Internal grant competitions help cultivate research success
October 2007—As the university community reaches for even greater heights in success in research, available funds for this year's four internal grant competitions administered by the Office of the Vice Provost for Research have been increased to $166,000, a 71% increase in funds since 2004.
In the last four years, faculty, professional staff, and doctoral candidates have been awarded internal grants totaling $359,000. "We now have data that point to internal grants as making an important contribution to strengthening our research enterprise," said Vice Provost for Research Richard Antonak. "I am especially proud that the competition for these grants has intensified and that they are contributing to the research efforts of faculty, staff, and doctoral students in a variety of disciplines."
Elizabeth Fay, professor of English, a recipient of a Proposal Development Grant for her project "Mapping Our Cultural History," agrees: "Small internal grants provide the resources to flesh out larger projects, as well as the psychological bonus of feeling that the university supports faculty interests in different kinds and areas of research. It's a real aid to the humanities in particular to feel that the university is behind them in this way."
Proposal Development Grants support individual faculty and professional staff members or a team of faculty and professional staff members who will engage in the development of a competitive proposal for submission to an external funding agency to support a research, training, or service project. Public Service Grants support projects that enhance the university's public service mission, making the specialized knowledge and expertise of our faculty and professional staff available to government, business, civic groups, schools and the community at large.
Lorna Rivera, assistant professor of sociology and community planning, was awarded a Public Service Grant to support her project Using Multi-Media to Promote Awareness of Women in Adult Basic Literacy Education.
"I helped to create WE LEARN because I wanted to make a real difference in the lives of the women I was studying in my research," said Rivera. "This Public Service Grant enabled me to apply my research and teaching to support and advance the work of WE LEARN, the only non-profit organization dedicated to promoting women’s literacy in the United States. These grant funds allowed our students to create a newsletter, brochure, video, and computer-based presentation for WE LEARN, and they helped to organize a conference about women’s literacy issues. Now, WE LEARN has important publicity materials that they can use in their fundraising efforts. Because of the Public Service Grant I helped strengthen UMass Boston’s urban mission by sharing our resources with communities that have great needs, and by creating important service-learning opportunities for our students."
Joseph P. Healey Grants support research and scholarly activities that enhance the quality of the academic and intellectual life at the university. All forms of research and scholarly activity may be funded through this program. Faculty and professional staff members are encouraged to view Healey funds as seed money for the initiation of new lines of research and for the collection of pilot data essential to the development of a proposal for extramural support of research.
Heather Trigg, a senior research associate with the Fiske Center for Archaeological Research, has been awarded two Healey grants in recent years. "The second grant provided critical funding for my archaeological research into economic and political changes that occurred among Hispanic peoples in 19th century New Mexico, a project that forms part of the Fiske Center's focus on colonialism and cultural diversity," said Trigg. "The grant allowed me to take both undergraduate and graduate students on an archaeological excavation of a 19th century New Mexican ranch."
According to Zsuzsanna Kaldy, assistant professor of psychology, "Healey and Proposal Development Grants have helped me to conduct pilot studies that were essential in securing the National Institutes for Health grant that I and my colleague, Erik Blaser [assistant professor of psychology] have just received. These internal grants help junior faculty get their first external grants and, later on, they help faculty to bridge research funding while between grants." Kaldy and Blaser are attempting to increase our understanding of human cognition and cognitive development in general by examining the visual working memory that underlies infants' ability to manipulate, learn form, and reason about the objects around them.
Finally, Doctoral Dissertation Grants provide support for, of course, dissertation research by doctoral candidates. The application and review processes often serve as doctoral candidates introduction to the maze of public and private providers of external research funds.
Antonak recognizes that these internal grant competitions are in large part so successful because of the dedicated work of dozens of faculty and staff who serve on the panels responsible for reviewing grant proposals. "Their expertise and dedication to supporting the university's mission are invaluable. I would also like to recognize the outstanding contributions made by the review panel chairpersons over the years. People such as Gary Siperstein, Manickam Sugumaran, Emily McDermott, William Robinson, Steven Rudnick, Stephen Hass, and others."
Application packages and submission and deadline requirements for these four competitions administered by the Office of the Vice Provost for Research (OVPR), and are available on the OVPR website at www.umb.edu/research/, select "Opportunities," and then select "Internal Funding Programs."
By Jim Mortenson, Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, to The University Reporter
[Contact: Paul M. Mullane; paul.mullane@umb.edu]