Funding Guidelines

The Quaternary Research Center (QRC) has modest resources to support small research proposals, visiting speakers and other activities that promote interdisciplinary Quaternary scholarship at the University of Washington. QRC funded projects and activities are expected to promote the QRC mission by supporting QRC faculty, researchers, and students in advancing Quaternary-related research (either through direct research of the Quaternary Period or by comparison to Quaternary dynamics), the intellectual life of the center, and cultivation of the next generation of interdisciplinary Quaternary scholars. The following guidelines were developed by the QRC Resources Committee to ensure that applications are properly prioritized and that applicants have a clear understanding of how requests will be evaluated.

Eligibility 

The proposal PI must be a UW QRC member, QRC affiliated member, or a UW student of a UW member. QRC adjunct and distinguished members may not be PI on a proposal but can be sponsored by a UW or affiliate member. “Retrospective” funding requests for activities or analyses that have already been conducted are not supported.

Submission

All proposals must be submitted as one complete pdf file. Semi-annual grant proposals should be sent to qrc@uw.edu. Discretionary and Visitor funding requests may be submitted to the QRC director directly and should be clearly labeled as “discretionary” requests.

Proposals types and deadlines

Proposal Type Description Amount Deadline
Semi-Annual QRC Grants For applications larger than $2000. Proposals are reviewed by the Resources Committee. Applications turned in after the due date may be accepted but are received at a lower priority. Greater than $2000 Fall Quarter: October 31
Spring Quarter: April 30
Director Discretionary Grants 1) Small grant requests (up to $2000)
2) Emergent opportunity requests: applications in this category must demonstrate unusual opportunity that will be lost if funding is not committed before the next regular QRC grant cycle (greater than $2000 will be evaluated by QRC director in consultation with RC)		 ~$2000 (see description)  Rolling Deadline
Visitor Support Evaluated by QRC Director in consultation with RC and membership at the director’s discretion. NA Rolling Deadline

Merit Review Criteria

The QRC Director and/or Resources Committee will consider what the proposers want to do, why they want to do it, how they plan to do it, how they will know if they succeed, and what benefits could accrue if the project is successful. These issues apply both to the technical aspects of the proposal and how the project or activity may advance the QRC mission. To that end, the Director and Committee will evaluate proposals against two criteria:

Intellectual merit

  • Is the project of high quality, and what is its potential to advance knowledge and understanding of the Quaternary Period, either directly or by comparison to Quaternary dynamics?
  • Is the plan for carrying out the proposed activities well-reasoned, well-organized, and based on a sound rationale? Does the plan incorporate mechanisms to assess success (e.g., publications, grant proposals, conference presentations)?
  • Does the project or activity include a non-trivial interdisciplinary aspect in its research focus, and to what extent does it explore creative or original concepts?

Relevance to QRC

  • What is the potential for the project or activity to advance the intellectual life of the QRC? Does it support the interaction of QRC members, catalyzing new QRC activities and new QRC participants?
  • Does the project or activity benefit early-career Quaternary scholars?
  • What is the potential for the QRC funding to seed future external funding?

Proposal Guidelines

For Semi-Annual & Director Discretionary grants

  • 1-3 page narrative describing the proposed activity that addresses the review criteria. Figures and tables should be included in the 3-page limit.
  • 1-2 pages of References.
  • List of project participants with their status and roles
  • List of other funds for this project that applicant has already received or applied for
  • Budget information, including:
    • Itemized budget with concise justification
    • List of prior or matching funding, if any (and funding source or sources);
    • A brief statement explaining the financial need for QRC funding and degree of urgency of support
  • Project timeline, including anticipated products
  • Bio sketch of applicant for reviewers to understand the background on research/activity and interests in requesting funds

For Visitor Support

  • A request statement (up to 1 page) identifying the visiting speaker/s and summarizing the benefits of bringing them to the QRC and related departments, specifying the activities in which they would be asked to participate (e.g., talk/s, class seminar/s, workshop/s, etc.)
  • An organizer/host or host group for the visit
  • An itemized budget
  • Statement or list of co-funding sources/co-sponsorship granted or requested from other sources. Using QRC funds to leverage other funding sources is highly encouraged
  • Bio sketch of applicant for reviewers to understand the background on research/activity and interests in requesting funds

Expectations of research funding recipients

  • Permission to list your project title, research justification, timeline for the research, and (for student projects) name of your advisor on the QRC web site as well as your photo
  • An informal QRC seminar talk on the research after or as it nears completion
  • A short final report in the form of a few paragraphs with an informative graphic or photo to post, showing how the QRC contributed to the completion of the project and to showcase the kinds of research that members and affiliated students do
  • Brief acknowledgment of QRC support in any resulting publications (and thesis) that are directly facilitated by this fund
  • Use of the QRC logo on recipient talks or posters reporting on research supported by QRC support
  • Agreement to provide notification about other proposals unrelated to the QRC submitted for continuation of QRC supported research (including a copy of your eGC1 number, where generated). This will allow us to demonstrate the effectiveness of our funding as a catalyst for UW research funding
  • Request disbursements only for expenditures which were incurred after the award has been approved (QRC award disbursements will only be authorized for expenditures that were incurred after the date of award approval, i.e. the date the Director sends written notification of the award approval and total approved budget to the research funding recipient.)

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