Office of the Vice President for Research

Democracy Small Grant Program

The Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) is pleased to announce an internal request for proposals for the new FY25 Democracy Small Grant Program.

As a land-grant institution, Colorado State University (CSU) and the OVPR are committed to fostering a culture of excellence that supports the success of our research, scholarship, and creative artistry community. With CSU shifting from a thematic Year of Democracy to make democracy an ongoing institutional priority, the OVPR Is piloting a new program that Invests In democracy scholarship.

The Democracy Small Grant Program will provide small grants to stimulate research, scholarship, and creative artistry in democracy broadly defined. The program aims to amplify CSU as a recognized leader in this area of scholarship.

The FY25 program Is a pilot and will provide the OVPR an opportunity to gauge its Impact. Therefore, based on lessons learned, the program may evolve or may not be offered in future years.

Description:

The Democracy Scholarship Small Grant Program is an internal investment initiative aimed at advancing scholarship that addresses grand challenges in democracy and civic engagement, offering support through two tracks: 1) single investigator and disciplinary teams; and 2) interdisciplinary teams. 

For the purposes of this program, interdisciplinary scholarship will be defined as: scholarship that integrates information, data, techniques, tools, perspectives, concepts, and/or theories from two or more disciplines or bodies of specialized knowledge to advance fundamental understanding or to solve problems whose solutions require fundamental research advances in multiple disciplines and research areas. Projects proposed under the interdisciplinary team track must include more than one discipline, even if these disciplines are within the same department or the same college, and must be justified within the proposal.

At its core, the program embraces a broad and Inclusive definition of democracy scholarship, welcoming a diverse range of scholarly approaches. These may Include theoretical, empirical, design, or performative methods, from any discipline or combination of disciplines. It Is essential to emphasize that democracy scholarship, as defined by this program, spans a wide spectrum of topics. Examples include, but are not limited to: democratic governance, processes, and institutions; civic infrastructure; conflict, polarization and conflict resolution, communications and democracy; democratic innovations; democratization of science; artistic representations of democracy; and more.   Scholarship related to any sociopolitical scale and geography are welcome.

Successful outcomes for projects funded under this program include a wide range of outputs, to include original scholarly work such as a peer-reviewed article, book chapter, edited volume or significant progress on a book project; submission of a grant proposal; artistic work or similar creative endeavors. Synthesis or review articles are encouraged.

Available Funding:

This program intends to fund 5 – 10 projects during the FY25 pilot and will provide funding support to each awarded project at a maximum of 1) $7,000 for single investigator and disciplinary teams; and 2) $10,000 for interdisciplinary teams. Additional non-OVPR match or leveraged support is not required and will not be evaluated as a part of this program.

Funding will be for a 1-year maximum period and funds must be expended within that timeframe (calendar year 2025). Funds will be approved and released at the program start.

Additional Information:

See the RFA announcement or the opportunity page within the CSU InfoReady Review system for additional information regarding specific required proposal content, eligibility, funding request details, program expectations, and evaluation criteria.

Submission Process:

Applications are due by 5:00 pm MT on November 13, 2024 and must be submitted through the CSU InfoReady Review system (https://colostate.infoready4.com/). The system will not accept applications after 5:00 pm.

Timeline:

DateOpen Date
September 10, 2024RFA announcement released
September 18, 2024

Open Forum: 4:00 – 5:00pm

In-person: OneHealth Conference Room

129 Johnson Hall

Virtual via Teams: See RFP

November 13, 2024*Deadline for receipt of proposal 
On or about December 13, 2024Awardees notified
January 1, 2025Program start date
December 31, 2025Program end date
On or about January 15, 2026Final Report

 

For questions and further discussion, please contact Dinaida Egan in the Office of the Vice President for Research