SBS Contacts  |  Faculty Grants  |  Pattern of Administration  |  SBS Compensation Principles  |  For Faculty

College Support of Faculty Research

Contact: Bob Kaufman, Associate Dean (Kaufman.3@sbs.osu.edu)

Download this page as a pdf

The College reserves funds each year to use in supporting faculty research. We currently operate several programs: Small Grants, International Travel Grants, and Special Grants. These are described briefly below. The preferred mode of submission of materials is electronic.

The purpose of all of these grants is to promote research. All applications involve a letter to the College indicating the purpose of the request. All applications must be accompanied by a statement from the applicant's chair or director indicating approval of the request. An important goal for the College is to increase external funding of research activities. Thus, your letters of application are most useful when they request funds that will 1) supplement external funds, e.g., at the end of a grant; 2) provide pilot data or preliminary work for preparing a grant application; 3) allow you to present findings at an international conference where the work is related to funded research; or 4) fund some item of equipment used in a stream of funded research. We will continue to support research that does not show obvious prospect of garnering external funds, although such support cannot be our highest priority.

Small Grants
The Small Grant program allows applicants to request $1000 for research-related purposes. There is no limit on how often a faculty member may apply, but these funds are intended to benefit many faculty members, and thus repeated applications by a single faculty member may be discouraged. Items that can be purchased with these funds include (but are not limited to) equipment and software clearly related to a stream of research, payment for subjects, hourly support for graduate students or other research personnel, purchase of data sets, etc. Your award letter will indicate that you have up to twelve months to spend your funds. We have stopped approving these grants for amounts less than $1000 in order to reduce administrative costs; researchers with specific needs for smaller amounts can request funds to extend their research agenda so as to bring the sum to $1000.

As mentioned, a letter describing the purpose of the request and a statement of approval from the applicant's chair or director are required.

International Travel Grants
International Travel Grants are intended to provide support for faculty researchers who are presenting findings at an international meeting (except for those meeting on the North American continent). For this program, up to $1500 may be requested from the College with a required match from the applicant's department of at least 1/3 of that amount.

To apply for these funds, applicants must supply a letter requesting the funds, some documentation of the paper to be presented (e.g., page from the meeting program listing the presentation, letter of invitation from the session or meeting organizer), and a statement from the department chair or director approving the request and certifying the departmental matching funds.

Special Grants
We continue to administer a program of Special Grants to address a variety of research needs that exceed the $1000 Small Grant limit. For this program, a 1/3 match from a departmental account is required. Special Grants may be requested to help fund such things as international travel for the purpose of data collection (as opposed to attending a conference), cost-sharing in submitting a proposal for external funding, purchase of equipment to be shared among a group of researchers, etc. The department and College must agree that the need is significant enough to justify the level of investment required.

To apply for these funds, a description of the research to be performed, proposal to be submitted, or equipment to be purchased must be provided to the College. In addition, a statement of endorsement from the chair or director that certifies the departmental 1/3 match is required.

I am available to talk with colleagues about the applications to any of these programs; conversations regarding Special grants may be especially appropriate.

Colleagues from regional campuses participate in these programs under the same guidelines, except that regional campuses play the role of departments in terms of matching funds and authorizing signatures.

Summary of SBS Research Support Programs

Small Grants

• $1000 is both the upper and lower limit
• Can be requested more frequently than once every two years
• Requires chair's endorsement

• $2000 limit
• Can be requested more frequently than once every two years
• Requires a 25% departmental match and chair's endorsement
• Application letter must show evidence that a paper is being presented at an international meeting and must include an estimated budget showing the costs of the trip. Travel to Mexico and Canada do not qualify as international.

• No fixed dollar limit on request
• Can be requested at any time
• Requires a 1/3 departmental match and chair's endorsement