Seed Funding

Develop your proposal for external funding

The Ostrom Workshop has earmarked a limited amount of funds to provide support for affiliated faculty to develop proposals for external funding. Funds are intended to support activities necessary to advance competitive research proposals, such as performing preliminary work and facilitating collaboration.

It is strongly encouraged that a competitive proposal for a sizable project be submitted through the Ostrom Workshop to an external funding organization within a year of the completion of the funding period.

Apply for Seed Funding

Seed funding guidelines and eligibility

Eligibility

Internal IU Workshop Affiliates

Process

Proposal areas may include research, scholarly activities, and pedagogy. Fill out and submit the Seed Funding Request form.

The turnaround time for the review process is 30 days. Applications will be reviewed by the Funding Committee. This group will evaluate the funding requests based on the estimated probability that the project will lead to a submitted and fundable proposal, along with the fit of the proposal with the Workshop’s areas of focus. Proposals may be fully or partially funded in order to seed a variety of projects, at the discretion of the committee. Funded proposals will also have services of the Workshop’s Grant Specialist to help navigate the grant process, Workshop administrative services, and use of the building for meetings.

The overall merit of the research project will be considered and evaluated, with final selection made based on the following criteria:

  1. Intrinsic merit of the work and potential impact of the research on the academic field of study
  2. Potential for the award to provide a basis for further research support from external sponsors
  3. A final report to the Funding Committee will document how the funds were spent. When an external grant application is submitted, a notification of submission shall be received as the report.

Guidelines

  1. Only for requests under $5k. We do not accept seed funding requests for more than that amount. If you show forward progress, there is the possibility of a secondary grant.
  2. Expenditures for faculty salaries (either summer or academic year) or for graduate student tuition are not permitted.
  3. Successful external grants may be subject to recouping the Workshop’s original seed funding amount.
  4. In cases of partial funding or requests over $5k, we suggest you check with your school’s Associate Dean of Research for additional funds. We can also help you apply for internal Office of the Vice Provost for Research (OVPR) opportunities.