the publications or similar results for each grant awarded. The applicant’s accomplishments resulting from previous funding will be considered as one piece of evidence regarding the likelihood that present support will have fruitful results.​

The FRC pays close attention to available and previous funding in reviewing requests, and applicants are urged to prepare this section carefully. In the interests of making College resources as widely available as possible, faculty members who have access to restricted funds will be expected to provide some cost-sharing on FRC awards. If an applicant has remaining start-up funds, a persuasive case must be made for FRC funding of research expenses that could otherwise be covered by the start-up account. Applicants who have balances remaining on prior FRC awards should provide 1) the current balance for each grant and 2) a concise and specific plan for the use of these funds. For current funding status, contact Patricia Moody​, director of academic finance.

Budget:

Download an FRGBudgetForm​ and then save and upload the completed form through the link on the online form before submitting your proposal. On the form, please list anticipated expenses and provide budget justification​ as appropriate. Allowable expenses fall into two categories:

  1. Non-personnel expenses: Faculty may apply for up to $4,000 per year to cover the costs of non-personnel expenses listed above, as justified by appropriate budgetary documentation.
  2. Research assistants: Faculty members whose research assistants meet the criteria of the Student Research Program should apply for separate funding through the SRP program. If the research assistant’s duties do not provide sufficient educational benefit to the student to fit the criteria for the SRP, faculty who are applying for grant periods of more than one year may apply for up to $3500 (total, not per year) to fund research assistants. These assistants may be Trinity undergraduates or other qualified individuals. The Dean’s Office will cover the cost of on-campus summer housing if needed.