Working Group Grants
Working groups that emerge from the questions and concerns of Kellogg faculty fellows and their colleagues can serve to enrich the intellectual agenda and productivity of the Institute, as well as shape the field of comparative international study and even influence policy choices that affect the regions we study.
The Institute provides funding to working groups organized by Kellogg faculty fellows in order to:
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Foster intellectual entrepreneurship among faculty fellows;
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Encourage fellows to define and explore emerging research themes related to the Institute’s agenda;
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Provide a mechanism for fellows to organize sustained, collective, and preferably interdisciplinary study around specific questions and themes, taking advantage of expertise or interest among faculty fellows, visiting fellows, guest scholars, other Notre Dame faculty members, and graduate students;
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Underwrite the costs of pursuing identifiable results such as concrete research agendas, workshops, conferences, publications, policy outreach, or outside funding;
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Nurture close integration and regular communication between working groups and the fellows as a whole, to enrich the intellectual community and cohesion of the Institute.
Working groups can form for various ends. They can organize reading groups, invite speakers as part of the Kellogg lecture series, hold a mini-conference, or write proposals for major conferences or research projects. The best groups will help ferment intellectual activity at the Institute and more broadly within the University community.
Awards
The Kellogg Institute usually funds working groups for one or two semesters at a time; awards can be renewed through the competitive grant process. Awards cover working group expenses, which will vary with the nature of a group.
Budgets may include categories such as monies for copying reading materials, light meals to accompany meetings, travel expenses and modest honoraria for visiting speakers, and research assistance for drafting proposals for external funding. (These are examples; other reasonable types of expenses will be considered.)
Awards average approximately $5,000 per academic year; larger amounts are occasionally considered for particularly ambitious proposals.
Criteria
Working groups should be within the field of international studies and relate their purpose to one of the Institute's research themes of democracy and human development. The chair or cochair of a working group must be an Institute faculty fellow.
The Institute will give preference in funding to groups whose planned activities are the most intellectually exciting and/or to groups that are most likely to produce concrete academic results (conferences, publications, research projects, or outside funding).
To Apply
Working group proposals should include a letter that:
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Names the focus of the proposed working group;
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Specifies the group’s international dimension and its relationship to a Kellogg theme or themes;
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Identifies its substantive goals;
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Explains the nature of its activities to attain these goals;
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Sets out a schedule for planned activities;
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Identifies a Kellogg fellow who will chair (or cochair) the group;
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Lists two or more faculty participants and at least five participants in all from among Notre Dame faculty members, graduate students, or visitors who would like to participate in the proposed group;
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Includes a plan to share the group's products with the wider Kellogg community (e.g., publicly announcing meetings, speakers, etc.; making a reading list available on the Web; establishing a university-based listserv and inviting Kellogg fellows to subscribe).
In addition, every request must include an itemized budget and budget justification. The budget should show both the full cost of the proposed activities and the amount requested from Kellogg. The request should also identify likely sources of funding for any part of the budget not covered by Kellogg. It should indicate what other funding sources are being approached and how much funding has already been secured.
Requests for renewal must be accompanied by a progress report and self-assessment of working group activities and accomplishments to date.
Multiyear proposals are welcome although funding will be awarded for up to two semesters at a time only.
Please submit proposals electronically to Sharon Schierling, Associate Director (sschierl@nd.edu).
Proposals may be submitted at any time and will be evaluated by the Grants Committee on a rolling basis. The Grants Committee usually meets only during the academic year, so please plan accordingly.
