Some Guidelines for Applying
The grant programs of the Virginia Community College System are one reason
why the VCCS was recognized with a Theodore Hesburgh award in the late 1990s,
along with those terrific peer conferences that give a place to associate with
our discipline colleagues from the other VCCS colleges.
Visit the Professional
Development Website at the VCCS system site to check out the variety of
grants available, deadlines, guidelines, forms for applying, and more.
For VCCS Professional Development Research Grants, please note these
guidelines which are not published elsewhere and which are new and often quite
specific. The guidelines below are additional to those contained in
the downloadable Word packet of instructions and application form at the
grant site, a .doc file. The suggestions below follow the order of the
application items. (Here's a page of Susan Coffey's
FAQs about these grants.)
 | In general, use the exact space available on the form; this will
necessitate much trial and error in the Word document to maintain the same
paging, the same signature and date lines, the same space between items and
within the budget table. The currently available Word .doc file is NOT
properly aligned.
 | You'll have to align the page headers and footers after you copy the
document from the web pages on which it displays. |
| The margins are justified left and right; you'll have to "select
all" and click the icon for "flush left only" (aka
"left justification") to prevent lines of print from being
spread across the application page. |
| Once you have the application form properly set up, SAVE IT BEFORE you
start filling it in. (Advanced: For your personal blank, fill in
the information that will be true every semester, such as your contact
information on the cover as the primary author and possibly boiler plate
about the computers and secretarial support the college provides in item
10b. Then save the personalized application to avoid re-typing the
same information each semester that you apply.) |
|
| Only the Cover Page is not supposed to be anonymous. AFTER
the cover page, be absolutely vigilant about NOT using any names, any campus
or college name, not even a web address or email address because it may
contain college initials. Failure on this point has let to automatic
rejection by the readers of applications. |
| Also notice that the Cover Page must be signed by the folks who
allocate released time at your college and who also like to know when their
faculty are involved in interesting projects. |
| Only full-time faculty-ranked personnel may be listed as the primary
author; however, adjunct faculty and college staff have been secondary
authors and can still be. |
| Your abstract (item 2 on the application form) may NOT ask
questions because it's supposed to be your hypothesis, your best guess about
the answer to your research question and not the research question
itself. |
| If you have had several VCCS Professional Development Research Grants
(PDRG) before, do NOT use the exact number in section 3a because that
might give away your identity; obviously, you don't have space to list more
than one or two semesters in the space provided and so should use an
indicator like "several" or list the most recent two. Make
sure the final report for your most recent PDRG has been sent to the VCCS
before applying for another. |
| If you ask for time in item 4a, specify "stipend" for a
summer grant and "released time" during the academic year,
especially for full-time faculty. It is only possible during the
academic year, generally, for adjunct faculty to be paid stipends.
(Note the precedent: Division chairs who have submitted applications as
primary authors do NOT request released time for themselves; they are
usually offering to supervise other faculty. Full-time faculty who
have already maxxed their loads at 20 credits have done the same. Be
sure to list on the cover or supplemental page exactly who would be
receiving released time [fall or spring full-timers] or stipend [adjunct or
summer full-timers], if any, so that tax matters will not be a nightmare for
the college personnel and payroll offices.) Released time, if
requested, should be in whole numbers (1 - 6) and not fractions. |
| Do NOT ask for books in the budget (4b and 10a), even
multiple copies of the same book that you would be sharing with a group and
for which you would be leading discussion of the book face to face or
online. (Books are, however, a good opportunity for a "college
contribution" on line 10b of the application form.) |
| Item 13 on page 7 of the INSTRUCTIONS shows the actual EVALUATION FORM
used by the proposal readers. Method and benefits are
weighted double, but it's quite common to have a weak evaluation
method and to have a weak justification for budget items.
| Consider carefully: How will you define "success" for this
research project? |
| Carefully integrate the budget items into the method so that the value
of use of each item is plain even during a fast reading. (The
proposal readers spend several intense hours poring over the proposals
that qualify; they are rightly concerned about rigor and about being
fair to applicants--a double-edged dilemma that is compounded by basic
mistakes [like leaving a name in the proposal after the cover page] and
weaknesses that undermine an otherwise sound idea.) |
|
As more information and ideas for enhancing grant applications emerge, I will
post them here. You can help by stating ideas, e.g. for methods, benefits,
evaluation, or budget that you believe have gotten you this sort of grant in the
past--or reasons for rejections that are not stated on this page yet. Use
the anonymous form below or use your signed email note to ehibbison@jsr.cc.va.us
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1999