Psychology Department
Some Tips and Guidelines for Graduate Students in Psychology for Research Expenses
General:
Ø Both master’s and doctoral students are eligible to apply for financial support for research
expenses to help support and thesis or dissertation project
Ø There are two current sources for such support: the Graduate School and the Department
The Graduate School Research Support Fund: http://www.emich.edu/graduate/research/funding.php
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Only full time graduate students are eligible
Requests are considered at any time and decisions will be made within two weeks
The project must have human subjects approval before funds are released
A student can receive only one award during their program of study
This money cannot be used for participant incentives!
Award money typically ranges from $100-$500
The Psychology Department:
Ø Both master’s and doctoral students may be eligible to receive up to $500 for research
expenses once during their program of study. Students and their faculty mentors are expected
to be thoughtful about justifying their request. For example:
o Think about how you may offer to compensate participants and how much you’ll need.
For instance, for some groups of individuals, entering a raffle to win a gift card will be
enough incentive, while for other groups of individuals, paying each participant may be
necessary.
o For master’s students’ projects, please think carefully about the investment into the
study in terms of what the student will be able to do with the data in the short time they
are here. For instance, will the student and/or faculty mentor continue to make use of
the dataset after the student has graduated?
o Are the expenses something that the faculty can support through his/her own grants?
o Can the expenses be covered by the Graduate School Research Support Fund? Try this
first, unless you need the money for participant incentive (in which case you would not
qualify with the Graduate School).
o Doctoral students are expected to first apply for funding through the BCBSM Student
Award program (deadline in April of every year). We have had very good luck with
funded proposals and most students can tweak projects to make them health-related
enough for this award mechanism. Plus, it is $3,000! If the BCBSM funding cycle
interferes with the student’s progress, they need to explain this in their request for funds
to department. But planning ahead is often helpful…
Ø Students must complete a funding request form and turn it in for review to the Finance
Committee (FC). The FC meets the 4th Tuesday of the month to discuss requests, but you
should turn in your funding request to the FC Chair (for 2014-2015 year, this is Dr. HuthBocks) by the 3rd Tuesday of the month.
Ø The funding request form can be found here (and is on the website under graduate programs
and forms): http://www.emich.edu/psychology/forms/department_funding_application_9-2513.pdf
Ø You will receive notification of the decision within 1-2 weeks following the FC meeting that
month.