Thanks to generous support from the College of the Liberal Arts, the Center for Language Science can contribute toward defraying research costs for pilot studies that will inform prospective doctoral dissertation research and external grant funding applications to support doctoral dissertation research.
These funds are meant to encourage and support graduate students and their advisors to seek external funding to support students’ doctoral dissertation research.
Examples of external funding opportunities for doctoral dissertation research include, but are not restricted to, NSF Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement grants, NIH Predoctoral awards, Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowships, and Dingwall Foundation dissertation fellowships.
- Eligibility: Students are eligible for this award who are working towards the completion of their master’s thesis or have obtained their master’s degree, who are in good standing, and who are progressing and continuing their graduate training towards a doctoral degree.
- Applications should be submitted by the graduate student and their primary advisor(s).
- Doctoral Dissertation funding proposals are up to $1,000 per project.
- A proposal is submitted by a graduate student (in good standing and active within the CLS) and their primary doctoral dissertation advisor(s).
- Deadline: rolling deadline from mid-September – mid-March.
- Proposals can be submitted to: Brittany Glunt, bdg11@psu.edu, copying Janet van Hell, jgv3@psu.edu.
- Funds need to be used within the fiscal year. This means that these funds must be spent and processed with Heather Mann by June 10 of the academic year in which they were used.
- Funding is intended to provide support for pilot studies that will inform prospective doctoral dissertation research and increase the competitiveness of planned grant funding applications to support doctoral dissertation research.
- Funding can be used to pay participants, research expenses, or travel costs to domestic field research sites. (Allowable travel expenses to field research sites are airfare/mileage and lodging based on actual costs, so no per diem. Please note that Penn State regulations regarding traveling to national research sites are subject to change considering the COVID-19 pandemic, so please take this into account when preparing a proposal.)
- Funding is intended for research-related expenses and will not cover costs that are not directly related to research/data collection, such as: team meeting expenses, meals or snacks, conference travel, delivery of outreach programs or services, or publication costs.
Review
- A committee consisting of faculty from different CLS-affiliated departments who together use a wide range of research approaches within language science will review the proposals and decisions announced as soon as possible after the submission.
- Criteria for review: All proposals must meet the points outlined above. Priority is given to proposals that articulate a planned external doctoral dissertation grant application and how the funding will increase its competitiveness. Proposals should present theoretically and empirically well-grounded research questions, a well-articulated plan of research activities, evidence for access to the research population of interest, a grant application plan, and a budget.
Structure and submission of proposals
- Proposals must be submitted as one document via email to Brittany Glunt at bdg11@psu.edu, copying Janet van Hell at jgv3@psu.edu.
- The current template of the proposal submission form will be distributed through the CLS listserv, and can also be obtained by writing to Janet van Hell at jgv3@psu.edu.
- Note that, in case IRB approval has not yet been obtained, researchers are expected to prepare and submit the appropriate requests for IRB approval for the proposed research within 2 weeks after acceptance of their funding proposal.
Project reports
Investigators are expected to provide a brief (one page) final report upon completion of the project by June 30, 2024. These reports allow us to track and report research outcomes as well as monitor the successfulness of the grant program. Please submit your report to the CLS administrative assistant Brittany Glunt, bdg11@psu.edu.
- If you submit an external grant proposal or manuscript that has benefited from seed funding (e.g., using data collected under the seed grant), please send that information to Janet van Hell, jgv3@psu.edu, so that we can add it to the CLS annual report we submit to the College.
- If you need to make changes to the proposed research, project team, design, or budget, please send a request to budget manager Heather Mann, hmg108@psu.edu, with details of the change(s).