Research Grant Program

• The principal investigator must be a POD Network member at the time of submission.
• Previous grant recipients are eligible to submit another proposal only after 3 years have passed since the submission date of the previous proposal. After that time, previous recipients who have submitted the required reports may submit a proposal for an unrelated new project or a related project that represents a considerable advancement of the previous project. The exception is Early Researcher awardees, who may apply for a Research Grant or DEI Research Grant without waiting three years.
• Eligible expenses (not exhaustive): Wages for research assistant(s), consulting or data-analysis fees, research equipment, supplies, travel for conducting research.
• Ineligible projects & expenses (not exhaustive): Dissertation research, implementation of a new program (face-to-face or online), conference/institute travel and fees, payments for entertainment, alcohol, gift cards, routine operation expenses and wages, purchasing of equipment for personal use, funds for the production of commercial items.
• The POD Network cannot pay overhead, indirect costs, or facilities and administrative costs.

1. Importance of the Project (up to 750 words): Fundable proposals will successfully argue for the centrality or critical nature of the issue addressed. Proposals must have a clear problem statement that outlines what issue the project will address with the funds from the POD Network. The text should include a brief literature review. It must clearly indicate how this project adds to the existing research (i.e., what is new or what problem will be solved?) and that it holds promise for a sustained impact on the work common to the POD Network community. Strong proposals will attend to issues of equity and justice, advance the mission and values of the POD Network, and demonstrate that other POD Network members and institutions will have an interest in and will be able to access and use the results of the project.  Cross-institutional projects are encouraged, especially for a larger grant award, but not required.
2. Project Design (up to 3,000 words):

• • Problem statement: A clearly articulated statement of the issue under consideration or investigation.
  • Project objectives: Explicit objectives for the project that are clearly tied to the problem. Include a description of the products to be generated.
  • Project timeline: A timeline detailing project implementation that will be sufficient to achieve objectives.
  • Project staff and responsibilities: Description of who will work on the project and their responsibilities. Please omit the names of individuals and only describe roles.
  • Evaluation plan: A clear and feasible plan for evaluating progress on the project objectives that includes a description of qualitative and/or quantitative data to be collected and analyzed.
  • Dissemination plan: Presenters should also plan for the dissemination of project outcomes. This can include submission of a POD Network conference proposal, POD Live, POD Perspectives, or other similar dissemination outlets (conference/journal). Reminder: Acceptance is not guaranteed.
  • Budget and Justification (up to 500 words): Each item in the budget should be associated with an amount and a brief justification for its inclusion. The amounts should be reasonable and the outlined expenses should be directly relevant to meeting the project objectives outlined above. Reference eligible and ineligible expenses above.

Provide a letter from a supervisor, Dean, or Provost, using the template language below. Save the letter as a PDF with a signature and include it with the application materials.

If funded, [PI’s Name] has the institutional support and the prior experience to successfully undertake the grant-funded research project titled [Project Title].

Sincerely,

Signature

Name

Role

• Follow the Project Proposal Outline described above.
• Proposals must be received by 11:59 PM EST, March 31, 2026
• E-mail your materials (Cover Page, Project Proposal, Letter of Support, CV for Early Researcher only) as PDF documents to the Research Grants Co-Coordinators (Jill Perry and Sarah Lausch): [email protected] 
  • Document naming convention: 
    • Principal Investigator’s Surname_Cover Page 
    • Principal Investigator’s Surname_Project Proposal_Grant Type (Early Researcher, Research)
    • Principal Investigator’s Surname_Letter of Support
    • Principal Investigator’s Surname_CV (Early Researcher only)
  • Subject line: 2026 POD Network Grant Proposal
• Applicants will be notified of the decision in May 2026.

• Frequently Asked Questions – This document may be helpful as you create your grant proposal.
• Grant Review Rubric – This is the rubric reviewers will use to evaluate all proposals.
• Example Proposal – This proposal was submitted by Sarah McCorkle, who was awarded a grant and also served as a member of the grants committee. Sarah has annotated her proposal to show how she addressed the requirements of the call.