Category: Grants

C. R. Anderson Research Awards

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

The Association for Business Communication is currently accepting applications to its C.R. Anderson Research Foundation (CRARF), which financially supports innovative research projects in the field of business communication. The support offered is in the form of micro-grants of US $1,000 to US $3,500 to be spent on equipment, hard- and software, travel and accommodation expenses, and/or research support-staff compensation within the course of a research project of up to 12 months.

To provide grants to support ABC members’ research activities in the interdisciplinary field of business communication. In particular, the CRARF aims to encourage and support innovative, academic research in such areas as business communication, management communication, business writing, consulting, marketing, English, speech communication, intercultural communication, linguistics, rhetoric, and information systems.

Eligibility criteria: Who can apply?
All graduate students and faculty who are members of ABC are welcome to apply.

What can be applied for?
Minimum $ 1,000 and maximum $ 3,500 to be spent on equipment, hard- and software, project-related travel and accommodation expenses, research support staff compensation (e.g. the costs of coding data, interview transcription, designing and running statistical analysis), etc. within the course of a research project of max. 1 year. The money should not be spent on dissemination (e.g. conferences) but on the execution of the project.

When are applications due?
Applications will be evaluated on a continuous basis. Selection Guidelines:
Eligibility of the applicant
Originality and innovative nature of the project
Feasibility of the project
Scholarly contribution to the field of business communication
Appropriateness of research methodology
Necessity of the budgeted resources

Selection Procedure:
The applications are presented to the ABC Research Foundation Committee, who assess the merits of the applications and  who report their recommendations to the CR Anderson Board. The allocation is made by the CR Anderson Board. Members of the ABC Research Foundation Committee and of the CR Anderson Board are not allowed to apply for a grant.

Selection Follow-up:
Grant recipients’ attendance (and presentation) is mandatory at an ABC convention (Annual Convention or regional conference) in one of the first two years following the allocation of the funds. Recipients should acknowledge the financial support of the ABC Research Foundation in all conference presentations and publications (both print and online) reporting research conducted with the Research Foundation’s money. Recipients  should submit a 1,000-word research report to the ABC Research Foundation Committee within 6 months after the close of the project.

How to apply:
Please send your application in pdf-format to the chair of the ABC Research Foundation Committee, Dr. Geert Jacobs, at geert.jacobs@ugent.be, including a description of the project (max. 1,000 words), a statement of its academic and practical relevance to the field of business communication (max. 500 words) , a list of expected output and deliverables (publications, conference presentations, etc.), and the applicants’ CVs, as well as a detailed budget.

ICA travel funds for international scholars

The Road to Boston

Larry Gross, President-Elect, International Communication Association

Larry Gross“First, a little institutional history.

In the early 1990s I chaired an ICA Task Force on Diversity that was charged, among other things, with recommending ways to increase the attendance at conferences and participation in the organization by members of underrepresented minorities in the United States. The Task Force, whose members included Julie D’Acci, Navita James, Geetu Melwani, Federico Subervi, James Taylor, and Angharad Valdivia, made a recommendation to the Board that a program of travel grants be initiated to support minority students who had papers accepted for the ICA conference.

After several years of discussion – or so it seems in recollection — at the Albuquerque meetings in May 1995 the ICA Board adopted the proposal to add a surcharge of $1USD to each conference registration fee and use the funds so obtained to provide travel scholarships to minority students attending the Chicago meetings (minority being defined here as African-American, Hispanic/Latino/a, Native American, Pacific Islander).

The program began small. In the 1996 Report of the Task Force, I noted:

Four nominations were forwarded from divisions to the ICA Headquarters, and an ad hoc consultative group (Task Force Chair Larry Gross, Conference Program Chair Stan Deetz, and ICA Executive Director Bob Cox) decided to award grants totaling $1300 USD to the four nominees (the figure of $1300 USD was agreed on as a reasonable estimate of the surcharge yield). We agreed to allocate $300 USD to each of three “mainland” student members, and $400 USD to a student member travelling from Hawaii.

That was then.

In the decade and a half since the travel awards were initiated, ICA has undergone a radical shift towards internationalization – a commitment to making the “I” in its name reflect reality as well as aspiration – and the travel grant program has expanded its focus to support the goal of encouraging and enabling participation of students, and faculty, from UN Tier B and C countries. In 2010, in Singapore, the Board voted to increase the conference fee surcharge (actually, this is folded into the conference fee) to $5.00 USD.

In 2003 the Annenberg School at the University of Pennsylvania endowed two funds in support of conference travel grants (one, embarrassingly, named in my honor). The interest from these funds provides additional money to the available pool of travel support. Finally, many divisions devote a large portion of the funds available to them to providing travel grants.

This year a total of over $35,000 USD was awarded to 55 conference participants. We are able to provide travel grants ranging from $500 USD to $900 USD (the amounts vary in relation to the distance and travel costs incurred). Travel fund recipients come from 22 countries, including the United States. Forty-three of the recipients are students; 12 are faculty members. The largest number come from the United States (22), followed by the People’s Republic of China and Korea with five each. Other countries represented include Argentina, Costa Rica, Egypt, India, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, Romania and Singapore.

The road to this point has been long, but the goal is an important one to ICA’s mission and the progress we’ve made since we started this effort 15 years ago is truly gratifying, even while it is clear that we still have some distance to go. So, please make the journey to Boston and join us as we build the ICA we all want to see flourish.”

from April 2011 ICA newsletter.

Grant opportunity – Global connections

GRANT OPPORTUNITY

The State Department’s: Global Connections and Exchange Program just issued a Request for Grant Proposals (RFGP) that involves digital storytelling, social networking, and project-based learning. This is a competition for the Global Connections and Exchange Program, the Department’s “virtual exchange program,” meaning that most of the interaction between foreign and U.S. students takes place online.

The Youth Programs Division, Office of Citizen Exchanges of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs announces an open competition for two or three projects under the Global Connections and Exchange Program (GCE) in the following countries worldwide: Bolivia, Botswana, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mongolia, Namibia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Samoa, Tajikistan, Thailand, Venezuela, Vietnam, and the United States. Public and private non-profit organizations meeting the provisions described in Internal Revenue Code section 26 USC 501c(3) may submit proposals to facilitate online and face-to-face exchanges between overseas schools and/or community youth organizations and counterparts in the United States.

The Global Connections and Exchange Program utilizes technology to create a U.S. presence in areas where many citizens may have little opportunity to travel or participate in exchange programs. Through web chats and discussion boards, foreign teachers, students/youths and youth leaders participate in dialogues with U.S. peers about their lives, families and communities. In addition, theme- based curriculum projects will increase understanding of issues relevant to both U.S. and overseas participants and harness their energies to effect positive change in their communities.

For details, please take a look at their Request for Grant Proposals, under Global Connections and Exchange Program. Multiple other, potentially relevant programs are also listed in that call for proposals.

NEH grants: Bridging Cultures

National Endowment of the Humanities announces:

“The Bridging Cultures through Film: International Topics program supports projects that examine international and transnational themes in the humanities through documentary films. These projects are meant to spark Americans’ engagement with the broader world by exploring one or more countries and cultures outside of the United States. Proposed documentaries must be analytical and deeply grounded in humanities scholarship….

Projects are strongly encouraged to demonstrate international collaboration by enlisting scholars based both in the United States and abroad, and/or by working with an international media team. Such collaborations should bring broader cross-cultural perspectives to the proposed topics.”

Details available from NEH grants site where original announcement was posted.

Urban Communication Grant

JAMES W. CAREY URBAN COMMUNICATION GRANT
“This grant supports communication research that enhances urban social interaction and civic engagement in an age of global communication. It encourages applied research on the role of human communication in urban environments at a time when media technologies alter the parameters of community of all kinds.

James W. Carey noted in A Critical Reader that “I think all education, all scholarship is ultimately an aspect of citizenship.” The form of urbanity and community was an intrinsic part of this theme in the scholarship of Carey. He was concerned with the impact of media technology upon the changing form of the urban domain, the consequence of accelerated change upon human communication and community, and the growing gap between tradition and modernity as suburban sprawl threatens the very nature of urban traditions.

With an award of up to $1,000, this grant facilitates research in progress or in the planning stages. It gives priority to projects that feature innovation and creative approaches to studying the central role of human communication in the transformation of urban cultures and communities.

Proposals from developing nations are encouraged.

A six-person committee consisting of three members of the International Communication Association and three members of the Urban Communication Foundation will judge the proposals.

The winner(s) will be announced each year at the annual ICA business meeting. Award winners will be required to report to the UCF on the progress of their research the following year.

Application Procedures:
Submit the application electronically through the link provided by the ICA
website (www.icahdq.org). Application period opens on 1 November and
closes on 31 January. Complete application must include:

(1) a letter of application not exceeding two pages that speaks directly to each of the grant criteria from the description;
(2) a description of not exceeding three pages the proposed research;
(3) a current CV; and
(4) samples of publication relevant to the grant.”

(Originally published in the ICA November newsletter)