Presidential Grant

Presidential Faculty-Student Collaboration Grant

The deadline is February 1, 2025 by 5:00PM.

Grant Description

Presidential Faculty-Student Collaboration Grants are available annually to support collaborative endeavors involving faculty and students.

Collaboration is understood to include in-depth faculty-mentored undergraduate scholarly or creative projects in any discipline. For the purposes of this grant, collaboration means the active involvement of the faculty member in the student's project. This might be a full-fledged faculty-student project partnership, a student project that is closely mentored by the faculty member, or a student's active and meaningful participation in an ongoing faculty research project. Successful proposals will clearly articulate an impact for the student and demonstrate a mentoring relationship between faculty and student that encourages scholarly/creative work in a collaborative manner and environment. The annual deadline to apply for a Presidential Faculty-Student Collaboration grant is February 1 by 5:00PM.

Proposal Requirements

Proposals must be submitted via the Google Form application. Please adhere to the word limit and remember that grant reviewers may or may not have representatives in your field, thus your proposal should be written for a broad audience and avoid any jargon. The application form asks for the following information:

  1. Faculty Information
    1. Name, Email, Rank/Status, Department/Program
    2. Brief biography of faculty participant(s) and explanation of how this project fits into their career trajectory (300 words)
    3. CV (upload file)
    4. Administrative Assistant name
  2. Student Collaborator Information
    1. Name, Gustavus Email, Student ID, Major(s), Anticipated Graduation Year
    2. Brief biography of the student participant that explains how this project fits into their educational trajectory and describes their qualifications for the proposed project. Biography must be written by the student. (150-400 words)
    3. Student Resume (upload file)
  3. Project Information
    1. Project Title
    2. Project description: Project description: Briefly describe the proposed research/creative project, its relationship to existing scholarship in the field, its central questions, and its proposed contribution (500 words)
    3. Plan for the grant period: Provide a detailed description of what you plan to do during the grant period and describe the nature of the collaboration with the student applicant (300 words)
    4. Outcomes: What are the anticipated outcomes for this project? Where do you and the student collaborator anticipate publishing, presenting, exhibiting, or otherwise disseminating this project? (200 words)
    5. Feasibility: Explain how the proposed work is appropriate for the planned time frame. Please note that the grant funding period should be between May 15 and August 14. Extension of project funds beyond August 14 is possible only by special request. (200 words)
    6. Budget Rationale: Provide a justification for any project expenses for which you are requesting funds. 
    7. Budget Spreadsheet. Download and fill out this Budget_2025_Template_PRESIDENTIAL and upload the file with your application. 
  4. Additional Information
    1. Have you received a Presidential grant before?
    2. If you answered "yes" above, please indicate when you received the award(s) and briefly summarize the project outcomes.
    3. Have you applied for or received funding from another source to support this project?
    4. If you replied "yes" to the previous questions, please describe the status of the funding and how it will affect/complement the Presidential grant, if awarded.

Criteria for Selection

In assessing the applications, the committee looks for: 
  • Evidence of strong faculty-student collaboration and a well-developed mentorship plan
  • Compelling project design
  • Clearly articulated contribution to the field
  • Impact on student academic trajectory 
  • Feasibility of the proposed project

Guidelines

In preparing their applications, faculty should keep the following in mind:
  • Presidential grant funds support faculty summer stipends (up to $3,000) for supervision of and collaboration with a summer research student.
  • Summer compensation for students is hourly and set by the College (Summer 2024 rate = $15.44 per hour). Maximum is 400 hours; not to exceed 40 hours per week for 10 weeks.
  • An additional $1000 is available for project costs, such as equipment, materials, transportation, etc.
  • Grant recipients must get IRB approval if their research involves human subjects and IACUC approval for animal research.
  • Award funding begins May 15. 

Eligibility

  • A faculty member cannot receive both the Research, Scholarship, and Creativity grant and the Presidential Faculty/Student Collaboration grant in the same year.
  • Awards may be used as matching funds for outside support awarded to the faculty member.
  • Applicants who did not submit previous grant reports will not be eligible to apply.
  • Priority will be given to quality proposals submitted by candidates who have not been funded through a Presidential Faculty/Student Collaboration grant in the previous two years.

Budget Guidelines

  • Up to $1000 in project costs may include:
    • Registration fees for workshops, seminars, online courses, and webinars that advance faculty member’s preparation for research
    • Specialized training (e.g. how to use new instruments/equipment)
    • Outside guest experts that support scholarly development
    • Materials and supplies
    • Travel to further a line of inquiry (e.g. visit an archive, undertake an ethnographic project, use lab equipment not available at Gustavus)
    • Fees associated with collecting primary materials
    • Publishing fees
    • Research participant incentives
  • Project costs may not include:
    • Workshops, seminars, or meetings for which grant recipients are given a stipend by an outside granting agency
    • Travel to professional conference (see Faculty Travel Fund and Student Travel Fund)
    • Stipends to Gustavus Adolphus College staff or students other than the student applicant
    • Guest lecture honoraria; these should normally be supported through departments and programs
    • Entertainment (i.e, food, gift cards, refreshments at an event, etc.)

Expectations of Grant Recipients

  • Students are expected to present their progress on the grant project at the 2025 Gustavus Fall Research Symposium.
  • To receive the summer stipend for work completed outside of faculty contracts, faculty must complete a verification of work form by September 15, 2025.
  • Spending should be completed and a final report of grant activity submitted by February 1, 2026; extensions must be requested in writing by January 15, 2026. Failure to submit the final report will disqualify recipient(s) from receiving other internal grant funding.
  • Grant recipients may be expected to write a note of appreciation and brief summary of their project to a donor who has contributed to the endowed funds that support this grant.
  • Grant recipients may be asked to serve as a reviewer for future grant cycles.