The Office of the Vice President for Research is pleased to invite applications for 2010-2011 Arts and Humanities Initiative Grants.  Support is available for humanities scholarship and work in the creative, visual, and performing arts to be conducted June 1, 2010 – August 15, 2011. 

Awardees will be expected to make their proposed work a chief scholarly/creative priority for the grant period.  Those awardees with projects eligible for external fellowships and grants will be expected to work with the Office of the Vice President for Research to develop proposals for external funding during the grant period.

Although all proposals will be judged on their merits, we especially encourage:  

·         Proposals for digital arts and humanities projects; and

·         Proposals for projects for which the applicant will seek external grant support.

Applicants proposing digital projects are encouraged to seek project development assistance from UI Digital Library Services, which provides consultation, production and preservation services for digital humanities scholarship via the Iowa Digital Library.  Contact lib-digital@uiowa.edu.

Budget requests may include travel, equipment, supplies, summer salary, research personnel, honorarium/consultant fees or any combination of these items, but a proposal must be for only one specific project.

The Office of the Vice President for Research is using an electronic submission process for its internal funding programs, including the Arts & Humanities Initiative (AHI).  All proposals will be submitted electronically via the UIRIS website at https://uiris.research.uiowa.edu.  This is a secure site. To gain access to it, you must use your HawkID and password.  The UIRIS AHI application will be available beginning on Monday, December 7, 2009. 

Applicants are well advised to submit applications a few business days in advance of the Tuesday, February 9, 2010, deadline.  As you know, problems can and do arise at any point in the digital process.  OVPR staff is available only between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. daily.

If you have any questions about these guidelines or proposal preparation, please direct them to Jay Semel (335-4034; jay-semel@uiowa.edu). If you have questions about the electronic submission process, send them to ifi-questions@uiowa.edu or call 384-3332.

Applicant Eligibility

• Humanities projects must be designed to result in the applicant’s preparing a publication or other scholarly work likely to make a significant impact on scholarship in the proposed field and enhance the applicant’s scholarly reputation among the applicant’s peers.
• Arts projects must be designed to result in the applicant’s preparing a work in the creative or performing arts likely to make a significant impact on the proposed field and enhance the applicant’s artistic reputation among the applicant’s peers.  The project director must play a primary role in the conduct and outcome of the proposed project.
• Proposed AHI projects must be conducted June 1, 2010 – August 15, 2011.  No funds will be provided for activities that already have taken place.
• All tenure-track and tenured faculty, clinical faculty, as well as Professional and Scientific staff members and lecturers for whom research and scholarship are assigned as one of the primary job responsibilities and have at least a 50% appointment during the time of their application and the year of the project are eligible to apply for an AHI award.  We regret that visiting faculty, associates, postdoctoral associates, fellowship trainees, and graduate students are not eligible.
• An applicant may appear as a project director or co-director on only one AHI proposal.
• Recipients of an AHI, BSFP, MPSFP or SSFP grant awarded or conducted in academic year 2009-2010 are not eligible for this call for proposals.

Applicants may submit a proposal for an AHI Standard Grant, AHI Conference Grant, or AHI Major Project Grant. AHI Standard Grants are for individual or collaborative projects and provide up to $7,500 per award.  AHI Conference Grants provide up to $10,000 per award.  The AHI Major Project Grant provides up to $40,000. All AHI grant activities must be undertaken and all funds must be expended by August 15, 2011.

NOTE:  Book subventions and subventions for art exhibit catalogues are not eligible for this competition, but one may obtain information about requesting such funding by contacting Jay Semel (335-4034; jay-semel@uiowa.edu).

Budgets

Enter budget items, costs and justification in the appropriate areas of the on-line form.  Be as specific as possible, listing each travel site, each piece of equipment, etc.  Explain why the requested item is essential for the proposed work.  Do not submit a budget as part of the narrative. 

The funding period is from June 1, 2010 through August 15, 2011.  Because it is assumed that awardees will make their AHI grant their top scholarly/creative activity for the year, extensions will be granted only under extraordinary circumstances.

Requested amounts may not exceed the levels stipulated above ($7,500 for Standard Grants, $10,000 for Conference Grants, and $40,000 for the Major Project Grant).  UI faculty on 9-month appointment who are applying for Standard or Major Project grants may include in their request a summer stipend up to $7,500 (including fringe) if they are devoting their summer to their AHI project.  Requests for Graduate Research Assistants must include tuition.  Support is not available for travel to attend or to make presentations at conferences.  General purpose equipment (mobile phones, laptops, etc.) are not eligible budget items.  Equipment purchased may be used exclusively by the applicant but remains the property of The University of Iowa.  In the budget section of your proposal, briefly justify each requested item; that is, explain the purpose of each trip, each piece of equipment, and graduate assistant, etc.

Note: Music composition and performance projects that involve the production of a music CD are now eligible for this competition. To discuss proposal preparation, contact Jay Semel (335-4034; jay-semel@uiowa.edu).

Types of grants and support available

AHI Standard Grants ($7,500 maximum)

AHI Standard Grants are for individual or collaborative projects. Requests must adhere to the limits noted under “Eligibility” above and may be for domestic and international travel (including transportation, lodging and meals); equipment; summer salary stipend for UI faculty on 9-month appointment (fringe benefits MUST be charged to the award and not to the college); supplies, software, research assistants or for any combination of these items.  Budget requests for collaborators from other institutions should show cost-sharing from that person’s home institution.  In an effort to distribute funds as widely as possible, we ask applicants to request funding for only those items which are absolutely essential to the conduct of the project.

Some hypothetical examples of proposals for AHI Standard Grants:

• An applicant from Music proposes to develop a multi-media composition with a computer scientist from California.  Requested funds include $6,800 summer salary stipend for the UI musician, plus $500 airfare from Palo Alto and $200 living expenses to partially support the visitor’s travel to Iowa City.
• An applicant in Anthropology wishing to do field research in Africa requests $4,600 for travel and lodging in Kenya and $600 for the services of a Kenyan photographer.  They intend to develop grant proposals to NSF and NEH.
• An applicant in English who is completing a book on Romantic poetry requests $7500 for a graduate research assistant stipend + tuition.   The proposal notes the applicant’s plan to apply for an ACLS fellowship.

AHI Conference Grants ($10,000 maximum)

AHI Conference Grants provide up to $10,000 total budget for any conference, colloquium, symposium or working research group.  Allowable expenses for conferences or symposia include speaker honoraria, visitor travel, printing and advertising.  Conference project directors are not eligible to receive compensation.  Preference may be given to humanities conferences designed to result in a scholarly product and to arts conferences designed to result in a public display or representation.

AHI Major Project Grants ($40,000 maximum)

AHI Major Project Grants support important scholarly or creative projects, assigned exceptionally high scores by reviewers whose scope, cost, complexity and potential impact are demonstrably greater than those associated with the production of the usual academic publication, creation, performance, or conference.  If reviewers do choose to recommend a proposal for a Major Project Grant, it is likely that we will have funds to make only one award.  Salary support is available only to UI faculty on 9-month appointment and is limited to $7,500 to cover summer salary stipend and fringe.  Proposals for the Major Project Grant must demonstrate either their competitiveness for external funds and/or significant support from their department or college.  Please note that this award will be available, not for merely expensive projects, but for especially complex projects that promise to have an especially broad impact.

Some hypothetical examples of requests for AHI Major Project Grants:

• Applicants from History and UI Libraries, working in conjunction with the Herbert Hoover Museum, request $24,000 to bring together scholars, librarians, and technicians from around the world to develop a research-based website dedicated to the papers of Herbert Hoover.  The narrative notes the specific NEH division for which applicants will prepare a proposal.
• An applicant from Cinema and Comparative Literature proposes to make a documentary film on the prairie landscape.  She requests $40,000 for production costs.  She indicates that she already has submitted a proposal for a media grant to Humanities Iowa.

All inquiries about the program may be directed to Jay Semel, Associate Vice President for Research, 335-4034, jay-semel@uiowa.edu.

*The National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities define humanities and arts as follows: The term humanities includes but is not necessarily limited to the study of the following disciplines: language; linguistics; literature; history; philosophy; archaeology; religion; ethics; the history, criticism, and theory of the arts; and those aspects of the social sciences that have humanistic content and employ humanistic methods. The term “arts” includes, but is not necessarily limited to, visual, literary, design, and performing arts. Work in other fields, such as ethics-and-science or humanities-and-science, is eligible for support.

Application Guidelines

Applications for all AHI grants will be reviewed by a peer review group, advisory to the Vice President for Research.  Applicants are advised to write in a manner that will be clear to reviewers outside of the applicant’s field.

Applications will be judged on the following criteria:

• The scholarly or artistic originality/creativity/significance of the project.
• How it builds on the work of others and on your own work.
• The reasonableness of the procedures.
• The reasonableness of the timetable during the grant period and for the completion of the project.
• The likelihood that the project will be completed and will produce an important work of scholarship or art.
• If applicable, the likelihood that the project will attract external grant funding.
• The record of achievement in the proposed area of the project director(s).
• The necessity of the requested funds to advance the proposed work.
• If applicable, results of previous AHI Grants.

All applications must contain: 

• Budget and budget rationale/justification (entered in the on-line application).  Be as specific as possible in your discussion of each budget item, indicating how requested AHI funds will be used.
• Project Abstract (entered in the on-line application) that provides a brief overview of the project.
• Narrative (five pages maximum single-spaced, plus one page Bibliography, plus one page Results of Previous AHI Grants) that directly answers the following questions in the following order:
  • What do you propose to do?
  • Why it is an important scholarly or artistic contribution to your field?  How will it build on previous work in the field?  How will it build on your own work?
  • How will the proposed work proceed during the grant period?  Specify what and when you (and any others) will be doing during the grant period.  Be sure to incorporate requested budget items in your narrative: that is, describe what your Research Assistant will be doing, or how you will be using your new equipment, and specify travel destinations and research sites with those destinations.  Describe potential difficulties or obstacles. State what will have been accomplished by the end of the grant period.
  • What will be the final scholarly or creative product?  When do you estimate it will be completed?  Give a rough time table for achieving that estimated completion date.  Identify likely journals or publishers or venues for your completed work.  If the final scholarly or creative product is digital in nature, include a plan that describes 1) how you will draw visitors to the site, and 2) how you expect it to be maintained and supported beyond the grant period.
  • Indicate whether you will be developing a proposal for external funds.  Specify the likely agency or foundation.
• (If applicable)  Results of previous AHI grants (one page, single spaced):
  • List all previous AHI grants by year since 2003 (or earlier, if you wish).  Under each AHI Grant listed, please provide the following information:
  • Full citation for publications or performances.
  • Results other than publications or performances.
  • If the proposed work has not yet been published or performed, please estimate when it will be completed and submitted for publication.
  • If the proposed work will not be completed, briefly explain why.
  • If your most recent AHI project has not yet been completed, briefly explain why you are proposing a new project for this competition.
• Curriculum Vitae(s) of the Project Director(s).  Each CV to be three pages maximum, single-spaced, that includes name; position; department or unit; degrees, when and where earned; relevant publications or creative projects; external grants and awards, and previous AHI grants. 

(Audio-visual materials:  Applicants proposing audio-visual projects are encouraged to send one copy of audio-visual material to Cheryl Ridgeway, preferably by email (cheryl-ridgeway@uiowa.edu) or by campus mail (201 Gilmore Hall).  Note:  Since reviewers tend to be most attentive to the narrative, applicants should be sure to develop a narrative that can stand on its own; that is, when asked to describe the proposed project, the proposal ought not simply say, "see accompanying material.")

Submission and Deadline

• Combine the Narrative and CV(s) into one pdf document (required format) to upload to the on-line application.
• The UIRIS AHI application site opens on Monday, December 7, 2009.
• Deadline for submission is Tuesday, February 9, 2010, 11:59 p.m.

Please be reminded to submit yoru application well in advance of the deadline to allow time to deal with any unanticipated digital problems.

If you have any questions about these guidelines or proposal preparation, please direct them to Jay Semel (335-4034; jay-semel@uiowa.edu).  If you have questions about the electronic submission process, send them to ifi-questions@uiowa.edu or call 384-3332.