Research Infrastructure Awards

The Research Infrastructure Awards support major equipment and foundational expenditures at the departmental or research group level. The available funding will typically be allocated in roughly equal amounts across two types of research groups – those in the mathematical and natural sciences, and those in the arts, social sciences and humanities.

Award Amounts

• Research Infrastructure Awards will typically be in the range of $15,000 – $50,000 each, depending on resources available and the number of compelling requests.

Eligibility

• Proposals may be submitted by departments or by research groups (see below) within or across departments or units on the Main Campus, led by a Principal Investigator (PI).
• The PI must be a member of the Main Campus full time faculty (TL or FTNTL), with the exception of the MSB faculty who are ineligible.
• For the purposes of the Research Infrastructure Awards, research groups consist of members who can jointly or separately use certain infrastructure to further their individual or collective research projects.

Selection Criteria

Subject to satisfying the eligibility, selection of proposals will be based on the following criteria:

• Quality: applicants should explain how the proposed expenditures will make a long-term impact to the department or research group’s ability to conduct research, and the breadth of this impact across faculty and students.
• Feasibility: applications should include technical specifications, discussion of faculty and student training needs, expected usable life, and comparisons with alternative approaches to satisfying the research objectives, if available.
• Value for money: applications should include at least one quotation, estimates of maintenance and repair costs, and the expected number of research projects that could be made possible as a result of the acquisition. Where applicable, complementary sources of funds that will be used to finance the purchase or to cover related costs, should be identified.

Application

Applications consist of:

• a project narrative of up to 1,000 words,
• a budget and budget narrative, and
• a current CV.

The narrative should address the issues of quality and feasibility outlined above, and include a description of the nature of the research that will be made possible by the award, the range of faculty and students impacted, and the long-term impact on the department or research group’s research productivity. Faculty are reminded to make proposals accessible to non-specialists by avoiding the use of technical language and clearly articulating the importance of the work. 

Your submission will be reviewed by faculty colleagues outside of your department, but in a related field. Please take this into account when crafting the language of your proposal.

Applications should be submitted via GU-PASS. 

The GU-PASS application window will open in December.

Deliverable

Recipients should submit a 200-word report verifying the acquisition of the infrastructure and a description of the department or group’s research activities that were made possible with the infrastructure.  The deliverable should be submitted by September 30 of the year after the award is granted.  Please include links, if available, to electronic copies of any materials – publications, working papers, grant applications, reports, etc. – produced as a result.

The deliverable can be uploaded in GU-PASS. Instructions for uploading the deliverable may be
found in this User Guide.

Faculty members who do not submit a deliverable as required will be ineligible for future internal grants.

Financial Process

Funds will be made available in a cost-center under the Vice Provost for Research. Internal grant funds should be used by the end of the Project Date indicated within the application. Should those funds not be used, they are liable to be retracted from the designated accounts and PIs will be required to submit a new application for the coming year. Any surplus remaining after will expire at that time as well.

Questions regarding the Research Infrastructure Awards Program should be directed to internalgrants@georgetown.edu.