Overview of the Faculty Research Small Seed Grants

The Race & Ethnic Studies Institute annually funds a number of Faculty Small Research Seed Grants up to $2,500 each. There will be two competitions – one in the Fall and one in the Spring.

By default, the awards run for roughly one calendar year. We expect Fall awards to be announced in November and Spring awards to be announced in April. Funds will be set to expire and be returned one year after the funds have been awarded. Exceptions can be made; we just ask that any such requests are communicated to us in a timely manner (ideally as part of the application process).

ELIGIBILITY: Full-time faculty members for whom research is a formal component of their annual assessment are eligible to apply. Faculty must not have received an Interdisciplinary Faculty Seed Grant in the previous two years or a Faculty Small Research Seed Grants in the previous year.

These awards are designed to address a need for funding for research that could not be accomplished otherwise in order to complete a book project, major article, or series of articles, or other equivalent research projects that makes an impact in the faculty member’s field and/or race and ethnic studies in general.

Funds may be used for fieldwork, travel to archives, research materials, data sets, survey instruments, participant incentives, software, or other normally reimbursable expenses. The grant is not intended solely as a small grant to attend a conference, although proposals that include (or will lead to) presentations at conferences and workshops are strongly encouraged. The budget may not include stipend/salary or course buyouts. A portion of the funds may be used to support a graduate student working on the project, but the majority of the work should be undertaken by the awarded faculty member. For any questions about how the funds may be used, please contact RESI well before the deadline. Funds will be given as a bursary to be managed by the faculty member’s home department.

Pending space availability, faculty will be invited to present at the RESI Faculty Colloquium Series. Awardees should acknowledge the Race & Ethnic Studies Institute in any resulting publications, presentations, or other work products funded; and will be asked to submit updates on their progress and products. Projects will be chosen on the basis of their intellectual rigor, scholarly creativity, and potential to make a significant impact in the candidate’s field and race and ethnic studies generally.

FUNDING PRIORITIES: The Race & Ethnic Studies Institute is dedicated to fostering, celebrating, and producing cutting edge research related to race and ethnic studies. A wide range of research projects that examine the salience of race and ethnicity are of interest to RESI, however, proposals connecting to the RESI HSI Research Initiative portfolio are particularly encouraged. Texas A&M University is amongst the largest and most well resourced (in terms of total annual research expenditures) Hispanic-Serving Institutions in the country. RESI is strongly committed to building our university’s profile in HSI-related research. To best focus our research investment, we expect that somewhere between half and two-thirds of grants made will be channeled into the HSI Research Initiative portfolio.

ADDITIONAL IN-KIND SUPPORT: Grant recipients will have the opportunity to further partner with RESI by making use of resources that we have available, such as communications (web, press releases, social media, etc.), research assistance, and more. Please consider the possibility of these more collaborative efforts when you formulate your proposal.

Faculty Small Research Seed Grants Application

The application will include a number of questions for you to answer. You will also be required to upload two PDFs:

1. 2-page version of CV or Biosketch
2. A complete project narrative and budget. This should not exceed 1,500 words (approximately 5 pages). It should be in a standard 11-12 point font with 1” margins. It should include the following elements:
   1. Title
   2. Abstract (150-200 words)
   3. Description of the research project and expected outcomes at the end of the grant period.
   4. In addition to the general topic, include the research aims, methodology, sources and the contribution the work makes to your field(s) and race/ethnic studies generally. In other words, how will you accomplish your research and what is its impact? Use language that a scholar not working in your field might understand.
   5. Provide as detailed a budget as possible so that we can assess how the funds will be used.