ISERP’s seed grant program is intended to support social science research that is in its early stages of
development. Ideally, with the help of the seed grant, the proposed research will lead to successful funding
applications to federal agencies or other external funding sources. The next deadline for proposals is
November 7, 2012. For this November 7 round of the seed grant program, ISERP will consider proposals
only from untenured faculty, and priority will be given to faculty in Arts and Sciences departments that
have had a strong connection with ISERP in the past.

Decisions will be made based on the potential intellectual merit and broader impacts of the proposed
research, defined along the lines of those emphasized by the National Science Foundation. In particular,
the review process will consider the following specific questions:

• How clear and well-conceived is the research question and the strategy for addressing it?

• To what extent does the proposed activity suggest and explore creative and original concepts?

• How important is the project to advancing knowledge, and how likely will it be for the research
to lead to publications in top-tier journals or university presses?

• How clear is the connection between the specific research activities made possible by the seed
grant and the broader goals of the project?

Proposals should contain the following:

(1) A narrative describing the project including a time-line for the proposed research. This
narrative can be up to seven double-spaced pages (11 point font).
(2) A one-page budget description for up to 10,000 dollars in research funds. Seed grant research
funds can be used only for the direct costs of research.

Proposals (as .pdf documents) should be emailed to iserp-funding@columbia.edu by noon on November 7, 2012.