Bureau of Educational Research
Last update: October 24, 2024
College of Education Seed Funding, 2024-2025 Call
Application submission Interface
For collaborative projects between Education, Engineering and CI-Med, Education will fund projects where the PI lead is from Education. For projects where the lead is from Grainger or CI-MED, please make inquiries about parallel funding that those colleges have committed.
For other prospective cross-campus collaborations, please consult BER.
For collaborations with community organizations or schools:
The research collaboration must ultimately be documented in a mutually transparent way. (we recommend use of an MOU, spelling out major promises and responsibilities for each side).
Plans for collaboration must observe the State of Illinois and University budget restrictions, which permit only limited compensation to non-university personnel, including, e.g.: (1) human subject incentive payments; (2) lump sum payments to external organizations to acknowledge expenses such as use of their facilities for research activity, or their costs for retrieving and data requested by the research team; (3) for schools, funds for teacher out-of-classroom coverage and experiences. Current University and State rules make no provision to compensate community collaborators as research personnel. Please consult with BER for more complete details.
A broad array of external funding opportunities may be considered, selecting those sources best matched to the proposed research topic and plan. In some cases, multiple sources and source types could be considered if they are positioned to fund specific components of a particular project.
The purpose of this program is to be inclusive and interdisciplinary, so funded projects will be those with the potential to maximize educational and social impact.
External proposals are submitted in the name of the university, and so need to adhere to university rules governing research participation. Graduate students can be named as “senior personnel” if they play significant roles in an external funding proposal. University submissions do not typically name students in PI or co-PI roles because that entails fiscal responsibilities for the conduct of the project. Please consult the Bureau with specific questions.
This program is not designed to provide supplemental funding. Pre-tenure faculty in need of support for project completion due to hardship should contact the 2024-2025 Dean’s Fellow Michelle Perry or Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs Tamara Bertrand-Jones, who are charged with faculty development.
Please contact Elizabeth (Beth) Niswander to share updates as your plans develop. Provided you initiate discussion early on, Beth will also field requests for strategic support (e.g, feedback on proposal drafts, or assistance in finding needed resources or collaborators).
One explicit purpose for this competition is to provide resources that will help faculty teams to organize education research projects with potential for significant impact. For topics that do not fall within research areas generally competitive for external funding, a competitive proposal will present a clear argument of need and evidence of the likelihood that research outcomes will influence the field.
External funding from sources less commonly identified with education research may be available. Information on both internal (e.g., Campus Research Board) and external supports for projects related to the arts, humanities, and other fields is available from the OVCRI Research Advising and Project Development (RAPD) team.
Guidance from OVCRI/OPRS for actively evolving video tools and platforms is being updated periodically, focusing on concerns about the performance and compliance with human subjects protections. OPRS has posted a Virtual Resources Guidance document with detailed recommendations.
Please follow all necessary IRB requirements through our University Office for the Protection of Research Subjects OPRS). Note that OPRS will be the best source of research safety information, should COVID-19 or other infectious disease require that research activity be modified.
FERPA questions and requirements about access to school records will be dealt with in the course of OPRS review.
Whether this is a newly designed activity, or one you have already engaged, in some form, with a school partner, it is essential that you make early contact with the Director of School-University Research Relations, Dr. Meghan Fisher, to discuss prospects, plans, and opportunities. University interest and expectations for many area schools are great, and need to be managed sensitively to preserve relationships and opportunities for all, including beyond the scope of this program.
For the seed funding submission, you need to include both an Excel budget and a budget narrative that breaks the use of funds, with a dollar amount for each item. Preparation and submission of the seed funding application is the researcher’s responsibility. You may request help from BER pre-award staff via grants@education.illinois.edu (Kim Darnell and Laura Cooky) to generate an Excel budget with correct salary and fringe benefit rates. Please make that request at least two weeks before you submit your seed funding proposal (Friday, November 18 at the latest). When selected for funding (and before you start spending), these documents will enable College administration of your award funds.
Hourly support for students (graduate and undergraduate) may be included in the budget. Seed Funds will not support summer salary for faculty, nor administrative professional or other academic salaries.
Please include student support as an hourly wage, with fringe benefits; do not budget this as a percent time assistantship.
Funding decisions will be communicated in January 2025. Funds will be available for your use starting May 16, 2025. The Bureau will share copies of your proposal and budget with Business Operations in Finance; in due course, they will assign your grant charges to the right program code (CFOP) and will send out reports of expenditures to PIs.
The active project period should end in May 2026, with access to award funds through July 2026 to allow time for filing and reimbursement. If you have a valid reason why the award fund access should continue past this date, you will need to seek written permission from the Associate Dean for Research to explain your purpose and establish a new end date for use these funds.
External proposal submissions are expected as an outcome of the seed-funded project. Because funder due dates vary, they may fall within, or following, the six-months to one-year window for seed-funded activity.
External proposal submissions should follow normal BER submission processes. Please contact Kim Darnell and Laura Cooky via grants@education.illinois.edu as soon as your funder submission date is known to plan the submission process.
Timing and method for sharing will depend on the particulars of the proposed project. Please confer with Beth Niswander in the BER to ensure proper BER and College recognition.
Where budget revisions are tied to a significant project redesign (e.g., adding a collaborator, changing research design), please contact Kim Darnell for assistance, and then share narrative and budget revisions with Jessica Li and Beth Niswander.
Where budget revisions are administrative (e.g., adjusting student worker hours, purchasing minor supplies), working with Kim Darnell will be sufficient; she will communicate revisions with the Finance Office.