Pilot Project Grant

ELIGIBILITY

• The program is open to all non-student employees with formal appointments to the university. This includes staff, research associates, tenured, tenure-track, and non-tenure track faculty.
• Recipients may hold only one PPG at a time.
• Recipients may not have held a PPG in the previous 12-month period.
• Proposals are accepted from individuals and teams; for team proposals one member serves as the PI and the eligibility criteria are applied only to that individual.
• Members of the review committee are eligible to apply to the program, but must recuse themselves from the review of their own application

ACTIVITIES SUPPORTED

PPG awards provide up to $5,000 in support. Funds may be used for supplies, equipment, project-related travel, student salaries, user fees, as well as other expenses necessary for getting significant new ideas off the ground. Examples of the kinds of activities supported by the program include, but are not limited to:

• Proof-of-principle activities that would orient the PI’s work in a fundamentally new and promising direction
• Planning meetings or site visits for a significant new venture involving outside partners
• Gathering preliminary data for an important new interdisciplinary collaboration

PROGRAM LIMITATIONS

PPGs are intended to seed sustainable, long-term directions and as such, are not suitable for most fixed-term activities, such as individual performances, productions, tours or investigations. The program does not support already-ongoing activities, routine preliminary studies, or activities that would typically be expected to occur anyway within disciplinary norms without PPG support. Teaching buy-outs or summer salary to provide time for preparing extramural proposals are also not typically supported unless the impacts would be unusually widespread or significant. Conference attendance, symposia, the development of instructional materials, curricula, dissertations, publishing or similar costs, or the acquisition of general-purpose (departmental) equipment are also not supported.

AWARD MANAGEMENT

Grants are made for a fixed term of 12 months. Awarded grant funds will be available for use until the completion of the project or for one year after the award is made, whichever comes first. Any significant changes to project scope or budget must be pre-approved by RSP. Any unexpended funds remaining at the end of the grant period will be returned to the program.