2019 – 2020 Awards for Creative Activity in the Fine, Performing, and Applied Arts; the Humanities; and the Social Sciences

Recipients

Sponsored by:

Offices of the Chancellor, Provost and the Vice Chancellor for Research

The Chancellor, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Research are pleased to announce Awards for Creative Activity, a new seed funding program to support scholarship in the arts, humanities and social sciences. A total of $750,000 has been allocated for this program. Awards will fall under three categories: Fine, Performing, and Applied Arts; the Humanities; and the Social Sciences.

  • Letter of intent: October 30, 2019, 5:00PM
  • Applications: November 18, 2019, 5:00PM
  • Awards announced: Late December, 2019
  • Start date: Early January, 2020

The letter of intent will be used to flag potential eligibility problems and for review planning purposes, including identifying cases where special expertise might be required to review a proposal. It will not be used to prescreen proposals. The letter of intent requires the names and affiliations of all investigators, keywords, and a brief lay summary of your project (100-250 words). Submit your letter of intent using this form.

  • Principal investigators must be full-time (at least 0.8 FTE) UIC faculty.
  • Lecturers, adjuncts, retired, emeritus, or visiting faculty are not eligible to be principal investigators, but they may be co-investigators on a proposal.
  • An individual may only be the principal investigator on one proposal, but may be a co-investigator on multiple proposals.

It is anticipated that each of the three categories identified above will be funded at a level of $250,000, allowing for as many as fifteen awards in each program area. This estimate may change based upon the strength and number of proposals received. The following two types of awards will be available in each category:

Creative Activity Awards
$2,500–$25,000

These awards are intended to stimulate new projects in the three program categories. Creative activity will vary by discipline and may include, but is not limited to, books, journal articles, digital and web-based formats, community engagement programs, design development, films, exhibitions, installations, and extramural grant applications. Budgets must reflect the actual costs of conducting the work and must be well justified.

Creative Activity Dissemination Awards
Up to $15,000

Dissemination Awards are for ongoing projects with evidence of success that demonstrate need for support for dissemination. Dissemination Awards are ideal for increasing public exposure of ongoing work or completed projects, but do not depend on having a funded Creative Activity Award. These awards are designed to encourage development of more robust scholarship programs. Examples could include funds for subventions, development of digital platforms, materials reproduction costs, exhibits of research and creative work, or performance of an original play or musical work. These will also be evaluated according to the three categories of the award.

Proposals should describe the proposed project and how it will make an original, important and/or novel contribution to the field, the scholar’s career, and/or bring distinction to UIC. Project descriptions should explain the conceptual framework, design or methods, and how they will achieve the goals of the project. Project descriptions should be no more than three pages (single-spaced, 12-pt font, 1-in margins on all sides) and must use the section headings given below. If no response is required for a section, please enter “NA”.

Cover page (not included in 3-page limit)

  • Project title
  • Category: Fine, Performing, and Applied Arts; the Humanities; and the Social Sciences.
  • Keywords (up to 5)
  • Name, title, department of all investigators involved in the project, with PI’s and Co-PI’s clearly identified
  • Total funds requested

Project Description

Summary Statement

State what you are going to do, how you are going to do it and why, in language appropriate for a multidisciplinary panel, defining any terms unique to your field. Highlight any new issues or questions you will study and anything about your approach that is novel or unique.

Significance

Note the significance of your project to the current knowledge in the field or related fields. If the project is multidisciplinary, describe its potential to contribute to a new (sub) field or novel approach. If applicable, explain if the proposal represents a move to a new area of scholarship for you or if there will be potential community or industry collaboration, or impact.

Timeline and milestones

Provide a summary timeline for activities by major goals or milestones. The entire project does not necessarily need to be completed in the one-year funding period, but the proposal should describe deliverables that represent significant progress toward the overall project goals.

PI Expertise

Highlight how PI (and any Co-PI) expertise and experience enhance the project’s feasibility.

Administrative Requirements

Highlight any critical administrative plans and agreements that will be prerequisites for the work to be completed, if any (e.g. access to sites, libraries, or equipment outside your control, agreement with community based organizations, etc.).

Leveraging

If applicable, describe how the proposed results from this project will – or could potentially be – leveraged into any other important outcomes such as student support, pedagogical improvements, foundation or corporate underwriting, or extramural grant applications. If applicable, identify specific sponsors, programs and deadlines.

Past Performance

If the PI or Co-PI have received one of the following awards within the past five years, summarize the project purpose and outcomes, including the title and project period: Awards from OVCR, LAS, Institute for the Humanities, The University of Illinois Presidential Initiative to Celebrate the Impact of the Arts and the Humanities award, or ADA research awards.

References

Include references to any literature cited in your proposal text or publications that substantially informed your project development. References are optional and will not be included in the 3-page limit. May be 10-point font.

Figures

Provide any figures and/or images on a separate page. Figures and images are limited to one additional page. Figures and/or images must be numbered and accompanied by a brief description.  Only figures and images referenced in the proposal text may be included. Text must refer to the figure by number when the figure is mentioned, i.e.  at the end of the sentence where the figure is mentioned, write “(figure X)” with the appropriate number.

Detailed Budget

Please use the form

Budget Justification (Up to 1 page)

Describe how and why you will use the funds. Use the following categories: (a) Personnel, (b) Materials & Supplies, (c) Itemized Services (d) Equipment, (e) Other. If a category is not applicable, indicate N/A.

Bios for the PI, Co-Is, or other collaborators

Please provide a brief biography (up to 200 words).

Other attachments

Please include any other documentation that is necessary for reviewers to assess the feasibility and potential impact of your proposed work, e.g., letters of support from key collaborators outside UIC, approvals for cost share. Proposals that request course release must include a statement of approval from the department head and dean.

Allowable costs

  • Materials and consumable supplies (photo paper, gatorboard, etc). This does not include office supplies or other materials normally provided by your department
  • Library fees
  • Services (printing, publishing, prototype development, CNC, etc.)
  • Salary and fringe benefits for students, post docs, research assistants or technicians. Please use the fringe rates given in “Other Assessed Accounts” on page 4 of the OBFS FY20 Facilities & Administrative (F&A), Fringe Benefit and Tuition Remission Rates.
  • Course release time (release time will require approval by the PI’s department head and dean)
  • Travel to visit archives, conduct field research or present project outcomes at meetings and symposia
  • Limited equipment requests considered on a case-by-case basis for items such as recording devices, cameras, digitalizing sources, etc.
  • Impact assessment
  • Costs related to publishing monographs, editions and subventions
  • Translations

Costs not allowed

  • Tuition remission

Projects will be funded for one year; requests for no-cost extensions will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Significance

Extent to which the project, if successfully carried out, has the potential to make an original, important and or novel contribution to the field, the scholar’s career, and/or bring distinction to UIC.

Approach

Extent to which the conceptual framework, design or methods are appropriate to the goals of the project.

Feasibility

Likelihood proposed work can be accomplished by the PI(s) in one year, given documented experience, expertise and independence, track record, preliminary data, requested and available resources, institutional support and/or, if appropriate, the adequacy of plans for addressing issues related to securing any institutional or community approvals. For larger projects (e.g., books), the entire project does not necessarily have to be completed within one year, but the proposal should articulate milestones for significant progress toward advancing the overall goal of the project.

Deliverables

Impact of the outcomes and any additional potential leveraging.

Career Impact

Potential for the award to help facilitate a promising early career trajectory or to support the success of a more established faculty member.

To be competitive, you must craft the summary statement so any reviewers outside your area can understand why your work is important. Please define unfamiliar terms unique to your discipline and avoid jargon.

Proposals will be peer reviewed by category and by reviewers who will be assigned based upon the content of the proposal and their expertise. The panel of reviewers will forward recommendations to senior leadership who will make the final award selections.

Progress reports will be required upon completion of the award period and may be requested up to five years after, depending on the project. Awardees may be asked to serve as reviewers in future intramural competitions. Complete details will be provided in the Notice of Award terms and conditions.

  • Other institutional approvals and certifications need not be in place at submission but they can be included if they are available.
  • If you include cost sharing it must be firmly committed at the time of submission and reflected in your overall budget.
  • Do NOT include marital status, social security number, citizenship status or other personal information on your bio.
  • Faculty without experience applying for similar grants are encouraged to ask a colleague to review the proposal prior to submission. Proposals should have clearly defined goals and timelines that are tied to the amount of funding requested.

Please combine your application components into a single pdf.

Application checklist:

  • Cover page
  • Project description
  • Budget form
  • Budget justification
  • Bios
  • Other attachments

No signatures are required, but you will be asked to certify on the submission page that your department head supports your application.

Submit your application here.

For questions, please contact RDS at rds@uic.edu.