University at Buffalo (UB)
JEDI Research Micro-grants
Across many funding agencies (including NSF, NIH, NASA, and DOE), the need for researchers to address and include Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA) has been made increasingly apparent, and within the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), the initiative for Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) gathers together advocates and experts to support members of the SEAS community as they build the capacity to engage these topics.
As our commitment to JEDI grows, we aim to specifically connect research (of many kinds) to our efforts to build equity and inclusion as fundamental parts of the work we do in SEAS. More than a side project or a set of values, JEDI is what we do in our teaching, service, and research. Through this Micro-Grant program, the SEAS JEDI Committee seeks to support researchers (including staff, postdocs, and graduate students) whose research and scholarship connects with our JEDI values and commitments.
This micro-grant program supports researchers at any phase of their research as they seek to achieve one of the following goals:
- To integrate equity and inclusion concepts, principles, or frameworks into existing research endeavors (through mentoring, teaming, collaboration)
- To gather data about equity and inclusion in SEAS or Engineering and Computer Science more broadly
- To apply research directly to the equity and inclusion challenges facing engineers, computer scientists, and educators
- To enact a URM recruitment plan to diversify your research lab
2023-24 Micro-grant Recipients
"Re-Connecting Communities: Designing Roads for Vulnerable Road User Safety”
Austin Angulo, Assistant Professor
Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering
"Understanding Contributing Factors to Sense of Belonging for Engineering Graduate Students at University at Buffalo”
Eunsil Lee, Assistant Professor
Department of Engineering Education
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Request for Proposals
Proposals should identify which of the above goals you hope to pursue, explain your plan for undertaking these goals, and describe the intended impact of your research on SEAS students, faculty, and/or staff. Proposals should answer these questions and should describe the research activities you plan to engage with, including populations that will be affected, and articulate answers to these questions:
- What equity or inclusion problem do you hope to address or study? And what existing research (either your own or literature) informs your approach? If you are proposing data collection, what methodologies or methods will you use in your study?
- What are your intended outcomes for the project? What deliverables will you produce? How is this project connected to other initiatives, future grant proposals, or larger research projects?
- What is the timeline for your project? And what kind of financial support (up to $10K) will you need? How will you use the requested funds (student summer salary, undergraduate researchers, materials)?
- What additional support might you need from the JEDI committee or others to complete the project?
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Proposal Deadline
Proposals should be submitted by March 29, 2023. Recipients will be notified in late April.
RFP Overview
Duration
Research activities should occur over the course of one year, between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024.
Eligibility
All members of the SEAS community are eligible to apply for these grants; post-docs and graduate students should have a faculty sponsor and include a brief letter of support from their advisors.
Expectations
Recipients will be expected to present the proposed deliverables to allow for assessment of the project at mid-year and the end of one year. Recipients must also attend relevant meetings tied to this grant.
Support
In addition to financial support, recipients of this micro-grant will receive the following:
- Access to a workshop and materials to help support the development of this project
- A mentor to support their development and assessment of the project
Need assistance?
If you are interested in proposing for this RFP but need guidance, we can help. Please contact seasjedi@buffalo.edu if you’d like to work with someone to develop and/or think about your proposed project.
Review Criteria
- Impact and feasibility of proposed project: Proposed projects should be specific about the problems they aim to address and who is most affected by those problems and their proposed research.
- Engagement with IDEA best practices and literature: proposed projects should draw on existing research and best practices.
- Plan for extending impact and circulating findings.
- Qualifications of the team/plan for soliciting support.
Priority will be given to proposals that connect the outcomes to extended impact, circulation of findings in publications and/or that extend the project into a larger grant proposal. Proposals will be reviewed by a team of SEAS faculty/staff without conflict of interest.
Submission Specifications
Please submit your proposal using the provided quad chart template, no later than March 29, 2023. No SPS or CLICK interaction is required. Recipients will be notified in late April.
A “quad chart” is a single page divided into four quadrants providing a high-level summary of your project in a single page for a quick overview by the reviewers. It is intended to be more visual than detailed in order to quickly introduce what is important about your project.
Appendices
Projects that engage existing projects, data sets, or an existing study design can use appendices to describe these. There is no page limit for appendicizing data sets, but please limit existing projects or study design appendices to 5 pages.