Research Assistance Grants

Research Assistance grants are grants made to faculty to pay students working as research assistants on faculty research projects. The tasks for which the students are employed should have significant educational content and should allow the students to learn valuable research skills. Typically, students employed through these grants should work 8-10 hours per week for either one or two semesters in this position, and these students should not be employed in another work-study job. Proposals for Research Assistance grants should be submitted by individual faculty members, groups of faculty members, academic departments or programs, or LITS. The grantee (faculty, departments, programs, or LITS) are responsible for identifying the student(s) and hiring her (them) to work on the supported project.

Proposals for Research Assistance grants will be reviewed by the Faculty Grants Committee. There will be two deadlines annually in November and March, coinciding with the deadlines for Faculty Grants.

As with proposals for Faculty Fellowships and Faculty Grants, proposals for Research Assistance Grants will be reviewed by the Faculty Grants Committee. This committee is an interdisciplinary group, and so your proposal should be written for scholars who are not specialists in your field. In preparing your proposal, you should follow standards of good practice in proposal writing, as described above in the Faculty Fellowships and Faculty Grants sections.

Research Assistance Grant awards may include up to 8-10 hours per week of student wages for one or two semesters. In 2007-2008, the average Research Assistance Grant award was about $1,200.

If submitting on paper, the complete application consists of the original plus six copies of the following:

• a brief description of the proposed project (ordinarily 500 words or less) that discusses the methods, expected results, and expected products or outcomes of the project
• a brief discussion of the work the student will be hired to do, and how that work will benefit the faculty member's research
• a detailed and cost-effective budget
• information on other support for project, if such support is available.
• If submitting online, no additional paper copies of the application are necessary.

Note that unlike Faculty Grants and Reese Grants, all funds from Research Assistance Grants must be expended in the fiscal year in which the grant is awarded.

If submitting online, no additional paper copies of the application are necessary.

Application forms:

For paper submission

For on-line submission