Faculty Grants

For supplementary financial assistance to help defray costs of publication, travel, and other important but relatively small expenses of carrying on research. Generally, individual awards range from several hundred to several thousand dollars.

Faculty Grant Awards are for supplementary assistance in meeting relatively small, but important research expenses. In 2007-2008, the average award was under $2,000. Funds are limited; please also check for external sources such as your disciplinary societies. Our goal is to make the work possible, not to cover every expense. Lean proposals and those involving cost-sharing are viewed more favorably. (See the lists of allowable, and non-allowable, expenses following the checklist below.)

Grants may be used only while the recipient is under contract to Mount Holyoke College. Only one request may be submitted per academic year. No retroactive requests are granted (such as reimbursing expenses associated with a previously attended conference or completed scholarly work).

The Faculty Grants Committee judges a Faculty Grant proposal on the significance of the stated goals, the feasibility of the project, and the expected product or outcome of the proposed research. Since the Faculty Grants Committee is an interdisciplinary group, your proposal should be written for scholars who are not specialists in your field.

In the case of a proposal to attend a conference, please explain how attendance would further your scholarly work. Supporting materials such as the conference program, or a letter of invitation, help the committee evaluate your proposal. Documentation of prospective costs (registration, lodging, etc) is also helpful.

Please be clear. Please respect the word limit (500 words). Applications are due in the Dean of Faculty's Office by 5:00 p.m. on either November 14, 2008 (fall deadline) or March 6, 2009 (spring deadline).

Checklist:
1) a brief description of the proposed project (500 words or less) that touches on the above points
2) if prior College support has been awarded for the same project, you must include a statement of what was accomplished with that prior support
3) a detailed budget -- see below for guidance on what can and cannot be included
4) information on other support for project or a statement that no such support is available
5) supplementary materials such as letters of invitation, invoices for page charges, etc.
If submitted online, no additional paper copies of the application are necessary. If not, please submit the original with 6 copies.

Common expenses that can be supported:
Housing
Supplementary conference travel
Economy-class airfare
Train fare
Bus fare
Rental car costs
Specialized software or data products – not already available through LITS
Expenses associated with publication (e.g., page charges, indexing fees, proofreader fees)
Photocopying and transcription
Outside laboratory expenses for analytical work that cannot be done at Mount Holyoke (e.g., radiocarbon dating, tissue analysis)
Travel for research collaborators to come to Mount Holyoke

Common expenses that are not supported:
Student travel, stipends or wages (these can be requested through the Reese Grants for Faculty/Student Research or the Research Assistance Grants)
Course-related expenses and curriculum development projects that are not related to faculty research
Food associated with travel (food costs at conferences only can be paid for through the annual Faculty Travel allotment)
Mileage reimbursements for personal vehicles
Computer equipment
Other durable equipment
Disposable supplies (these should be routinely paid for using departmental budgets)
Travel expenses for dependents

Application forms:

Paper submission

On-line submission