Sponsored Research and Programs

Joanne Stewart, Elmer E. Hartgerink Professor of Chemistry, recently had her National Science Foundation (NSF) funded project featured in the NSF 2020 STEM for All Video Showcase! The Showcase, which runs from 5 May 2020 through 12 May 2020, features over 170 federally-funded projects that highlight innovations in STEM education.

The video features the work of Joanne and her collaborators’ work under their NSF supported project titled Collaborative Research: Improving Inorganic Chemistry Education Through a Community-Developed Student-Centered Curriculum. This project seeks to understand the type and amount of support instructors need to adopt for active learning practices and how those changes impact student learning in inorganic chemistry.

Learn more about Joanne’s project by viewing the video: https://stemforall2020.videohall.com/presentations/1861

Congratulations, Joanne, on the inclusion of your project in the 2020 STEM for All Video Showcase!

Hope College is now soliciting pre-proposals for faculty nominations to the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Stipends Program.  The Summer Stipends Program supports individuals pursuing advanced research that is of value to humanities scholars, general audiences, or both.  The deadline to submit pre-proposals has been extended to 5 pm on Monday 1 June 2020. 

Summer Stipends will allow humanities scholars to devote two months of continuous work on their projects.  Award recipients are provided $6,000 and funds may be used for salary, travel, and other project-related costs. 

Who MUST submit a pre-proposal? 

Full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty members must submit a pre-proposal for nomination.  Hope College may nominate two faculty members for the Summer Stipends Program. 

Who does NOT need to submit a pre-proposal? 

The following individuals are EXEMPT from the nomination process:

• Staff members who are not faculty members and will not be teaching during the academic year preceding the award;
• Emeritus faculty; and
• Adjunct faculty, part-time faculty, and individuals with academic appointments that terminate by the summer of the period of performance.

How do I submit a pre-proposal for consideration as one of Hope’s nominees?

If you are interested in serving as one of Hope’s two nominees, please provide a pre-proposal which includes:

• An Internal Pre-Proposal Form.
• A one-page CV (uploaded via the Internal Pre-Proposal Form).

How will the pre-proposals be reviewed?

Pre-proposals will be reviewed by representatives of the divisions of Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences, and Office of the Provost.  Applicants will be notified of the outcome of their pre-proposal and the selection process by Wednesday 1 July 2020.

Full proposals will be due to NEH in September 2020 for a project period in summer 2021.  The Office of Sponsored Research and Programs will assist the two institutional nominees in completing the application and submission process via Grants.gov.  Exempt applicants are also eligible for support with their submission; please contact OSRP to discuss services available.

Please note that this process is contingent on NEH offering the Summer Stipends Program in 2020 and no significant changes to the eligibility process for this year’s competition.  Applications (including the revised guidelines) will likely be available on or around 23 May 2020. 

Questions? 

Please contact Ron Fleischmann, Director of Sponsored Research and Programs (fleischmann@hope.edu). 

Debra Swanson, Professor of Sociology, received a Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA)/Library of Congress Faculty-Student Research Program Award for the project titled Cloth and Clay: Understanding and Exhibiting African Art through an Anthropological Lens. Joining Dr. Swanson in this project are students Maddalena Frissora, Trinity Frye, and Elizabeth Gomez.

This project will use faculty-student collaboration to research the history and use of African textiles and ceramics at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. in order to mount a small exhibit at the Kruizenga Art Museum in Fall 2021. This project will research the origins of two large African art gifts to the Kruizenga Art Museum in 2017 and 2018.

Congratulations, Debra, Maddalena, Trinity, and Elizabeth on your new GLCA/Library of Congress award!

Claudia Andre, Professor of Spanish, received an $8,885 award from the Great Lakes Colleges Association Global Crossroads Initiative for the project titled Rethinking borders through a gender lens in Latin America. Cheryl Martens of the University San Francisco de Quito will serve as co-principal investigator on this project.

Drs. Andre and Martens will develop a joint research project pertaining to indigenous women’s issues, publications for internal journals, and course connections between Hope College and the University San Francisco de Quito.

Congratulations, Claudia, on your new award!

Lisa McGunigal, Viisting Assistant Professor of English, received a one month $3,000 residential fellowship at the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington at Mount Vernon for the project titled Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association: Restoring and Changing the 19th Century Patriotic Landscape.

This project will compare the formation of the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association with the female-hosted salon scene prominent in Washington, D.C.

Congratulations on your award, Lisa!

Christian Gibson, Victim Advocate / Prevention Educator, recently received a $17,028 award from the Michigan State Police Fiscal Year 2020 Campus Sexual Assault Program for the project titled Hope Campus Leadership Team to End Sexual Violence. Additional project personnel include Sarah Kornfield, Associate Professor Communications and Women and Gender Studies and Trainer on Rape Culture; Jevon Willis, Assistant Director of the Center for Diversity and Inclusion; and Elizabeth Kubias, Assistant Director of Student Life. The project period is 14 February 2020 through 31 January 2021.

The purpose of this project is to seek technical support and training for Hope College personnel in the Culture of Respect Progrm and Green Dot Training to reduce sexual assault on campus. Project personnel will receive training in summer 2020 and implement programming on campus in fall 2020.

Congratulations, Christian, on your new award!

Due to the campus closure, the regularly scheduled Office of Sponsored Research and Programs sessions scheduled for March and April will be moved to Zoom.  Because these sessions are moved to Zoom, the previously imposed registration limits are no longer relevant. 

If you considered participating in one of the sessions below, but could not as a result of registration limits, please consider joining remotely.  If interested in participating, simply contact the Director via email (fleischmann@hope.edu) to receive the connection details.

Thank you and do not hesitate to contact me if I may provide additional information or assistance.

SPIN/SMARTS

These sessions will provide an overview on the use of SPIN and SMARTS, Hope College’s funding opportunity database and email notification system, respectively. Learn how to use the SPIN database, creating a SPIN account, and create/update your SMARTS notifications. Sessions will be held in campus computer labs.  The same session will be held on both days—there is no need to attend both.

Date/Time:        Thursday 26 March 2020, 4 pm – 5 pm
Location:          Zoom Video Conference

Proposal Development 101

Interested in pursuing external funding in support of your research, educational, or outreach activities but do not know where to begin?  It can be quite intimidating to apply for external grants and fellowships—but learn where to start in Proposal Development 101!  This session will provide you with a broad overview of the grantseeking process, developing your idea and project plan, and building a sponsored program budget.

Session 1

Date/Time:        Tuesday 7 April 2020, 12 pm – 1 pm
Location:          Zoom Video Conference

Session 2

Date/Time:        Wednesday 15 April 2020, 12 pm – 1 pm
Location:          Zoom Video Conference

With COVID-19 impacting nearly every facet of life, proposal submissions and awards are no different.  Below are some items to consider as many of our sponsors shift to remote operations.

Please note the Office of Sponsored Research and Programs has shifted to remote operations.  Please feel free to contact the Director via email (fleischmann@hope.edu) or Google Chat during regularly scheduled business hours. 

Proposal Submissions

Most sponsors continue to accept proposals for regularly scheduled deadlines; no sponsors have fully indicated the suspension of all grant proposal submissions as a result of COVID-19.  Please remember to check your sponsor/program regularly to see if any deadlines have been extended. 

Access to electronic systems to develop and submit proposals remain operational.  For sponsors which require a paper copy of proposals, please contact the Director (fleischmann@hope.edu) as soon as possible to discuss arrangements for shipping. 

For those with pending proposals, it is anticipated there will be some delays.  NSF, for example, has moved all in-person panel sessions to remote sessions, which will take some time to organize and conduct—and further delay award decisions.  Some sponsors do permit pre-award costs of up to 90 days (NSF and NIH, for example), so it may be possible to maintain original project start dates if your project is funded. 

If delays will result in significant changes to a project’s scope of work, please feel free to contact the Director (fleischmann@hope.edu) to discuss options and contact the sponsor. 

Funded Projects

To the extent feasible, work on funded projects may continue while shifted to remote operations.  However, because many of our researchers require access to their labs, libraries, or must travel domestically or internationally to meet their original scope of work, COVID-19 will have a significant impact on research activities for the foreseeable future. 

The biggest question in the sponsored project community right now is “Do I need to contact the sponsor if I am working remotely?”  And the answer to this question, generally, is NO.  Most federal grants require us to contact the sponsor ONLY if the PI, Co-PI, or other senior personnel will be absent from the project for greater than 90 days.  If you are concerned about your specific award, please contact the Director (fleischmann@hope.edu) to discuss.

Items to consider for funded projects:

1. You may continue to incur expenses while on remote operations.  This includes salary/wages, materials/supplies, publishing costs, and other expenses necessary for you to continue your project while working remotely.
2. Please consider postponing travel arrangements until more information is available.  While this may not be possible depending on the urgency of your project, college-sponsored travel is suspended until 13 April 2020.  For those who may have incurred charges to a sponsored project account for travel that was subsequently canceled due to COVID-19, you may seek reimbursement for costs not recovered through the cancellation process.  Please contact the Director (fleischmann@hope.edu) if you have any questions.
3. Start planning for a no-cost extension.  Some sponsors (NSF and NIH, for example), provide grantees with an automatic one-time extension of grant periods.  Other agencies require you to specifically request the extension.  A few agencies have already automatically granted no-cost extensions to all projects.  If you have questions about this process or need assistance, feel free to contact the Director (fleischmann@hope.edu).
4. Remember all other terms and conditions of your award remain in force.  While COVID-19 will likely impact all sponsored research on campus, the original terms and conditions of our awards remain in force.  So if your award requires prior approval for any change to your project, this remains in effect during remote operations. 

Sponsor Updates/Information

A number of sponsors have already published specific websites for COVID:

• John Templeton Foundation
• National Endowment for the Arts
• National Endowment for the Humanities
• National Institutes of Health
• National Science Foundation

If you have an award from any of these agencies or are considering a proposal submission in the next few weeks, please be certain to check these sites regularly for updates. 

Susan Ipri Brown, Director of ExploreHope, recently received a $79,971 award from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Great Lakes Bay Watershed Education and Training (B-WET) Program for the project titled Prep for Day 1: K-12 Students Jump into West Michigan Watershed. The project period is 1 March 2020 through 31 August 2021. Michelle Gibbs and Mike Pikaart will be joining Susan on this project. In addition, the Holland-Hope College Sustainability Institute and Macatawa Area Coordinating Council will also participate in the project, linking middle and high school student data to the overall impact on regional policy and community efforts.

This project will link existing watershed research at Hope College with area teachers and their classrooms. Middle and high school teachers will engage with area professionals, walk-through hands-on watershed learning with regional students through summer programs, and integrate new curriculum and field experiences within their classrooms. Hope College faculty and mentor teachers will lead teacher professional development sessions and provide mentoring throughout the school year. Hope College education and service majors will provide mentoring for the students during their field experiences.

Congratulations, Susan, on your latest award!

With the cancelation of a major academic conference this week (APS in Denver), NSF recognizes the impact of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) on proposal and award activity.

To assist proposers and awardees in assessing impact, please see NSF 20-053: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) for National Science Foundation (NSF) Proposers and Awardees.

This is an evoloving situation–some sections of the FAQs remain in flux. If you have questions, please contact Ron Fleischmann, Director of Sponsored Research and Programs (fleischmann@hope.edu).