- So we're counting on everyone
to ask the brilliant questions
that their colleagues would like to have answered
at the end of this session.
So as you can see from the agenda,
what we're trying to do
is pull together a comprehensive overview
of the kinds of support that are available for funding,
the conduct and dissemination of faculty research
that is looking for external funding.
We will have other opportunities to discuss internal grants
that are not (indistinct) seeking for external funding.
So that means we're focusing today
on the seed grant program.
I think we've put in the chat,
a link to the internal grants,
and you can go there to look for
the other grant types that we offer.
This is what we're focusing on today,
and I'm going to try to move the notice about recording
out of my field of vision.
What you should have in front of you
is the description and parameters for the seed money grants
for seeking external funding.
I'm just going to review these
with sort of an eye to what you could think of
as the rules that govern this grant.
And then Vanessa Ruget,
who is the current faculty fellow
for the center for research and creative activities
and former chair
of the university research advisory committee,
which is the committee that reviews grant applications
will draw on her vast experience
on reviewing these grants
and share a few tips for how to be successful.
The key components of the seed money grant
are that it needs to support research
that will lead to an application for external funding.
What this means is that you would perhaps
be at a point in your research
where you needed to do some additional studies
to provide sufficient data,
to convince a funding agency that your project is valid.
Or perhaps you would need to travel to archives,
to conduct archival research,
to demonstrate that your project has sufficient depth.
So whatever the project is that you seek funding for,
the ultimate goal needs to be
an application to external agencies.
And this is why we've invited Elaine Milo,
the grants office,
and Katie Sadowski from institutional advancement
to join us today
because they can help
give you pointers about how to locate the external agencies
that might be interested in funding this research
once you reached the point
where you were ready to submit an application.
These are available only two full time tenured
or tenure track faculty.
Semi-colon, however, comma.
If you have a faculty colleague who is an adjunct,
it is perfectly possible
that you, the full-time faculty member
would be the primary investigator
and they could be involved in the project as well.
The seed money grants,
this description says we give one in the fall
and one in the spring.
Because you are attending this workshop
or listening to this recording,
you will now be in on the following secret,
which is that we really liked to award these grants
because they allow faculty to work for bigger projects.
So many times if the budget allows
the research committee
has actually funded more than one seed grant a semester.
That said, we do not get overwhelmed with applications
for seed money grants.
So the possibility of receiving funding,
if you submit a strong grant that meets the guidelines
is pretty good.
The other piece that we like to see when we review these,
in addition to the application for external funding
is an ultimate dissemination plan
that addresses how you will share this work
when it's finally done.
And we realized that this application
is happening at a very early stage in that,
but if you can point to an outcome like a journal article
or a book or a film,
or an exhibition,
or some form of dissemination of the research
or creative activity
that results in increasing knowledge,
increasing public exposure to ideas,
to creativity,
that's the ultimate goal that the grant shoots for.
So I'm going to hand over the floor now to Vanessa
to talk about,
now that you're all pumped up and excited
and you know you really want to do this.
She's going to discuss some of the tips
about how to do it successfully.
- Thank you so much.
Hi.
I'm Vanessa Ruget.
I'm from the department of politics, policy
and international relations.
I'm also the faculty for research,
and I've had the pleasure to read many applications
for seed grants over the years
that I served on the research committee.
As Dr. Kenney just mentioned,
I think these are a hidden gem among the internal grants
that we offer.
Not only because they allow you to seek more funding
and so to really carry on that research project,
but also because I think people sometimes
look at the applications, they are not sure,
so we don't get as many applications as we would like.
And so we'd really like to support applications
when they're strong and solid.
So in terms of advice, I mean,
I think that would be true for most grant applications.
The one thing that obviously is different
with the seed grant
is that you do need to identify,
identify these other external grants
that you're going to apply for
and one thing the committee really likes
is when you can be very specific,
not just listing the agencies,
but actually listing the grant
and why that fits your project.
As as much specificity as possible,
I think is really always welcomed by the committee,
because then we see that you have
something really solid
and that you know where are you going to apply.
And that's something that you need to do early.
And the other piece
that is something that needs to be done early if needed
is the IRB application.
So I would say before you even start writing the proposal,
I would really look into these two things,
the external funding, and then the IRB,
because these might take some time.
In terms of the proposal itself,
you know, we like applications that are concise,
that are clear and that are complete.
The three Cs.
You know, we like concise
because we don't want to have a whole chapter
of a book necessarily,
but a concise description
of what your research project is.
I think being clear means
that you want your project description
to be accessible to non specialists
because the committee is formed of a variety of people
on campus with different types of expertise.
And we have to read proposals
that come from different disciplines.
So try to make it accessible to non experts
outside of your field and,
and to convey the passion, like, why does it matter?
Why should we fund this?
You know, why does it matter
not just to you as a researcher,
but to feel to the university.
Doctor Kenney just mentioned having a dissemination plan
to show how you're going to take this to the next step,
whether it's creative activity
or publication or presentation.
I think sometimes, and again, it depends on the fields,
but some of the things that have sometimes been an issue
in the past in is when applicants
did not describe their methodology really well,
or, you know, I think for creative activities
that may look a little bit different,
but you know, like explaining how you will carry out
that activity or that research.
The timeline, having a clear timeline
is also really appreciated.
Like this is what I'm going to be able to do this year,
and this is what I'll be able to do
after I get that funding,
that external funding.
And then the budget.
So nobody likes to do budgets,
but there is a budget has to be done.
Make sure it adds up
because there are people in the community
that take out the calculator and check it,
check it carefully,
because, and it's not to to be annoying,
because we want to make sure that you've actually
thought about, you know, what this research costs,
or this creative activity will cost
and how you will actually successfully carry out.
But again, I believe this is one of the most,
if not the most interesting grants that we offer,
because it does allow you to really grow.
I did receive one.
I was lucky to receive one something like eight years ago,
and it did allow me to get more funding afterwards.
And so I really recommend that you look into it
and if you need any help,
if you want somebody to read over your submission
before you actually send it out, I'm always available.
So you can simply email me.
Thank you.
- Great.
Thank you, Vanessa.
And I would encourage anyone who's interested
to not be shy.
That's what...
You know, Vanessa is really committed
to supporting this activity
and we'll have terrific insights.
So please do feel free to reach out.
And now we're going to
take a look at how you can go about
identifying organizations, foundations, et cetera,
that would have the grants available to fund this
to put on your application.
And we're lucky to have with us,
Katie Sadowski from institutional advancement.
Katie, do you wanna introduce yourself?
And I suspect that there may be fewer faculty
who are aware of your role and your office
then is true with some of the rest of us, perhaps.
- Thank you so much for the introduction, Elizabeth.
I'm really happy to join everybody.
I'm here today,
and then for those who also may be watching this
at a later date,
so wanted to, do you want to introduce myself.
I'm Katie Sadowski.
I work in our advancement office.
I'm working with our corporate and foundation partners.
So our office is responsible
for securing resources from those entities,
be it a foundation or a corporation for sponsorships,
often for events,
as well as outright corporate philanthropy
from businesses.
And then again,
grants as well.
Because the university is a public entity,
we have a Salem state university foundation,
which is a private.
It's a nonprofit entity
that we are able to accept charitable donations from,
and then that money is collected
by the Salem State Foundation
and then sent over to the university on a quarterly basis,
when we do get gifts to the university.
So our organization is set up a little bit differently
in that way, just given our public status.
So whenever there's an opportunity
that the university can't accept the money for,
if it is a nonprofit requirement,
that's where our colleagues here in advancement come in.
So I'm part of a larger department.
I'm the only one that works in our corporate
and foundation relation pieces exclusively,
but part of a larger department in advancement
where we're seeking resources
from all sorts of different areas,
annual giving, major giving, as well as plan giving.
And again, the corporate and foundation relations piece.
So, and seeking money,
not only from those institutional partners,
but also our alumni and friends of the university.
So Vanessa actually said some really interesting things
that I kind of was jotting down as she was talking
that are also important for our folks
that are on seeking money
from the corporate and foundation relation realm
is that following guidelines is extremely,
extremely important.
And I can't stress that enough.
And honestly, your secret application
is a great way to kind of practice those skills.
Grant applications, especially to foundations right now.
We're extraordinarily competitive.
Where seeing in many cases like a 20 percent chance
of being funded on an application that we submit.
So we're really trying to focus
on understanding projects
and trying to find ways that are really good fits.
So specific to the seed grant application
and how we can hopefully help you all with the process.
And I just want to pause, cause I can't remember,
is there a number, Elizabeth or Vanessa,
that people need to provide?
Like, do they need three
or is it just talk a little bit
about what future funding looks like?
- We usually (indistinct) at least three.
- Okay, great.
That helps.
So in terms of grants research,
we are always happy to connect with folks
across the university faculty,
as well as staff on any project
that they're working on that needs additional resources.
I will say that we do have a process
through which we go for that
to make sure that there's also internal approval,
kind of for you who are faculty within,
on the academic side of the house.
So with your Dean and with a provost,
when we are seeking external funding,
just to make sure that it aligns with
our university priorities.
But we often, we meet with faculty one-on-one
whenever somebody has an interest
to talk about ways in which,
in places which we might be able to seek funding.
So we explore things like talking to faculty
about their connections.
You know, oftentimes if you're a member
of a professional association,
they have grant opportunities within your association.
That could be a great way
for you to enhance your scholarship
after receiving your seed grant.
Maybe you have a connection with a local business
or a vendor to your department,
or just like a relationship.
We have a colleague who has a professional relationship
with a foundation.
We were able to secure a really wonderful grant
because they were peers in an association.
And that was our connection into the organization
when they otherwise don't have an open competitive process
necessarily for support.
Our department also reviews requests for proposals
from a number of different sources,
both locally with organizations
like Essex County Community Foundation
and the Boston Foundation,
but also with national areas,
such as the Foundation Center is an organization
that's based out of Washington DC,
but they publish a request or proposal
or RFP notification every week.
And I review that every week.
And if there's something that I've talked to you about,
I'm always happy to push out that opportunity.
That may not necessarily align
with your seed grant application,
but I'm always gathering info
on what folks are doing on campus,
because we have such a fabulous diversity of disciplines
and projects and initiatives
that if something sparks our mind,
I usually reach out either to an individual faculty member,
their department chair,
or sometimes the Dean as well.
Also one of the other things that we do
when we're kind of trying to figure out
potential funders for research
is kind of to do research almost from a backwards way.
And thinking about that from,
if you see another project
this may be perhaps similar or somewhat connected
or parallel to the work you were looking to do.
Maybe even try to figure out who's funded them
and see if there might be a way or a route
to connect to that in terms of looking at it
for a possible funder.
And then the last thing I'll mention too,
is that we just recently renewed our subscription
to Philanthropy Massachusetts,
which is a local again, a Massachusetts organization.
They used to have a database
where it was a searchable database,
smaller than foundation directory
that I mentioned before,
but they've sent it at that,
but in its place where they offer
one-on-one grant office hours with a researcher there
that can help you work through your specific idea.
So if you are interested in having an office hour,
I think anyone who's part of our institution
can have some time with that researcher
and you can sign up to create an account
and we can help you sign up to create the account,
and then you can schedule the meeting
and then spend that time with that person.
I think everyone's kind of eligible in our organization
to have like one, one hour with them pretty much,
I think for our year long membership,
which we have just renewed,
but that's a really great way.
Unfortunately, our department, as I mentioned is just me,
so it's really small.
So I don't often have time
to do thorough, in-depth research for faculty.
I can always brainstorm though,
and can talk to you about ideas,
but I don't often,
I just have the resources right now
with where we are to be able
to really do some thorough in-depth research
for your project,
but I'm always happy to kind of steer you
in the right direction or point folks
to any resources that they might have.
And I'll just mention, you know,
this is a little bit further field,
but again, after you get your seed grant successfully
that you were awarded from the internal process,
we're also here to work with you
when you are ready to seek out that funder
to apply for your next step.
Again, anything that's private.
Elaine, I'm sure Elizabeth
will introduced Elaine in a moment
and she'll talk about her side of things,
but I will just also, again, just one more time,
reiterate what Vanessa said
that anytime we're looking at a funder,
whether it's internal, external,
it's always great to have a general sense
of what your project is,
kind of the scope of it and the timeline
as well as your budget.
It also helps if you're having some consultative meeting
as you're working on your secret application.
'Cause sometimes the scope really depends
on who will pick for a possible fit
that you can put on your application
as somebody that you might like to pursue in the future.
So I'm happy to answer any questions if anybody has,
either at the moment
or as we continue to go along in our session today.
But thank you so much for having me join you.
- And thank you, Katie,
for giving us that comprehensive overview of what you do.
I'm sure every single point,
you could have taken another half-hour
to sort of drill down,
but I think you did a great job
of giving us the big picture,
and clearly we just need to clone you.
And I think if there were maybe three or four Katies,
we could definitely eat up all your time.
- There's so much work here that deserves to be funded.
And it's just a matter of us
being able to harness everybody's energy
and make sure that we're making compelling cases
because I think we really have
a winning institution and faculty.
- Yeah, absolutely.
So Katie has talked about
the private foundations and corporations.
Elaine Milo, the grants office
is going to talk about another very large operation
or realm of possibilities,
and that is public monies, state and federal money.
My suspicion is that, you know,
if you want to dream big and go for big bucks,
it's Elaine's shop that you're really going to
want to go shopping in for your grant.
Elaine has terrific depth of experience
in working with state and federal funding organizations
like NSF, NIH,
they all have sort of training sessions or outreach sessions
and Elaine familiarizes herself with the changing landscape,
which does change.
It changes with, I'm sure this is inconceivable to you,
but as the political winds shift
so to the federal funding might shift,
but Elaine will be up on all of that.
And she will now share with us sort of an overview
of what she can help with
and it will, as with Katie's
be sort of a tip of the iceberg.
Thank you, Elaine.
- Thank you, Elizabeth.
And thank you to everyone who is here today
and everyone who's gonna tune in with the recording.
I think recording these sessions is a wonderful idea
because I totally understand that not everybody
has an hour in the middle of the afternoon
to take the time to, you know,
learn about these different things.
But I will also say that it's great
that we're kind of mirroring
what Elizabeth just talked about
with the feds and with the state agencies.
They've begun recording their informative sessions
and we can just go back and take a look at them.
Before I get into anything
I'd like to give a shameless plug to all of us here.
I don't know if you all have seen
that we have scheduled office hours coming up,
I believe next week.
And is it next week?
Week after.
Thank you.
Okay.
And I don't know when this recording
is gonna be viewed by anybody,
but I made a promise to myself
that I was going to get the word out as much as I could.
And so I'm putting it out here
even though it's not directly related
to what we're talking about.
It all comes together, right?
But the office hours are a piece of what we do.
So as Katie explained how she works with private funders
and corporate foundations,
I do basically the same,
except I do it with public money.
So the funders that are...
That faculty come to me
or I send out RFPs,
you know, grant opportunities on
are usually either state of Massachusetts
or federal funders.
Sometimes there's some municipalities.
And I think one of the biggest differences
between the opportunities that Katie looks at
and that I look at, well,
there are a number of differences,
but I think one of the biggest things is two things.
A, dollars,
and two, scope of work and length of the project.
Generally speaking.
And Katie, correct me if I'm wrong,
'cause I know that there are some big private agencies,
Robert Wood Johnson, et cetera,
out there that do multi-year funding.
But I think for the most part,
when we look at funders on the private end,
we probably look at smaller money in shorter periods of time
versus multi-year grants.
- I would say that I think we're shifting.
- [Elaine] Oh good.
- We've set it expectations probably, I think,
a little bit higher and broader
than we have in the past
based on some recent funding,
recent projects that have been funded.
But I think in the past, yes.
To answer your question, I think yes.
- Yeah, all right.
So, with that thought,
when you're looking to...
As you can see, what we've done is
we've talked about the internal grants
then, you know, Katie went to the private foundations
and corporations,
and now we're talking about the public money.
And generally speaking,
that would kind of be the road I think
that a faculty member would take,
if they start out internally with a small project
and develop it over the years.
That's what's happened to a few of our faculty,
If any of you,
I'm going to drop a name, Brad Hubeny in GLS.
He started with small internal grants
and worked his way up I'll say
to a larger federal grants,
national science foundation.
So that's the kind of traditional, I think, trajectory
that faculty take.
But obviously we have veteran faculty
who have come.
Some of them even come into the university
with very mature projects
that they're looking for funding for,
and we can certainly help them there.
One of the things that we can do,
and I think Katie mentioned talking about a budget
and Vanessa mentioned it as well.
I don't know what like details you require
for the grant budgets, the internal grant budgets.
But I think it's great that you do require some detail
because certainly as faculty progress,
they're going to have to provide more and more detail
on their budgets
and make sure that they relate back
to whatever it is they're doing,
what their scope of work is,
and that type of thing.
So for us, as Katie mentioned,
when we are presented with a grant opportunity
and faculty are interested in applying,
we follow the same route, I'll say, as Katie does,
in terms of getting internal approvals.
One of the things we can help you do
is if you have a grant project
that requires resources,
Salem State resources,
whether it be use of classrooms, meeting areas,
dorm space, whatever it might be,
we can help you to get those commitments
from the various departments.
So that is something that, you know,
it's a situation where we touch all areas of the university.
So we're constantly talking to different people
within the departments to figure out, okay,
what's the, you know,
what's the value of a 20,000 square foot classroom.
And I'm probably getting into the weeds a little bit here,
but I'm just doing it so that you folks realize
that that's not something that you have to struggle with.
That that's the type of thing that we are here for.
What we look to you, the faculty for
is the content of a grant project.
So in other words, we need you to,
as Vanessa was talking about,
you know, talk about your methodology,
talk about your...
What am I trying to think of now?
Oh, the word, it's gone again.
(laughs)
I practiced this.
And, you know, just all of the content,
all of the kind of specialty pieces
that you need to do
or that you would be doing as a faculty member.
For us, we take on things like the budget,
making sure that, you know,
you've got all the right forms
because when you look at state
and federal grant applications,
many of them,
I will say 99.9 percent of them are electronic,
they're online, they're through grants.gov
or they have through,
Massachusetts has a buying site called COMMBUYS.
So most of the grant submissions are electronic.
We can do that.
You don't need to sit in front of a computer
and watch a file upload
and make sure that it's uploaded, et cetera.
Those are the types of things that we can do.
I will say, additionally,
one of the things that we can help you do
is to a degree search for funding opportunities.
We have a great resource called grants resource center.
It's through the academic, AASCU,
American Association of State Colleges and Universities.
It's an online site.
We pay a decent amount of money to subscribe to this site.
Now the shameless plug.
We've been an overview coming up on November 4th
that anybody can attend.
And I think we need to talk about recording that too.
The grants resource center has a robust database.
Granted, largely for the bigger grants,
mostly for the public,
some large private grants,
but they are a great resource for things like,
they have a proposal library that has successful proposals
that you can read.
If you're interested in a particular grant program.
I'm just gonna throw this out there.
You know, the TRIO programs have things like
student support services,
upward bound, you know, they're large programmatic grants.
We have a couple on campus.
So if you want to see what a successful proposal looks like,
you can just go to the proposal library
and you can get a copy from grants resource center.
As I said, they have a real robust database.
They have this thing called faculty alert system,
where you as a faculty member can go in to this,
you can fill out a form, so to speak,
an online form that identifies
what your research interests are.
And then monthly, you'll get an email
that says, oh, look, there's this grant opportunity,
that grant opportunity.
You may be interested.
You know, you'll probably get a list
of 10 or 12 opportunities that you may be interested in.
They may be related to what you're working on.
At least you'll know,
you'll get a sense of what's out there.
So they can do that type of thing.
And we can certainly help you as well
to get acquainted with that very, very important website.
It's really like having another staff member
available to you
because our office like Katie's office,
we're a one person office,
and we, you know, we do the best we can with what we've got,
but we don't always have time to do everything.
And so grants resource center really helps us.
I'm trying to think of what else.
I think one other thing that I promised myself I would do.
When you're talking about applying for grants,
one of the best things...
I can't do this for you.
you can only do it for yourself.
But one of the best things you can do
as a faculty member who's interested in applying for grants
is to review grants.
That is,
if you talk to your colleagues who have had the opportunity
to review grants,
I'm gonna bet dollars to donuts
they're going to tell you that it was a huge,
helpful experience to them
when they came to writing their own grants.
We're revamping our website right now
in the research hub,
and a piece of that is going to be links
to the different agencies
that are looking for reviewers
for the different grant programs.
So Evea put something out there.
Oh oh.
Evea, what'd you put out?
- Sorry, the information
about the grants resource center
that you're talking about.
- Okay, thank you.
I didn't see the whole thing.
But anyway, yeah, so we're gonna
take the opportunity to start publicizing that
because it's invaluable,
and oh, by the way, generally speaking
you get a stipend for your time.
It used to be, you had to,
especially for the federal grants, you know,
you had to get on a plane, fly to Washington,
sit in a room with six other people, read the grants,
talk about 'em.
It was fine,
but now all you do is you read these things
and you meet, you know, electronically,
you meet virtually,
do the same thing, have discussions about grant proposals.
It really, really helps you to know
A, what the process is like,
the actual real-time process is like
of grant reviewers
so you get to know who you're going to be writing to,
who your audience is.
And, you know,
you also make connections within your area of expertise.
So I highly recommend that
as another tool that you use
to enhance your grant writing skills.
So thank you.
I am also happy to answer any questions,
and thanks for tuning in.
- And thank you, Elaine.
I think it's so encouraging to listen
to both you and Katie talk and to realize
just how much does exist on campus,
even in these areas
where there's only one person
sort of holding up the fort or whatever the metaphor is,
but your willingness to help both of you
came across very clearly in your presentation.
So I thank you.
I do want to introduce
one other very important resource
Evea Raye, who is the program assistant,
which is a title that has absolutely insufficient reflection
of her importance to the center for research
and creative activities, activities.
The role that she plays
in the internal grants
is really sort of a without which not.
She does the tracking,
entering, uploading, keeping of the spreadsheet,
making sure everything is there and loaded up
for the committee to review,
and keeps the communication flow going
between the committee and the applicants.
And I offer her also as a resource,
if you have about whether material had come through yet,
or you sent in the email,
but you thought maybe you left off an attachment.
Evea is extraordinarily helpful.
She will also be posting if she hasn't already in the chat,
the full list of the fall 2021
grant related activities.
So, this will give you a sense of the array of support
that we're offering.
So with that,
I'm going to ask that anybody who is interested
in asking questions.
I think we're a small enough group
so that you can just leap in,
or you can raise your hand.
I see a question from Raminder.
Can faculty access and get an account
on the grants resource center through Polaris.
Elaine, you want to take that one?
Just talk a little bit about.
- Absolutely can,
It does require a password and a login,
login and a password.
And we do that because we want to limit it
to only those people with Salem State faculty
and staff with Salem State addresses.
Raminder, I would be happy to email you the information,
the login and the password,
and hopefully you can feel free.
Well, you can feel free to share it with your faculty.
Again, there is just a wealth of information on that site.
So yes, faculty have access to it.
We encourage faculty to go there
because it's, as I said earlier,
it's like having another staff person.
It's got way more information on those pages
than I have in my head.
I can tell you that much.
So I'll email that to you.
- [Elizabeth] That'll help.
- Yeah, I could put it in the chat.
Do you want me to?
Is that easier?
- [Elizabeth] Yeah, that's fine too.
- Okay, let me just do that,
because then everybody can have it.
- But Raminder, do encourage your faculty
to attend the session with the representative
from the grants research center.
- I will.
I actually started this thing.
I actually wanted to keep myself my video off
because I thought maybe they'll get the faculty
if I let them talk,
but I did want to attend
so that I could share what I learned here.
Again, the faculty within BSB.
And I have already shared the email
that you sent over, Elizabeth,
with respect to all of the things.
- And we'll make sure you get a copy of the link
to this presentation as soon as it's available
for distribution.
- [Woman] Sure.
- And I suspect that if it would be helpful
in addition to this,
to have anyone really from this team,
talk to your faculty specifically,
we could probably figure out a way to do that.
- [Woman] Yes, I think,
I think we've talked about it once before that.
I would actually like to have,
one of our all faculty meetings have a (indistinct)
devoted to, you know, CRCA
and probably a little bit a part of it
to the library folks.
And I had hoped that we would
be out of this work to rule situation
and we would have accomplished some of the things
that we wanted to accomplish,
but our all faculty meetings are the only place
that we can then take on some of the things
that we otherwise would have done in other committees.
So that's how our hands kind of got tied.
Otherwise this November meeting would have been one
that I would have told you to probably come.
So I'm hoping something early spring.
- Okay.
- [Woman] You don't want it to go too long,
but I am hoping that as soon as that comes out,
you know, that faculty come out of work to rule.
That I'm able to then say, okay,
now maybe in the next faculty meeting
we can do more to this.
- Perfect.
Great.
- I'm also happy to share with you, if that's helpful,
the instructions for faculty creating their own accounts
for Philanthropy Massachusetts,
to work through either having access
to some of their specific requests for proposals,
as well as scheduling a research hour with them.
I think the only thing I kind of didn't mention
is that if a faculty member
is interested in pursuing a grant,
we do ask that they reach out to us first,
before they do that.
Oftentimes we may already have a conversation
and progress with somebody that way either
have us have to understand or prioritize
and understand where we may take an effort
for what's the best fit for the funder's interests.
Sometimes there's also a prohibition I should say as well,
because we already have an active grant,
and we're not allowed to apply for a second grant.
It also protects the faculty member,
if it is a new relationship,
and they end up securing a grant
that we protect in that relationship as well.
So not having somebody else who may be interested in it,
step on anybody else's toes.
So just wanted to say that too,
that while we're, of course,
faculty can certainly spend time one-on-one
with researchers.
If anybody's pursuing a grant
that kind of falls within our area,
we just like to work with them
and help them present the best proposal possible forward.
- [Woman] I think the part that you just mentioned right now
might actually be easier accomplished
because I, from time to time,
I do want to have Taylor talk with our department chairs
and, you know,
at least once a semester or once a year at the very least.
And so I think you can certainly join in there
and we can communicate that from department chairs.
I don't think that that's going to be as difficult
in these kinds of policies,
but I do feel like a broader conversation
with faculty in general,
rather than go through the chairs
because by that time the message gets lost.
So for CRCA and for Elaine and for (indistinct),
I think a larger meeting platform
would probably be more helpful.
So Katie, with respect to your request,
I think I will probably tell Taylor.
We'll figure out if we can do that in the next meeting
or the following meeting.
- Yeah, that absolutely makes sense.
Thank you.
- [Woman] Yeah, yeah.
- Any other questions or thoughts?
Anybody?
Any of the presenters
think of something you didn't mention
you'd like to bring up?
Yes, Ken.
- I've got a lot of questions.
- Good, good.
- I'm not going to take up this recording with it.
I have already been underway with a proposal,
an unusual proposal.
I'm looking to do an exhibition of selected work
from 1992 to 2022.
I've been offered a venue from the city of Salem
at Salem old town hall.
So I assume that is a funder to this proposal.
The fact that I've been given a venue,
but I have lots of questions
about the idea for this exhibition
is to also parlay it into other exhibitions
as an artist is,
is how we progress with the work that we do.
So I think this is a little unusual proposal
than you probably get through your office.
- So, I'm very, very glad that you attended
and asked that question on the recording
because it allows us to address
something that comes up frequently,
not just with the visual and plastic arts,
but with theater, with performance, with other art forms.
So for the purposes of the internal grants,
the committee considers things
like an exhibition of your work,
the equivalent of a publication.
So if you were to disseminate your work
through a public exhibition
that was vetted in the same way
that a book would be vetted by publishers, right?
Like it's not the same as displaying it
in your own living room
and inviting your friends in, right.
There has to be that sort of vetting process.
Then that's considered a parallel publication
or a parallel dissemination of the work that you've done.
- [Ken] Okay.
- Karen Geoghegan can be really help.
She serves on the URAC committee that reviews these.
She can be very helpful in giving you tips
about how to frame your language
in a way that faculty from completely different disciplines
can find it more accessible
to translate into the equivalent in your field.
- Excellent.
- [Katie] I would just say...
Sorry, go ahead.
- And if you don't mind, Vanessa,
I'd love to run my proposal by you before the deadline,
to just get some feedback from you
with regard to how I'm approaching this
and what's missing
and what might be important to add.
- I would be happy to.
- I appreciate that.
Appreciate that.
Thank you.
- I was just going to offer a suggestion
that popped into my mind,
is knowing a very, very small bit
about what your initiative looks to be
and how to expand on that further
as a possible funder for you,
again, without knowing exactly the perimeters
or the costs or anything would be
perhaps to investigate Massachusetts Cultural Council
and then underneath that the local cultural council.
So Salem Cultural Council
might be an opportunity for you
to apply for a future grant.
We've attempted it before,
but we were not successful,
only one time since I've done it.
But often Salem in particular
has a decent size pot of money
and we've investigated options with Karen
and just haven't pursued anything
since our initial application a couple of years ago,
but that might be an interesting project,
they're often very community-based
for people that live and work
in the community that it's in
and also impact the public that it's in.
Salem in particular usually also has
kind of a subset of goals.
So depending on what your exhibition is
that may align well in a given year.
I will just say, looking at the calendar,
I believe for this year,
at least that deadline has just passed,
but that could be something
where you could say I would endeavor to apply for that
in the fall of 2022 for part of your application.
But sometimes we know these things
just off the top of our heads.
Sometimes we do take some time to look them up.
- Thank you, thank you.
- Can I ask you Ken?
So your material spans 1992 to 2022.
Did I miss something?
Did you tell us what the kind of subject matter was, or.
- Subject matter is a review of work
created during that 30 year period.
And the exhibition at old town hall
is going to be a re-assemblage of that work
for this exhibition,
from January the 17th until February the 20th.
- So Ken, would you call that, in your biz,
is that retrospective?
- [Ken] I hate...
- Okay.
- I hate to refer to it as a retrospective only
because as a curator,
and this is one of the reasons for doing this show,
it's also a way of connecting and networking
with other educational institutions in the art departments
to parlay it into other artists and shows
for the Winfisky at the same time,
of which I'm the director of.
So it's an opportunity to kind of work it
into the Winfisky.
And, I'm sorry, Elaine,
I forgot where I was going to say right before that,
but your question one more time, Elaine.
- So Ken, I didn't, I actually,
what I was wondering was if there was some kind of a theme
or if it was a certain medium you were using.
I was just trying to get a sense of like,
if we could relate this to grants
that are looking for, you know, community,
I'll call them community presentations
or community involvement or whatever,
especially where you're talking about
having it down at the Salem city hall.
Maybe what I need to do
is just get more information from you sometime.
- I would be glad to.
I would be glad to.
And that's one of the purposes of the show too.
You know, it's a research project for me
to review the work that's happening
because what I do in the studio
is an integral part of what happens in the classroom.
So these integral roles
of both curator of the Winfisky gallery,
the independent production that I do as a fine artist.
And other other shows for the Winfisky gallery
is kind of the purpose of this thing.
I'd like to parlay it into a catalog
at the same time as well.
But the research I do, like I say, the research I do
is different than the book, as Elizabeth had mentioned.
It's the act of assembling this into an exhibition,
and as the director of the Winfisky gallery,
rather than treating it as a retrospective,
it's an opportunity to take 30 years of work
and assemble it as a curator into a new show.
Actually.
Does that make sense?
- It does. It makes a lot of sense.
Like I say, I would love to,
if I can just send you an email
and we can set up a time to chat
because I'd love to know more about this
and maybe it could be incorporated into.
What I'm thinking is this would be
a piece of a larger project.
- And it is.
(laughing)
Yes, it's an ongoing thing.
That's why I say it's unusual.
And that's what I'm trying to put together
in the narrative that I'm creating
for this proposal.
Is how it kind of works on both the work I do at the college
and the work I've done.
You know, that's one of the reasons
I got this venue
is because I've got a very good relationship
with the city.
I think early on before they even had a public art program,
I was working with the mayor on public art for our students
in summers two weeks at a time.
And I think I'd like to think
that that kind of parlayed itself
into this public art program
that now is underway with Julie Berry.
So I have a lot to think about.
- And it's always so wonderful
to see how a germ of an idea
can grow into other things.
And I think that's where we get the seed metaphor
for the seed grant
is that we're taking these ideas
and then growing them.
And we don't always know from that acorn,
what sort of oak tree is going to arise.
So once I start using metaphors like this,
it's time to wrap up the meeting.
So thank you so...
Oh, Vanessa, yes.
- Just one final, quick thing.
There's something else that came to my mind
that I think for the committee is very helpful.
When you talk about the dissemination plan,
I think you really explain
what it means for your field,
because, for example,
it might be difficult for me
in political science to understand
that this journal let's say in, I don't know,
in nursing is considered to be the flagship journal, right.
Or that this conference is the conference
that in your subfield is the conference
that is really well respected
or if it's in creative activities
that this type of a performance or exhibition is something.
So just to explain,
'cause it's very hard for us
to really evaluate how other fields
or how people in other fields
disseminate the research
and why should I value this as opposed to this
or how I can compare.
So, I think to explain these kinds of things
can be very helpful for the reviewers.
- Yeah, absolutely.
Thank you.
- Thank you, Vanessa.
I think that's absolutely key.
So I'm glad you mentioned that.
Any other last points?
Elaine, Katie.
- I just always say like follow the directions,
make sure your application is full and complete.
In my world, if we miss an attachment even,
it can go into the rejection pile
because again, things are so competitive.
So just make sure to follow those directions,
finish every single piece
that you need to require for the seed grants.
And I think, you know, again,
Vanessa just said,
even like share it with a family member
who might not know a lot about your field,
you know, or somebody.
That's one thing that I think that we,
Elena and I, bring to the table
is that we are generalists
and we don't know a lot, really deep,
I'm learning a lot of really interesting things
about biology right now with a project I'm working on
that I never knew about spectrometers
and I'm not even saying it right.
But we also don't know.
So we're the layman that can say to you,
like this doesn't make sense or like you get this,
but like, if I don't know what that acronym means
then probably Karen at CCPI maybe doesn't know that as well,
if you're in political science.
So I can't stress enough to try to make sure
that it's any person could pick up your proposal
and understand it.
- Yeah, thank you.
That's a very good point.
Anything else?
Well, thank you again very much.
Vanessa, Elaine, Katie, Evea
for pulling this together.
I think it's going to be a terrific resource
for faculty going forward.
And thank you, Ken, for raising really good questions.
I think you probably got answers
that will be helpful to people even outside your field.
- Excellent.
I appreciate all of your help and information.
Yes, it was very helpful.
Thank you.