Questions
Research-Education Opportunity Grants
Purpose
Research-Education Opportunity Grants are a new initiative (in academic year 23-24) meant to foster student-focused opportunities at the interface between research and academic programming. The intent of this program is to enable faculty or staff led student-focused opportunities that enhance research skills, provide novel opportunities for student engagement with research, develop technologies that can aid new instructional methods and/or facilitate course-based research activities. Successful proposals will serve groups of students; proposals for individualized mentoring should be pursued through the Student Mentored Research Training Grant opportunity. Proposed activities should clearly align with one or more Degree Learning Outcomes associated with the academic program(s) being pursued by the target students. A specific focus of the Research-Education Opportunity grants program is to support the development and implementation of student-focused efforts that would otherwise be limited by material or instrumentation requirements.
General Rules for Intramural Funding Opportunities
This program is subject to overarching rules and guidelines in place for all intramural programs. A summary of these rules may be found under the General Rules for Intramural Funding Opportunities.
Eligibility
Applicants to this program must meet all eligibility requirements listed in the General Rules for Intramural Funding Opportunities.
Funding detail Accordion Closed
Award information
Research-Education Opportunity Grant applicants may request up to $15,000 through this opportunity with a total limit of $7,000 toward support of staff and student salary. Projects with instrumentation requirements that exceed this limit may be considered with justification. In these cases, the instrumentation component of the budget will be evaluated as an ad hoc Research Equipment Grant request.
Award period
Funds are awarded for a 12-month period.
Eligible Uses of Awards Funds
Award funds must be used according to the requirements set forth in the “Allowable and Unallowable Costs” section of the General Rules for Intramural Funding Opportunities. The following program-specific rules also apply.
Award funds may be used to support:
- Costs associated with instrumentation use or training within approved University Research Core Facilities
- Research equipment, analytical instrumentation, or software intended for student use
- Travel costs associated with program development may be considered with appropriate justification
- Faculty summer salary may be considered with appropriate justification, but requests are limited to $6,000
When to apply Accordion Closed
Applications for Research-Education Opportunity grants will be considered once per year. Submissions are due February 7 at 5 p.m. with the award beginning March 7.
How to apply Accordion Closed
Research Education Opportunities Application Guidelines
The body of the proposal must be written using the Narrative Template provided, and the document must be saved as a PDF. The PDF document must be saved as follows: REOYEAR_Last name of applicant_First name of applicant, e.g., REO2023_Smith_John
Applications for funding must be submitted electronically through the submission portal. Applicants must complete all informational sections in the portal and attach the completed Narrative Template as a PDF. Please direct any questions regarding this process to ovpr@nau.edu.
Selection Criteria Accordion Closed
Priority will be given to proposals that clearly demonstrate the ability of the proposed work to impact a large and diverse group of students, and awardees will be expected to implement the educational aspect of the work (i.e. integrate new technology or into an existing educational laboratory, interface of core facility resources with existing curricula, pilot a proposed CURE) no less than six months after the award period concludes.
Efforts that enable undergraduate students hands-on experience with instrumentation or technologies are particularly valued by this program.
It is essential that all proposals clearly describe the number of students that may be impacted by the proposed effort, as well as a detailed plan to ensure sustainability of the effort after conclusion of award funding.
Priority will be given to the meritorious proposals that most clearly articulate significance and value, creativity and innovation, the abilities and qualifications of the applicant, the project’s feasibility and work plan, and the applicant’s access to needed resources.
Priority may be given to projects that demonstrate the potential for impact into the PI’s research program (e.g. potential of the project to leverage external grant applications, scholarly publications or presentations) as well as into student learning outcomes.