Call for Proposals: Provost’s Digital Innovation Grants

Hubble's Sharpest View of the Orion Nebula by NASA on The Commons

Provost’s Digital Innovation Grants

Deadline: April 20, 2016

The Provost’s Digital Innovation Grants, part of GC Digital Initiatives, provide financial support to doctoral students at the CUNY Graduate Center as they design, plan, program, develop, or grow digital research projects that make a clear contribution to the GC’s digital research culture. Given the GC Digital Initiatives’ strong commitment to open access scholarship and to open source development, preference is given to those proposals that demonstrate how to make their work publicly accessible. Projects may be done individually or in collaboration.

This year, three types of Provost Digital Innovation Grants will be available: Training Grants, Start-Up Grants, and Implementation Grants.

Training Grants are awards of up to $1,000 to support travel, per diem, and/or registration for students to attend workshops, bootcamps, or summer short courses in digital skill development, or to participate in unconferences, code sprints, or hackathons. Students will be expected to write a short blog post about what they learned to share on the Provost‘s Digital Innovation Grant website when they return and may be asked to serve as a reference for future students who wish to attend a similar training event or activity.

Start-up Grants are awards to support the planning or initial work of a digital research project by an individual or a team. Projects may include creating new computational methods or techniques for a particular field of study, including research, preservation, or public-facing scholarship. They also could include developing a prototype, wireframes, or best practices for continued research. Successful applicants will be asked to share their proposal on the Provost’s Digital Innovation Grant website and to write a white paper upon completion of the grant that will also be published on our website.

Implementation Grants are awards to support the continued development, growth, and deployment of a project that has successfully completed an initial start-up phase. These projects may need continued funding in order to be refined for public consumption or use. They may need additional resources to make the tool presentable to an academic audience or to improve the design of an early prototype based on feedback and evaluation. Implementation Grants must offer some form of innovative approach to a recognizable challenge in the applicant’s scholarly field. Successful applicants will be asked to share their proposal on the Provost’s Digital Innovation Grant website and to write a white paper upon completion of the grant that will also be published on our website.

To Apply: Send a single PDF file containing all parts of the application to gcdi@gc.cuny.edu with “Provost’s Digital Innovation Grant Proposal” in the subject line of the message.

Proposals for Training Grants must include the following sections:

  1. Applicant information: name and full contact information (email, mailing address, and phone number) of the project lead, who must be a doctoral student at the GC in good academic standing;
  2. Training information: title, website, time, date, and location of the training or activity to be attended;
  3. Abstract: a one-paragraph abstract summarizing the type of training or other activity that the applicant would like to use funding to participate in and how it will be useful to the student’s continued pursuit of research goals;
  4. Narrative: A short 1-page description of the training or other activity that the applicant would like to participate in that includes a specific explanation of why the skills are a necessary part of the applicant’s research goals, how the training could be useful for scholars in the applicant’s particular field, and ways in which the applicant’s participation could be made useful to other students at the GC;
  5. Budget (max $1,000): a detailed account of travel, registration, housing, or other expenses related to attending the event;
    Appendices: Short CV.

Training grant proposals should not exceed 5 pages.

Proposals for Start-Up or Implementation Grants must include the following sections:

  1. Applicant information: name and full contact information of the project lead, who must be a doctoral student at the GC in good academic standing;
  2. Abstract: a one-paragraph abstract summarizing the innovative contributions of the project;
  3. List of Participants: a list of participants involved in the project (include title/affiliation for each participant)
  4. Narrative: a short (1-2 page) description of the nature and goals of the project and the work that has already been completed (if any);
  5. Work plan: a brief roadmap of planned activities with a timetable tied to project goals;
  6. Budget Justification (max $4,000 for Start-Up or $10,000 for implementation): an explanation of how and why funds will be spent on particular activities, services, or purchases (funds can be used for any aspect of the project but must be justified in this section);
  7. Faculty letter of support: a short letter of support from a GC faculty member;
  8. Appendices: Short CVs of major project participants and any ancillary material.

Parts 1-6 of Start-Up and Implementation proposals should not exceed 10 pages.
Proposals will be evaluated by a review committee according to the following criteria:
●      Scholarly excellence and innovation of the project;

●      Contribution of the project to the development and promotion of the mission of the CUNY Graduate Center;

●      Contribution of the project to the larger scholarly community and to the public;

●      Experience of the project staff;

●      Likelihood that work can be accomplished within the proposed budget and time period.

●      Preference will be given to those projects that will be made publicly-available and open source.
Work on project activities for Start-Up and Implementation Grants and participation in all events for Training Grants should be completed by the end of the Spring 2017 semester. Grantees will be expected to report on their work through the Provost’s Digital Innovation Grants website (https://digitalgrants.commons.gc.cuny.edu/) no later than May 20, 2017. They will also be expected to present publicly on their work in progress during the 2016-2017 academic year, including at the 2017 Digital GC Showcase, and to take part in collaborative meetings and discussions with current and past grantees.

Please direct any questions about this competition to Lisa Rhody, Deputy Director of Digital Initiatives at lrhody@gc.cuny.edu.