SMART Grant Student Application Annotated Worksheet (revised fall, 2012)
Below you will find the actual application text in black. Blue text denotes annotations
(additional information and instructions) that may help answer questions, make you
think, and generally improve your application.
Undergraduate Scholarship/Research Grants are competitive grants awarded to undergraduate
students and their faculty mentors who are engaged in collaborative scholarly endeavors. For
purposes of these grant applications, these scholarly projects are defined broadly. Students in the
natural sciences or social sciences may be involved in empirical research whereas students in the
arts and humanities may be involved in producing a portfolio of work. Students in engineering
may be involved in a building project whereas students involved in computing sciences may be
involved in writing a computer program. Obtaining this grant will not only help fund your
projects, but will also serve as credentials to build your resume/curriculum vita and provide a
good experience in writing a grant proposal. However, some students may struggle because
writing a grant is a brand new experience.
This worksheet contains the questions that you will be asked when completing the application.
The evaluation criteria document is also useful. Judges use a structured rubric to evaluate
proposals.
*Note that not everyone will receive the same questions. This application is computer-adaptive.
Thus, some responses will take you to a different question than other responses.
Instructions
This information is to be completed by student applicants with the assistance of their
faculty mentors. Please keep in mind that these grants have become increasingly
competitive. It is therefore important that answers be complete, thorough, and clear. It is to
the student applicants' advantage to obtain editorial assistance and feedback from faculty
mentors prior to submitting this application.
This information is to be completed by student applicants with the assistance of
their faculty mentors. Grant applications written by a faculty mentor for a student
will not be considered. Students should draft answers to these questions using
the worksheet on the web site, obtain faculty mentors' feedback and editorial
assistance, and then submit the revised answers through this web surveyor.
Please keep in mind that these grants have become increasingly competitive. It is
therefore important that answers be complete, thorough, and clear. It is to the
student applicants' advantage to obtain editorial assistance and feedback from
faculty mentors prior to submitting this application. If this is a group project,
EACH student should provide information about their roles in the project as well
as their credentials.
Literature Review & Project Proposal
1. Clearly explain the purpose of your project.
What do you hope to ultimately determine as a result of your project? Who will benefit from your
findings?
2. Provide a review of any pertinent literature. (A review of the literature is not a
bibliography. A review of the literature is a narrative discussing what is already
known about a topic that leads to the rationale for your project. It should include
scholarly citations.)
Do not simply provide a list of articles, books, and other sources that you plan to use. Write a
brief introduction to the literature on the topic you plan to investigate. A thorough literature
review should serve as evidence that you have a strong basis of knowledge of the topic. Think of
this as a very condensed version of an introduction section of a manuscript. Use proper citations
from scholarly articles. These ideas serve as a foundation for how you formulated your
hypotheses or developed your research question or problem. For a creative project, explain the
background (e.g., artistic, cultural) and the frame of your research. Relate to and compare with
similar artistic work that has been done in the field.
3. What is your research question, problem statement, or hypotheses?
Be specific. The results of your project may provide several answers to several different
questions. For this question, state your main question/problem statement/hypotheses that you are
addressing.
4. What is the significance of your proposed scholarship/research to the
discipline?
Explain what your project will contribute to your field of study (e.g., biology, psychology,
history). Do not write about how this project will contribute to your personal academic
experiences. That will come later. Are you looking at something no researcher has before? Are
you taking a different angle from an already-existing theory? Will your findings help researchers
in future studies? Will your findings help every-day people that are not in your discipline? What
makes your project innovative and original?
Methodology
5. What type of research or scholarly project will you complete?
 Quantitative
 Qualitative
>>>> Skip to question 6-Quant below
>>>> Skip to question 6-Qual below
 Creative Project
>>>> Skip to question 6-Creat below
*The methodology should address HOW you will bring about your study. Be systematic and very
clear. Researchers may have excellent hypotheses or well defined problem statements and
research questions, but they are worthless if researchers do not test them appropriately.
6-Quant. Thoroughly describe your methodology for your research/scholarly
project. This question is extremely important in determining whether or not you
will receive funding. Address such issues as validity and reliability of your
measures, sampling, statistical power, controls, etc.
If your research involved human subjects, how many participants are you expecting to recruit?
How will you compensate them? Are there limits on your sample (e.g., males only, children
only)? If using surveys/measures/questionnaires, where did you get this measure and how did you
identify this measure? Is there evidence that these measures are reliable and valid? What other
measures are you using? Are you using physiological measures or observations? If your research
involves laboratory experiments, discuss the ways in which you will measure your variables. Is
this an established method of measurement? If it is a new methodology, how will you establish its
validity and reliability? What apparatus or instrumentation are you using for your experiment?
What processes (e.g., chemical) will you employ?
6-Qual. Thoroughly describe your methodology for your research/scholarly
project. This question is extremely important in determining whether or not you
will receive funding. Address such issues as whether or not you will use
participation in the setting, direct observation, in depth interviews, analysis of
documents and materials, focus groups, or key informant interviews. Qualitative
researchers may use different approaches in collecting data. Will you use the
grounded theory practice, narratology, storytelling, classical
ethnography, shadowing, action research, actor-network theory, or some other
approach?
Does your qualitative research involve people? Are you interviewing them, observing them, etc.?
Do you have any particular kind of people in mind?
If you are doing an interview, what are some questions you will ask? How will you be recording
the interview (e.g., taking notes, videotape)?
Are you examining documents? Are you going to use primary sources, secondary sources, or
both? Specifically – what documents will you be using?
Many people mistakenly think that good qualitative methods are nonetheless haphazard and
vague. This is not the case. Good qualitative methods are clearly thought out and systematic.
6-Creat. Thoroughly describe your methodology for your creative project. This question
is extremely important in determining whether or not you will receive funding. Explain
specifically what you intend to create and how you plan to create it. Explain what
questions or problems this project will help you address. How will you assess what you
have learned or achieved by carrying out this project?
How will you convey your expressions? What medium will you use? If your project is a
performance, where will the performance take place? If your project involves a show (e.g., art),
where will it take place? How will you document what you have learned and gained from
carrying out the project? Will you keep a journal? Will your work be evaluated by judges?
7. How will you analyze your data? Why have you selected this type of analysis? If
this is a creative project, how will you determine what you have learned from the
project? [We are not interested in the type of computer program so much as such
things as statistics (e.g., t-test, ANOVA, regression), data coding, journal coding,
objective checklists, etc. that you will use to make sense of the information you
have gathered.] This section does not have to be long, but should be very well
thought out. This section is frequently an area that lowers the ratings of a
proposal to a degree that results in a score too low to receive funding.
It is fine to mention a computer problem (e.g., Exel, SPSS), but this is far less important than
what statistics will be run. So address what tests will be run (e.g., bivariate correlation,
regression)?
Do you have a systematic way of coding your qualitative data?
Will you identify themes in your journal?
Timetable & Budget
8. Time Schedule: Provide a specific timetable for implementing the various steps
of your scholarship/research project. The more detailed and specific your time
table, the better able reviewers will be to determine if the project is feasible.
[Consider, for example, entering a month or specific dates and then telling us the
specific tasks you will carryout during that period.]
Provide a detailed, accurate, and reasonable time table for your project. Make realistic goals.
Break down time periods into weeks or months (e.g., weeks 2 & 3 of spring term, February) –
whichever is the most reasonable. Do not write in these time periods what you will have finished
(e.g., “December 2011: Will have finished data collection). Rather, create a plan of what you will
do during each time period (e.g., September & October, 2011: Collect data; November 2011: use
SPSS to compute statistical analyses, begin drafting Results section of manuscript). It is
important to really consider the feasibility of your timeline and set small, realistic goals. Planning
is the key to success.
For example:
Time
Spring, 2013 weeks 1-4
Spring, 2013 weeks 5-6
Spring, 2013 weeks 7-8
Spring, 2013 weeks 9-12
Spring, 2013 weeks 13-end of term
Summer, 2013 week 1
Summer, 2013 weeks 2-4
Summer, 2012 weeks 5-6
Summer, 2013 weeks 7-8
Summer, 2013 weeks 9-10
Summer, 2013 week 11
Summer, 2013 weeks 12-end of term
Activities
Identify, collect and read literature
Obtain CITI certification
Draft and revise introduction
Draft IRB proposal for mentor to edit
Draft and revise method
Begin data collection
Revise introduction
Revise method
Continue data collection
Clean and analyze data
Draft and revise results
Draft discussion
Prepare presentation
Revise paper and submit
9. Budget: Provide a detailed budget and explain the purpose of the expenditures
(to cover supplies, equipment, travel expenses, per diem, or expenses related to
attending conventions, festivals, etc.). Once again, the more detailed and
reasonable the budget, the better able reviewers will be to determine feasibility. [It
is not sufficient to write a broad topic such as Conference = $500. You must
indicate Airfare = $240, Hotel x 2 nights = $180, Registration = $60, Total = $480]
Provide a detailed and accurate outline of your budget. It is important to be realistic. Include costs
necessary to carry out your project as well as present your findings. Items may include:
 Cost of equipment necessary for project (e.g., microscope, art supplies, copyright of
surveys)
 Poster costs for symposium or conferences
 Photocopies/printing costs for articles and books
 Registration fee for professional conferences
 Hotels/transportation/meals at professional conferences
Your budget must be detailed.
For example:
Purpose
Reagents (acetic acid,
phosphoric acid)
Description
Acetic Acid
Phosphoric Acid
Copy costs for articles
Conference Registration
Microtechnologies
in Medicine and
Biology
Conference
4 nights
Roundtrip to CA
Unit Cost
$35.45 x 1 *(500
ml)
$122.45 x 1 *(1L)
Approx. 50 articles
x 25 pages x .08
$200
Total Cost
$157.90
$100
$200
Hotel Accommodations
4 x $125/night
$500
Airline Transportation
$475
$475
Total
$1432.90
I understand that this grant is for $1,500 ($500 of which is for the students use). I have saved an
additional $500 and I will be applying for travel funds through Student Government.
Faculty Mentor(s)
10. Faculty Mentor Contact Information
Name: ____________________
Department: ____________________
Email: ____________________
Department Phone: ____________________
Name: ____________________
Department: ____________________
Email: ____________________
Department Phone: ____________________
Approvals and Funding
11. Does your research/scholarship project involve human subjects (e.g.,
interviews,surveys, focus groups, oral history)?
 Yes - I have applied for and received IRB approval and will provide the Office of
Undergraduate Research with a copy of this approval.
 Yes - I will apply for IRB approval and will provide the Office of Undergraduate
Research with a copy of this approval.
 No
12. Does your research/scholarship project involve animal subjects (i.e.,
vertebrate animals)?
 Yes - I have applied for and received IACUC approval and will provide theOffice of
Undergraduate Research with a copy of this approval.
 Yes - I will apply for IACUC approval and will provide the Office of Undergraduate
Research with a copy of this approval.
 No
13. Does your research/scholarship project involve the use of recombinant DNA or
biohazardous materials? (For more information, please
visit http://www.unf.edu/president/policies_regulations/07-Facilities/7_0080P.aspx
.)
 Yes - I have applied for and received IBC approval and will provide the Office of
Undergraduate Research with a copy of this approval.
 Yes - I will apply for IBC approval and will provide the Office of Undergraduate
Research with a copy of this approval.
 No
14. Have you applied for and received funding from other sources?
 Yes, this project is being funded by an external funding agency.
____________________
 Yes, this project is being funded by another internal (UNF) source.
__________________
 We have applied for but not yet received funding from another source.
________________
 We plan to apply for funding from another source. ____________________
 We have not applied and will not be applying for funding from another source.
Student Information
15. Personal Information
Last Name: ____________________
First Name: ____________________
Student #: ____________________
Street Address: ____________________
Apt. #: ____________________
City: ____________________
State: ____________________
Zip: ____________________
Phone: ____________________
Email: ____________________
Major: ____________________
When will you graduate? ____________________
Student's Preparation & Relevance to Future
16. Convince the committee of your interest and ability to carry out the proposed
project. Explain why this project is important to you and what role it plays in your
development--personal, academic, and/or professional. Explain how engaging in
this project will impact your future.
How will this experience enable you to better pursue your future goals? How will this experience
help you develop the skills to better succeed in your future aspirations?
17. Discuss your course work and other experiences that will enable you to
accomplish this project. Be thorough.
Are there particular courses that motivated you to be involved in research/scholarly endeavors?
Did you have any work experience in an area similar to your project? What have you gained from
these experiences? Talk about any skills you may have developed in your research methods
course, your lab course, your course on a topic related to your research, or any volunteer or work
experiences that may have prepared you for this project.
18. Do you have any poor grades or other inconsistencies in your academic
record? If so, please explain.
If you have a consistent academic record of predominantly B or better letter grades, then you
have no problem. If you have a number of grades of C or lower or if you have C or lower grades
in courses related to your research, then you need to explain how these grades came to be. Did
you have two jobs and were president of five clubs? Were you having serious family issues?
Were you sick with mono for three months? Did you undergo a serious surgical procedure? Be
truthful here to explain reasons for any poor grades. However, do not abuse this opportunity by
making up excuses. Reviewers do not need details (e.g., I was in rehab for a drug problem most
of the term and had to make up a great deal of school work), but they do need sufficient
information (e.g., I had to address a serious health issue that required me to make up a great deal
of school work) to make a judgment about your academic potential. If you have a pattern of poor
grades – particularly in the field in which you hope to do research – you should consider using
grade forgiveness or some other mechanism of demonstrating your ability and motivation before
you apply for a grant.
19. Does this grant application involve another student?
If your answer to this question is yes, have each student complete questions 15 to 19.
 Yes
 No
>>>> Skip to End Page: Survey Submitted