LINGUISTIC MINORITY RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Dissertation Research Grant Proposals are encouraged that seek to understand and improve educational outcomes for language minority students, including English learners, redesignated English learners, and dialect English speakers.

Dissertation Research Grants are intended (1) to foster research focused on language minority students and schooling, and (2) to identify and support promising doctoral students who are conducting such research.

Possible research topics could include:

• • Acquisition of language, literacy, and cognitive skills
• • Assessment instruments and strategies for English learners
• • Instructional strategies for improving educational achievement
• • Preparation, recruitment, and retention of teachers for English learners
• • Contexts of families, schools, and communities as they affect language minority students
• • Implementation and impact of programs and policies that affect language minority students.

• All doctoral students in good standing at one of the University of California campuses who have been advanced to candidacy by the time the award period begins and who have an approved dissertation proposal are eligible to submit proposals.
• Successful proposals will not be funded until advancement to candidacy is attained.
• PIs who currently have an outstanding UC LMRI research grant are not allowed to apply for a second grant.
• Faculty Advisor must complete and sign a Dissertation Grant Checklist prior to disbursement of any awarded funds.
• UC LMRI highly encourages applicants to contact their campus Contracts and Grants office to establish eligibility prior to submitting proposals. Individual campus Contracts and Grants offices can advise interested researchers on their eligibility to participate in the UC LMRI Research Grant competition.

• Up to $15,000 for a period of up to 12 months.
• One-third of the grant award will be made at the beginning of the grant period, one-third upon receipt and approval of a progress report submitted mid-project, and one-third upon acceptance of the completed dissertation.

All materials must be received on or before either February 1 or October 1. (Grant Call deadlines are adhered to whether or not they should fall on a Saturday, Sunday or holiday.)

Please contact your Contracts & Grants office (or equivalent) for any additional requirements at the campus level. All proposals must have been reviewed and approved by the campus research office of each PI's campus. Campus offices may require that proposals be submitted for internal review well before the UC LMRI deadline.

Although the Grant Application Form is often sent by/from Principal Investigator's campus Contracts and Grants office, it is still the responsibility of the applicant, as PI, to ensure that the Application Form is received at the UC LMRI office by the deadline.

LATE APPLICATIONS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED OR REVIEWED.

PROPOSALS WITHOUT THE APPROPRIATE SIGNATURES WILL BE CONSIDERED INCOMPLETE AND WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED OR REVIEWED.

Proposals will be evaluated and ranked by the UC LMRI Faculty Steering Committee on five criteria:

• Scholarly merit of the research idea; (15%)
• Extent to which research addresses important issues affecting language minority students; (20%)
• Research design and methods; (30%)
• Qualifications of participants; (25%)
• Adequacy and justification of the budget. (10%) (Note that the review committee evaluates the budget in terms of whether it is reasonable, clear, and appropriate for the execution of the proposed project methodology and whether it stays within the guidelines for allowable expenses.)

Grant applicants will be notified of funding decisions approximately 30 days after the submission deadlines. Members of the UC LMRI Faculty Steering Committee are generally willing to discuss possible research studies with faculty and graduate students prior to submitting a proposal. Contact the UC LMRI system headquarters office at (805) 893-2250 if you have further questions.

Any selected project that uses human subjects, including pilot surveys or interviews, will be required to provide a copy of a UC campus IRB Human Subjects approval or exemption before the grant can be awarded. Copies of human subject review approvals or necessary research permits that have been obtained already should be included in the proposal as an attachment.

UC LMRI Dissertation grant funding is intended to support the completion of dissertations. Funds are therefore available only through the period of time when work is actively being accomplished on the dissertation itself (prior to when the dissertation is filed).

Grant recipients are required to submit the following reports to the UC LMRI office within 60 days following the end of the project period:

• Completed Dissertation (including a publishable one page, single spaced abstract).
• Fiscal and Management Report (detailing the expenditure of funds, return of balance, extramural funding generated from award, and grant-based publications).

An author release form must be signed by each grant recipient upon acceptance of the award. UC LMRI reserves the right to use, edit, publish and distribute copies of all research reports. Authors who publish their reports through other outlets are required to notify UC LMRI. UC LMRI retains first right of publication.

Grant recipients may be requested to attend the UC LMRI annual conference in the spring following completion of the grant to present the results of their research. UC LMRI will pay grantee's travel expenses.

In order to be considered for funding, UC LMRI Dissertation Grant Proposals must contain the following items: (1.) Proposal Summary; (2.) Grant Application Form; and (3.) Faculty Advisor's Checklist. All are described in detail below. Note that Grant Proposals are not considered complete until all three Proposal Documents have been received.

(1.) Proposal Summary. This document is submitted via email attachment to: grants@lmri.ucsb.edu. Summary should be no more than 20 pages, inclusive of the following:

• Title Page and Table of Contents
• Publishable Abstract of no more than 500 words
• Narrative (no more than 10 double-spaced pages) explicitly discussing the following aspects of the research: theoretical frameworks, the major questions or hypotheses to be examined, if appropriate; planned methodology, including research design, sampling procedures, anticipated sites for the observation, data collection procedures, and data analysis plan; and potential applications to the improvement of educational policy or practice.
• Budget detail and justification. Include itemized personnel (salary and title), supplies & expenses, equipment, and travel. Budgets should be detailed by description and sub-categories (e.g., Sub-Category 1: General Assistance; Sub-Category 2: Supplies; Sub-Category 3: Travel, etc.). All budgets are subject to strict administrative review.
• Bio-bibliographic information of key personnel (not more than two pages per person). If the work requires special training and experience, please indicate the background of those involved specifically addressing how they are qualified for this research (e.g., if the work requires ethnography, discourse analysis, or other specialized methods or procedures)
• Appendices: Limited to materials essential to the review process, such as graphs, sample surveys, etc.
• Attachments:
• • Timeline specifying when the proposed work will be completed.
• • Copies of UC IRB Human Subject Review approvals or necessary research permits (when applicable).
• • Information disclosing any other funding that has been received in support of this work (when applicable).
• • Potential for extramural funding and any planned schedule for submission of proposals to these sources (give name of Project Officer by source, if already contacted).
• Principal Investigator's name, email address, phone number, campus and type of grant requested must be included in either the header or footer of all Summary documents.
• Proposal Summary documents must be in Microsoft Word format, double spaced with 1" margins, in an easily readable typeface of either 11 or 12 point size.

(2.) Dissertation Grant Application Form. This document is mailed or hand delivered to UC LMRI (the address appears at the bottom of the form). Form must be completed, approved and signed by PI's campus Contracts and Grants office. NOTE: Only complete, signed, original document will be accepted. This is a PDF fillable form. Information can be typed into the the fields via your computer. Printed hard copy should be one 8-1/2" x 11" sheet of paper.

(3.) Faculty Advisor Checklist. The complete, signed, original of this form must accompany the Dissertation Grant Application Form. Completed form must be approved and signed by applicant's Faculty Advisor prior to release of any funds.

A visual representation and guide (PDF) is available to assist you in the organization and format of the Proposal Narrative. Also provided below are two samples of successful Dissertation Grant Proposals previously funded by UC LMRI. These samples are authorized by their authors to be provided only as a reference, and are not to be cited nor reproduced in any form:

• Dissertation, Qualitative: Proposal Sample #1 (PDF)
• Dissertation, Quantitative: Proposal Sample #2 (PDF)

UC LMRI grants may be used to support salaries of graduate and undergraduate students (including the salary of the PI), post-graduate researchers, graduate student researcher tuition and fees, stipends for subjects, supplies and expenses, domestic travel, and equipment.

Although direct costs such as tuition and salaries are covered, funding for benefits is not provided. Indirect costs are not eligible.

Awards will be distributed in state allocated public (19900) funds. Thus, each UC campus must ensure transfer of benefits to its campus benefit pool from the awarded budget as necessary (see Operating Guidelines No. 94-12, June 8, 1994).

Title to all equipment purchased (an acquisition cost of $5,000 or more) or fabricated under UC LMRI grants vests in the University of California to be used for UC LMRI special projects as needed.

A printable checklist for assistance in successfully completing the Grant Proposal process.

Dissertation Grant Application Form (PDF, fillable form)

Grant award payments may be cancelled at the discretion of the UC LMRI Director if required deliverables do not fulfill proposal's stated goals, or if deliverables are not received within the required time frames. Requests for No Cost Extensions must be made no later than 30 days prior to the grant's end date to be considered.