Faculty Research & Subvention Fund Program

Harpur College Faculty Research and Subvention Fund Program

Call for proposals

Submission Deadline: March 7, 2025
Please submit proposals in advance of the deadline, if possible.

Purpose

The goal of this grant program is to promote the scholarly, creative, and artistic activities of tenure/tenure-track Harpur College faculty. We offer two kinds of grants:

  1. Faculty Research and Scholarly Activity Seed Grants
    Priority for research, scholarly activity, and creative practice seed grants is given to proposals that would enable a faculty member to start a new project or initiate a new direction in an existing project. These proposals are expected to provide "seed" money that will provide the basis for future proposals to external foundations or government agencies.  
  2. Subvention Funding
    Subvention funding is intended to provide support for faculty seeking funding support for publications, installations, and performances. Subvention requests are prioritized on the basis of immediate need (e.g., an accepted manuscript by the publisher) and career development. 

Award Amount

Applicants can request up to $5,000 but funded amounts may be less. To fund as many projects as possible, we encourage applicants to request only the minimum amount needed. 

Eligibility

All tenured/tenure-track Harpur College faculty who do not currently have research support from Harpur College or Binghamton University (for example, through research accounts awarded as start-up or retention packages) are eligible for this program. 

Conditions

All funds must be spent within one year from the point of the award. Funds cannot be rolled over to future times. Applicants are asked to focus proposals on work that can be accomplished in the time available. At the conclusion of the award period, awardees must submit a report on their accomplishments and include information on any external funding that they are pursuing (if relevant). Failure to submit a report on time will prevent consideration for future funding. 

Application Materials

Please submit the following materials through the Google form linked above. You will need to include a project title, an abstract (limited to 1,000 characters and suitable for general audiences), and a project description (10,000 character limit) Your application should be written in a style that is accessible to reviewers outside your discipline and to a general audience. The documentation will also require a detailed budget, information about cost-share (if available), and an up-to-date CV (max 3 pages). 

Use of Funds

Funds may be used for:

  • Purchase of equipment, supplies, and materials;
  • Costs associated with human or animal subjects;
  • Travel costs to archives and research locations;
  • Expenses incurred related to the publication of scholarly documents (e.g., books and monographs), the recording of performances, production costs, and the installation of art exhibits.

Since these funds come from the BU Foundation, we are unable to fund hourly wages for student assistants or summer salaries. Student support in the form of fellowships, however, is allowable. All expenditures must be in compliance with Harpur College, BU Foundation, University, and SUNY regulations.

Review

Proposals are evaluated by the Harpur College Internal Awards Committee. As the funding for the program is supported by Harpur Alumni, feedback from the Harpur College Advocacy Council is sought. Recommendations from each group will be provided to the Dean of Harpur College who will make the final decisions. Given the wide variety of backgrounds held by reviewers, proposals should be written for a general audience. The committees will consider these factors in their evaluation:

  • The project’s scholarly, creative, or artistic merits as well as the proposal’s clarity and coherence;
  • The significance of the project for progress towards promotion;
  • The potential of the program to lead to new projects, research, or other creative activities;
  • The likelihood that you will be able to complete the proposed work during the award period;
  • Your record of scholarly accomplishments.

The committee ranks proposals based on these attributes. Due to our the limits of our current funding, indexing requests tend to be ranked lower to other proposals. We also have limited funds allocated to open access fees (APC) to a maximum of $500 with the expectation that other sources of funding will provide the remainder. If you have any questions about your proposal, please contact the College to discuss. We are happy to help with the application process.  

Notification

We expect to notify awardees by late November (for Fall proposals) and April (for spring proposals) .

Questions