How competitive are the CE grants?
Approximately 20-25% of applications are funded.
How is it evaluated?
The senate public service committee is the committee responsible for evaluating the grants. Each grant has a primary and a secondary reviewer who score the grant on a scale of Excellent, Very Good, Good, Fair, and Poor. At an in-person spring meeting, each grant is discussed by the entire committee. The primary reviewer presents the grant and talks about what went into determining the rating and the secondary reviewer offers additional insight. Committee members then ask questions and determine an overall rating category for the grant. At the end of this process, the committee awards funding to grants that have two excellent ratings with full committee agreement and then move next to grants that have one excellent and one very good. The committee also considers funding grants that have two very goods. The committee in general will not fund grants that rate below this level.
What is the audience?
The senate public service committee. You can find the membership list at the faculty senate website; there is a link from the faculty webpage as well as the research office webpage.
How do I do the budget––does it matter what the budget is, or are some things prioritized over others?
In general the committee prioritizes direct cost items and has limited PI/co-PI salary support to $3500 (1/3rd of the maximum amount of $10K)
What should go under each section in the proposal body?
There are detailed instructions for each section of the proposal on the website, but in general you want to write the grant to be understood by a smart person in any field. Avoid the use of jargon; due to character limits, full references are not necessary in the background section. The best grants provide a compelling case for why is your project needed and why are you the one to do it. The strongest proposal will identify plans for continuity of the program after the CE funding ends.
Are there common things you see in a very strong proposal as a reviewer?
- Connection to a wide base (statewide or regional) rather than a very specific smaller population
- Detailed and well thought out budgets
- New and innovative ideas
- Service-oriented- connection to how proposal provides a service to other
- Connected in some way to the faculty member’s larger career
- Have a project summary up front that conveys the project clearly and in a succinct way
- Be very clear in describing what you are going to do and do not use jargon
Are there fatal errors that you see as a reviewer?
- Not detailed budgets, grandiose or inefficient budgets
- Something that has been done before and proposal is just looking for additional funding to continue on or using this grant as a last resort
- Very specific target audience
How do I find the CE in KC?
Use your WVU Login username and password to login to WVU+kc and then click the Create Internal Grant link from the Internal Grants menu bar. Complete the application form and submit.
When are applications due?
5th Monday of the spring semester by 11:59 pm.