CASSPR Grants
for Research on Children and their Families

Projects will receive up to $9,000
Deadline: Monday, March 5, 2007 

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The University of Iowa Obermann Center for Advanced Studies invites proposals from UI researchers and scholars in all departments for Obermann Center for Advanced Studies Spelman Rockefeller (CASSPR) Grants. CASSPR Grants support studies that increase our understanding of and the well-being of children and their families.

Funded projects will receive up to $9,000. Funding will be available for about three projects. CASSPR grants are supported by interest earned on a decades-old gift to The University from the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Fund.

All UI tenured and tenure-track faculty mem-bers are eligible. Also eligible are UI clinical faculty members on salaried appointment and UI Professional and Scientific staff members with a terminal degree, a record of research in the proposed area, and a fulltime regular (that is, not temporary) appointment. We regret that visiting faculty, lecturers, adjunct faculty members and post docs are not eligible. Individuals who received a CASSPR grant last year are not eligible for consideration this year.

Projects of all sorts and at all stages of development are invited. A proposed project may represent basic or applied or clinical research; may be an empirical, theoretical, or interpretive study or may be a demonstration project; may be a pilot study or the final push in a long-running project.

Whatever the project, it must be designed to result in an important scholarly product, such as a peer-reviewed article, a book, or a proposal for an external research grant.

CASSPR grants have been awarded to a broad range of projects: a study of risk preferences in young children; research on work-family policies; a memoir of teaching in a segregated southern school; research on anemia in the neonatal period; a study of families in Andean marketing; research on whether oligonucleotides modulate inflammation in asthma; research on the health status of rural homeless women and children.

Inquiries about CASSPR grants should be directed to:
Jay Semel
Obermann Center for Advanced Studies
N103 Oakdale Hall phone: 335-4034
e-mail: jay-semel@uiowa.edu.

CASSPR Proposal Guidelines

Review panelists, selected largely from relevant Vice President for Research Advisory Groups, will represent a broad range of disciplines. We advise applicants to write proposals so that they instruct and engage reviewers who may be unfamiliar with an applicant’s discipline or area of research.

Reviewers will judge proposals on the following criteria: potential importance of the study to the well-being of children and their families; contribution to scholarship in the field; qualifications and research record of the applicant; appropriateness of the methods or procedures; likelihood that the project will result in an important article, book, or external grant; importance of the requested funding in advancing the project; and, if applicable, the results of any previous CASSPR grant to the applicant.

Proposed budget requests of up to $9,000 may include items such as summer stipends and fringe benefits ($6,000 maximum for stipend + fringe), research assistants, research travel expenses, supplies, project-specific equipment, fees, expenses for visiting collaborators. Budget requests may not include general-use equipment (e.g., computers) or travel to conferences.

All proposals should contain the following:

1. a cover page that indicates the title of the project, the name, rank or title, department, campus address, email and phone number of the director(s) of the proposed project; the signatures of the project director(s) and department executive officer(s). Note: P&S cover pages should include a statement, signed by the applicant’s supervisor, that reads: “The proposed work represents the applicant’s independent research agenda. The applicant will have time and equipment necessary to conduct this independent research.”
2. a summary (one page) that provides a brief overview of the project;
3. a narrative (maximum: five pages) that explains:
   1. what the applicant proposes to do during the grant period
   2. how the project will enhance the well-being of children or their families
   3. why the project is of scholarly importance
   4. what related work has been done by the applicant and by others
   5. how the work will proceed. Please describe methods and procedures, provide a project timetable, and state what will be accomplished by the end of the grant period. If the work is collaborative, please indicate the respective tasks of the collaborators
   6. what scholarly products (research publications or external research grant proposals) are anticipated
      
   7. what will be the final research products (external research grant proposals and/or research publications) and an estimate of a completion date? Specify likely funding agencies and/or journals for your completed work.
4. a budget (one page) that indicates how CASSPR funds will be used (maximum award is $9,000) and why that funding is necessary (this is especially important if the applicant has other sources of support or is asking for a summer stipend). Describe the entire budget for the project, noting other confirmed or pending sources of internal or external support;
5. a curriculum vitae (3 pages) for the project director(s). Include current position, dates of appointment; degrees; relevant publications, grants, courses. Note: an applicant who previously received a CASSPR grant should fully reference that grant and indicate any resulting publications or external grants on the CV or on an attached sheet.

Please submit eight copies of the proposal by Monday, March 5, 2007 to:

Jay Semel
Obermann Center for Advanced Studies
N103 Oakdale Hall.