Grants

The Center for Scholarship and Teaching awards a variety of grants supporting research, scholarship, and creative work and curriculum development.

• Faculty Research Grants
• Showcase Grants
• Grant Catalyst Stipend
• Prinz Travel Fellowship
• Small Research Grants

Faculty Research Grants

Annually, the CST and the Faculty Development Committee (FDC) coordinate efforts in supporting research grants for full-time faculty. Research grants of up to $3,000 will be awarded to high-quality research proposals that require substantial time (usually during the summer) and demonstrate the potential for having a significant impact on the scholarship of the applicant. Faculty members are encouraged to apply for smaller grant amounts for shorter-term or smaller projects. All full-time faculty are eligible.

Funds awarded for the research grants will normally become available beginning in the summer. Faculty who receive one of these grants are not permitted to teach courses during the summer. Exceptions to this requirement must be approved by the dean of the faculty and senior vice president for academic affairs and the faculty member’s chairperson.

Research can be carried out and completed by one or more faculty member and may involve students directly in the work. Please consult the list of allowable expenses on the proposal guidelines page. The maximum budget for each project is $3,000, regardless of the number of faculty members involved. Successful applicants will be required to submit a short progress report the summer following the year of the grant award.

Successful applicants are expected to share the outcomes of their work with the wider University community in a Faculty Research Forum or some other appropriate venue. Presentation of the recipient’s work to the Board of Trustees or to prospective students and their families may also be requested.

Research grants with an intercultural focus should also be submitted through this program. In this case, if the faculty member has attended an Intercultural Faculty Development workshop, a G or D tagging workshop, or has substantial intercultural experience, the grant proposal will also be eligible for consideration for intercultural grant funding by the FDC.

Proposals for work using human subjects must have applications submitted to the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at the time of submission of the grant application. Simultaneous submission is acceptable. This is in place to ensure that the IRB process has time to be completed and the project receives IRB approval prior to the dispersal of funds. Please note this also applies to surveys and interviews with human subjects.

We welcome preliminary contact while proposals are being developed and will be happy to answer any questions. Send inquiries to Nicholas Behm, director of the Center for Scholarship and Teaching (behmn@elmhurst.edu or (630) 617-3133), or any other member of the Faculty Development Committee.

Application Guidelines

Annually in January, this CFP and the Guidelines and Proposal Format handout are posted to InfoReady within the myElmhurst Portal. Full-time faculty who wish to apply for a research grant should write a proposal addressing the topics outlined in the Guidelines and Proposal Format handout (on the right sidebar of the grant competition site in InfoReady) in a clear and complete fashion.

Submission

The completed proposal should be submitted electronically as one single PDF file through the online competition site in InfoReady (see “Submit Application” in the upper-right sidebar).

Faculty-Student Showcase Grants

The Faculty-Student Showcase Grant program is designed to support collaborative research or creative work between individual students and a faculty member that will result in a presentation at the annual Research and Performance Showcase in May. A small number of grants of up to $500 are available each year.

All faculty members (full-time and part-time) are eligible to apply. Students may be undergraduate or graduate students and must currently be enrolled at Elmhurst University. Examples of eligible expenses include supplies, photocopying, chemicals, software, travel expenses and conference registration fees. The grants may not be used for monetary compensation such as stipends, personal supplies, journal subscriptions or personal books.

Students are expected to present the results of their work at the Research and Performance Showcase. Applications will be reviewed by the Faculty Development Committee, and applicants will be contacted with funding decisions on a rolling basis between July 1 and March 1 in a given academic year.

There is no formal application form. An email application with text within the email—not as an attachment—should briefly address the following items (not to exceed the equivalent of 1.5 typed pages):

• Names of the faculty member and student, departmental affiliations and student eNumber
• Short description of the project
• Proposed title for presentation at the Research and Performance Showcase
• Itemized budget
• A brief discussion of how this project will enhance your academic/professional goals and the student’s educational/professional goals.

Applications should be submitted by e-mail to Nicholas Behm, director of the Center for Scholarship and Teaching, at behmn@elmhurst.edu. Research using human subjects requires the approval of the Institutional Review Board prior to the dispersal of funds.

There is a limit of one Showcase Grant per faculty member in a given year. Multiple students may be included in the proposal; however, the total funds per faculty member are limited to $500 in a given year. If the students are working on multiple projects, a single, more broadly worded title should be included for use at the Founders’ Honors Convocation, should the grant be approved.

Applications will be judged on the quality of the proposed activity. Activities that most directly impact faculty scholarship or creative achievement—and that demonstrate a strong mentoring opportunity—will be given preference for support. Successful applicants will be required to submit a short progress report by Aug. 31, 2019.

Grant Catalyst Stipend

The Office of Academic Affairs is pleased to announce a new opportunity to support the grant writing efforts of faculty members. This new program will provide a $1,500 stipend to individual faculty members who wish to develop and submit a major grant proposal for extramural funding. This program is intended for proposals to external agencies that will fund the research, scholarship or creative activity of a faculty member. The program is competitive.

Grant Catalyst Stipend proposals will be reviewed by the Faculty Development Committee. Recommendations will be forwarded to the dean of the faculty, who will make the final selections.

This ongoing program will have two deadlines per year. These will be one-time awards intended for an initial effort in securing a major grant. Once a faculty member has received a Grant Catalyst Stipend, they are ineligible to apply again under this program.

Grant Catalyst Stipend recipients may request additional funding of up to $1,500 to attend a specific grant writing workshop or retreat. This may be requested at any time prior to grant submission.

Please direct questions about the program to Kimberly Lawler-Sagarin.

The Dr. Andrew K. Prinz Travel Fellowship for Faculty

The fellowship supports faculty in the development of international or domestic study away experiences. These experiences may be designed to be contained segments of individual courses or individual courses in their own right.

The fellowship is intended to support specific expenses (such as travel, lodging, food and admissions fees) connected to the development of site visits for a class. This may include shadowing an existing study away course if you intend to offer a version of that course in the future or a course in the same location, but not for shadowing expenses related to courses in other locations. The funds cannot be used to support faculty for travel for other purposes, or for faculty stipends.

Grants are for any amount up to $2,000. The CFP for Prinz is distributed in the Fall and Spring terms. All full-time faculty are eligible. Part-time faculty may also apply with the prior approval of the dean of the faculty and the director of international education.

Guidelines and directions for applying can be found on the InfoReady Site, accessible through the myElmhurst Portal. Faculty can also contact Nicholas Behm, director of the Center for Scholarship and Teaching, at behmn@elmhurst.edu.

Small Research Grants

CST and the Office of Academic Affairs are pleased to offer small research grants to support the research, scholarship and creative work of full-time faculty. Research grants of up to $750 will be awarded to high-quality, brief research proposals that demonstrate the potential for having a positive impact on the scholarship of the applicant.

Funds may be used for faculty travel for the purpose of research or conference presentations, research software, consumable supplies, research participants, etc. No funding for stipends is available through this program at this time. Funds awarded for these research grants will become available immediately upon approval. They must be used before December 31, 2019. For funding after this date, faculty should apply for the 2020 Faculty Summer Research Grants.

Successful applicants will be required to submit a short progress report the summer following the year of the grant award. Successful applicants are expected to share the outcomes of their work with the wider University community in a Faculty Research Forum or some other appropriate venue. Presentation of the recipient’s work to the Board of Trustees or to prospective students and their families may also be requested.

Proposals for work using human subjects must have applications submitted to the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at the time of submission of the grant application. Simultaneous submission is acceptable. This is in place to ensure that the IRB process has time to be completed and the project receives IRB approval prior to the dispersal of funds. IRB forms can be obtained from the IRB page, and you may contact IRB Chairperson Elaine Fetyko Page regarding the IRB process. Please note this also applies to surveys and interviews with human subjects.

Proposal and submission guidelines can be accessed through the Small Research Grants link within InfoReady. We welcome contact while proposals are being developed and will be happy to answer any questions. Inquiries may be directed to the Director of the Center for Scholarship and Teaching, Nicholas Behm.

Eligibility

Members of the 2019-2020 full-time faculty are eligible. Preference will be given to those who did not receive a research grant for summer 2019.

Deadline

11:59 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 30.