Internal Grants

The Opportunity Grant supports research, scholarly and creative activities with the potential to attract future external funding. Submissions may propose investing in the success of an established program, as well as supporting new projects through funding for a pilot project, establishing or enhancing partnerships, or other activities that significantly advance the University's scholarly enterprise. Because Opportunity Grants intend to seed future externally funded activity, applicants should clearly demonstrate the potential of their project to lead to external funding.

The Facilitation Grant provides support for high-quality, impactful research, scholarly and creative activities for which extramural support is not feasible or for which external funding has proven inadequate or become unavailable. Such proposals may be submitted by faculty members working in areas where external funding is limited or proposing activities for which external funding is not readily available. The category is also appropriate for a scholarly activity for which external grants have lapsed or funding has been inadequate. Applicants should demonstrate a lack of available external funding.

The review factors used to evaluate Research and Artistry applications have been updated to better reflect the goals of the program and better align with application requirements. The new criteria are listed in a crosswalk between review criteria and application sections on this page.

The award period has been changed to allow up to two years for full completion of the project. The award cycle for this 2025 competition will start May 16, 2025 and end June 30, 2027. This change was made to allow time for start-up activities, report generation and unexpected delays and thereby reduce the need for no-cost extensions. Applicants should propose one-year projects. No-cost extension requests will not be accepted for 2025 awards and beyond. Individuals completing 2024 awards scheduled to end June 30, 2025 may request one no-cost extension via the InfoReady portal if needed.

The maximum budget for all projects is now $15,000 irrespective of grant category (Facilitation or Opportunity).

The faculty summer salary maximum allowance is increased from $4,500 to $5,000 per faculty member. Other restrictions on salary apply; please see complete budget guidelines for details.

Please include a glossary of abbreviations used in your proposal, if any. The InfoReady application portal provides two options for providing a glossary: a text field (type the glossary in directly or paste text developed outside the system), or a document upload field.

Provide a summary of the project not exceeding 1,600 characters. This character limit is built into the InfoReady application form and will be enforced. You may develop your summary outside of the portal and paste it into the text field.

The summary should be a self-contained description of the activities that will be completed if the proposal is funded. The summary should include a statement of objectives, a description of the methods that will be employed and/or activities that will take place and an explanation of how the project will impact the applicant, the University, the discipline and society.

The proposal narrative should communicate all aspects of the applicant's plan. You will develop your proposal narrative outside of InfoReady and upload it to your application as an attachment. The proposal narrative (excluding references cited and glossary) is limited to five single-spaced pages with one-inch margins in all directions and font size no smaller than 11 points. Please work within this limit to determine the appropriate length for each section below based on the content required for your specific proposal. Proposals that exceed this overall page limit will not fare well during review at best and at worst may be returned without review.

The proposal narrative should include the following sections:

Grant Justification

This section should describe how the application qualifies as an opportunity or a facilitation proposal.

For opportunity proposals:

• Explain how the proposed activity will better position the PI (team) and their eventual work for external funding.
• Explain specific plans to apply for external funding, including sponsors/programs that may fund the work and how the proposed project aligns with those programs, a timeline for pursuing extramural funding and other details.
• Describe previous attempts to secure external funding, including whether reviews of previously submitted external proposals justify the need for the proposed activities and/or internal funding in support of a stronger application, or explain the absence of prior external funding applications.

For facilitation proposals:

• Describe limitations on external funding opportunities relevant to the field, discipline, or type of activity.
• Explain why external funding support is not feasible or is inadequate for the project to be conducted or has become unavailable and/or how the grant, if awarded, will support the completion of a previously funded project (i.e., because funding was insufficient, to follow up on an unexpected but interesting finding, or other circumstances).
• Prior attempts to secure extramural funding may be described if applicable and relevant, although it is not necessary.

Project Goals

• This section should clearly state the project goals and objectives (hypotheses to be tested, questions to be answered, concepts to be explored and/or products that will result from the project) and how those relate to prior work in the field by the applicant and others.
• Articulate the project need and why it is important and how it will positively impact the PI's (PI team's) career(s), NIU, the region, state, country, or world.
• Describe how the project proposed, if successful, will be continued and lead to future projects.

Project Methods

• Define the methods that will be used and activities that will be conducted to achieve the project goals and to evaluate project impacts, irrespective of whether the field is artistic, scientific, or humanistic. This section should convince reviewers that the project is feasible and achievable.
• Please include a justification and explanation of sample sizes, where applicable.
• Clarify how the activities will be completed in the time available. Applicants should propose one-year projects and allow sufficient time for project start-up and reporting within the available two-year time period.

PI/Project Team Qualifications

• This section should convince reviewers that the PI and project team are qualified to conduct the proposed activities.
• Describe the project team including PI, co-PI(s), students (graduate and/or undergraduate) and other team members and team member roles and responsibilities and qualifications.
• Describe the connection of this project with the applicant's(s') program(s) of research, scholarship, or artistry.
• The description should clarify how the proposed work builds on successful work already carried out by the applicant(s). If the proposed work is in a new area, the proposal should explain the motivation for the change in direction and plans to ensure success.

Dissemination

• Describe a plan for dissemination of project results. The vehicles employed for sharing the work product will depend on the nature of the project and may include but are not limited to exhibitions, performances, presentations, journal articles, books, websites, or podcasts.
• Include information on how the dissemination plan will support project impact.

Provide a list of references cited in the proposal narrative or elsewhere in the application documents. Applicants may use the citation method most appropriate for their field, as long as the citation method is consistent throughout the application.

Provide an itemized budget request and detailed justification. Applicants must download an Excel budget form from InfoReady, complete it offline and upload the completed form to their application. Applicants may also download and complete a budget justification template if desired or may provide their own justification document. The forms are available for download once an application is started in InfoReady.

The total budget requested may not exceed $15,000 – including summer salary. Funds may not be spent before the award start date or after the award end date. Funds may not be used for activities that occur before the award start date or after the award end date. Funding is limited to the following categories:

• Faculty summer salary of up to $5,000. Faculty may only request summer salary on one proposal up to this limit, even if they participate in more than one proposal
• Graduate assistant salary
• Undergraduate assistant salary
• Supplies (including consumables and minor equipment)
• Travel required to conduct the research, scholarly, or creative activities proposed in the application (travel related to the project methodology
  • e.g., for data collection, collaborative activities, field research, access or archives, etc.).
  • Applicants requesting travel support to meet with collaborators should justify the need for in-person vs virtual meetings.
  • Note that conference travel/registration is not allowed
• Publication costs
• Fees for use of established NIU service centers (i.e., MAC lab, stable isotope lab, RMS). More information is available on these service centers
• Contractual services (e.g., transcription, lab analysis, access to research facilities, etc.)
  • Note that payment for contractual services to an external organization may only be requested if the service is not available via NIU
• Participant payments

Applicants are strongly encouraged to work with their departments to ensure student pay is appropriately calculated and requested and incorporates anticipated pay increases, etc.

Budget items other than those listed above are not allowed. Specifically, the following requests are unallowable:

• Costs incurred for activities taking place before the award start date or after the award end date.
• Faculty summer salary exceeding $5,000 per faculty member. Faculty may request summer salary in only one proposal.
• Other employee salary requests (e.g., additional pay or release time for faculty during the academic year or non-faculty employees).
• Any costs (travel, lodging, meals, registration, or any other cost) in support of conference attendance, including for presentation of project results.
• Costs of collaboration with external entities: Funding to external entities is limited to contractual payments to another organization for services not available at NIU (e.g., transcription, lab analyses that cannot be conducted at NIU, access to facilities required but not available at NIU, etc.). Direct payments to individuals are not allowed, nor are consortium arrangements with another organization to conduct a portion of the work (i.e., a sub-award).

If the budget of a proposal selected for the award includes unallowable items, those unallowable costs will be removed from the awarded budget and the total award amount reduced accordingly. Awardees will not have the opportunity to negotiate or revise their budgets.

Your budget should not include fringe benefit costs, student tuition, or facilities and administrative costs. These costs are requested in budgets of externally funded grants and contracts to recover institutional costs associated with those projects. Because Research and Artistry is an intramurally funded program, recovery of these institutional costs is not applicable.

You must provide a detailed budget justification in addition to the budget form. The justification should directly tie the budget request to the work plan of the proposed project and explain how the budget request will provide sufficient resources to complete the project. The justification must include the following information:

• Why each item requested in the budget is required to complete the project
• How each item requested will support the proposed project
• The cost basis for and total cost of each item requested, in dollars (e.g., "X widgets x $Y per widget = $Z total"; "X amount of time x $Y per time unit = $Z total salary/wage request")

Budget items that are not adequately justified will not be awarded.

Award funds must be expended between May 16, 2025 and June 30, 2027. Funds may not be spent before or for activities occurring before the award start date. Extensions of the award end date are not allowed.

Abbreviated CV

• Required for all proposals for each PI/Co-PI.
• The abbreviated CV should emphasize publications and professional activities (e.g., books, book chapters, proceedings, refereed articles, monographs, presentations, exhibits, performances, inventions,) during the last five years.
• This document is limited to five pages.

History of Prior Support from the Research and Artistry Program

• Required for all proposals for each PI/Co-PI.
• Provide a list of previous Research and Artistry proposals and awards including project title, amount, dates of support and whether it was funded or not funded.
• For each award, indicate how the results of the supported research, scholarly and creative activities were disseminated.
• If you have no history with the Research and Artistry program, you must upload a document stating as much.

Extramural Funding (Past Three Years)

• Required for opportunity proposals for each PI/Co-PI
• Optional for facilitation proposals
• Provide a list of all extramural proposals submitted during the last three years, whether funded, unfunded, or pending decision.
• You may retrieve a list of proposals submitted via Sponsored Programs Administration from the InfoEd database by accessing the Standard Reports or draft your list.
• At a minimum, the report should include the lead PI name and institution, your role on the project, the sponsor, the project title, the requested/awarded amount, the requested/awarded project period and the status of the proposal.

Internal Funding History

• Optional for all proposals
• A list or description of internal funding other than Research and Artistry support you have requested or been awarded to support the proposed project.

Additional Efforts to Obtain Support

• Optional for all proposals
• A description of any additional efforts you have made to obtain resources in support of the proposed project.

Letters of Collaboration

• Optional for all proposals
• If external collaborators are involved, you may provide letters of collaboration confirming their intention to participate.
  • Such letters must only document the commitment to collaborate in brief terms. The letter should include the collaborator's name, institution/organization (if affiliated) and a statement of agreement to provide a specific contribution (i.e., task to be completed, knowledge to be provided).
  • Collaboration letters must not describe qualitative support for the project.
• Letters of support that praise the project idea or PI(s) are not allowed and will not be removed from the proposal before review.