LMU Mini-Grants Program

About the Mini-Grant Program

The LMU Mini-Grants Program is intended to support and encourage scholarly activity at LMU. These grants are made available to assist junior faculty in building a portfolio or for veteran faculty who wish to initiate scholarly activities in a new area. The successfully funded proposal should act as seed money making it possible for the researcher(s) to apply and be competitive to outside granting or contracting agencies. The results of funded projects should be disseminated to a professional audience such as a peer reviewed publication or discipline-appropriate outlet.

The LMU Mini Grants committee evaluates proposals and makes recommendations to the Committee on Scholarly Activity (COSA). Grants are awarded for a one-year period; funds must be spent within the one-year period. Funds allocated for a research project may not be transferred to another project or used for any other purpose. Any unused funds will remain in the LMU Mini-Grants fund.

The LMU Mini-Grants committee chair reviews all grant proposals and provides comments to the COSA committee with regard to, but not limited to, (a) consistency with the University's mission and purpose, and (b) the potential for external funding. The Executive Director of the ORGSP also maintains a database on grants funded from past cycles and can provide examples of funded proposals.

Applications will be invited for projects requesting up to $4,000 in support. The number of awards made will be dependent upon the amount of funding available and the evaluation of applications made by the committee. A faculty member may receive no more than one award per fiscal year. Recipients will make every reasonable effort to fulfill the expectations under which the award is made. The project must be completed within the time period for which it was funded. Any significant deviation from the funded proposal must be approved in advance by the COSA.

LMU Mini-Grants may be requested to support library research for faculty and modest costs of supplies and travel to collect or analyze data. Grants also may be used to defray the costs of computer software. LMU Mini-Grants will not support individual journal subscriptions and/or membership fees, travel to conferences, academic year faculty stipends, clerical support for manuscript preparation, support for advanced degrees, or preparation/publication of theses or dissertations.

Eligibility

Full-time faculty/staff of the non-professional schools are eligible to apply for funding. Consideration will be given to those projects that are collaborative and initiate an ongoing program of research, and/or have the potential to lead to external funding.

Application Information

Deadline: 11:59pm EST on February 1, 2024

Notification of Funding Awards

Mini-grants will be reviewed and awards made on the following basis:

• Availability of funds

• Research merit (originality, research significance, research design, predicted outcome, previous research achievements of the applicant, etc.)
• Broader impact (the likelihood that the project will either produce or be incorporated within published material; the potential for external funding, etc.)

A written report must be submitted electronically to the Executive Director of the ORGSP within one month of completion of any project funded by the Mini-Grants fund. The recipient(s) must present the results of the research effort to peer faculty at a "research day" or seminar on-campus, scheduled to highlight research efforts of University faculty.

All charges against the LMU Research Grants fund must be consistent with the policies of the University. The recipient(s) must submit a full financial accounting to the ORGSP within one month of completion of the research. Questions regarding financial accounting should be addressed to the Post-Awards Grants Manager.