New Ideas in the Humanities

Opportunity

The New Ideas in the Humanities fund is designed to encourage innovation, as well as scholarship on enduring questions in the humanities. Faculty members are invited to propose projects that will result in the advancement of a discipline (through the development of new ideas, working groups, conferences, technologies, datasets, and/or expanded access to scholarly resources) and/or a major piece of scholarly work.

Expenditures may include research assistants, graduate student stipend and tuition (where applicable), postdoctoral researchers’ salary, consultants, publishing charges, materials and equipment, event organization, travel, and costs related to purchasing, curating, or creating data. Faculty summer salary, semester release time, preparation of textbooks, and course development are not supported through this innovation fund.

Eligibility

This funding program is open for submissions of humanities projects proposed by tenured and tenure-track faculty members in Division I and II, and professors of the practice, university lecturers, lecturers with the rank of professor, and senior lecturers in Division I.

Submissions are limited to one proposal per principal investigator.

Other things being equal, preference will be given to individuals who did not receive funding in previous rounds of this competition. 

Award

Proposers may request up to $50,000 (total) for projects lasting up to two years.

Reporting

After completion of the project, a summary narrative and brief financial statement should be submitted to the Office of the Dean for Research, summarizing the outcomes and documenting expenses. A copy of the suggested report template is available online

Application

Applications are to be submitted online using the InfoReady Review platform. 

Applicants are encouraged to use this template to compose a narrative of up to three pages.

Separate from the proposal narrative document, provide the following materials. A one-page budget that specifically describes how the funds will be utilized to accomplish the research objectives. A list of other internal or external funding (applied for or awarded) that explains how they relate to the research described in this particular proposal. A one- to three-page biographical sketch for each principal investigator or senior personnel on the project. When developing these materials, applicants are strongly encouraged to work with their regular grants manager, who will ensure that a prospective budget, other support, and biographical sketch will have all of the information needed for reviewers to assess them as key components of the proposal. If relevant to the proposed project, letters of support from collaborators may be included, but such letters are not required.

Proposals will be judged on the basis of quality (the soundness and persuasiveness of the concept and the elegance of the design), originality (how the proposal brings new ideas together to suggest surprising outcomes) and potential impact (the ways in which the proposed activity will shift thinking in the field toward new methodological or topical directions or the ways it will help address important questions in the area of scholarship). Additionally, the availability of other internal and external resources to support the project will be considered. The proposal template is provided to assist faculty in developing their submission; the committee will not use adherence to the template as a review criterion.

Due Date

Online application submission is due by Friday, March 1, 2024.

Any questions may be brought to the attention of Karla Ewalt, Senior Associate Dean for Research, at [email protected].

Call for Proposals

  • Dates
    • Submission deadline: Friday, March 1, 2024
    • Funding could start as early as: June 1, 2024
  • Apply
    • Upload your proposal here starting Jan. 8, 2024 (login required)
  • Contact
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