Aspire Internal Grants
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Ball State University’s Aspire Internal Grants Program provides funding for faculty, professional personnel
and students with the goal of supporting projects in the areas of research, scholarly studies and creative
endeavors.
SIMILARITIES
While each Aspire competition has its own set of guidelines based on eligible participants, there are a
number of programs that are available to both faculty and students.
These include Research, Creative Arts and the Hollis Program.
Let’s take a closer look at these three specific areas starting with research.
RESEARCH FUNDING
Available to faculty members in their first five years of receiving a new tenure-track appointment, the Junior
Faculty Award provides seed money for research findings and/or projects that lead to additional support
from external funding agencies.
While the Junior Faculty award is granted ONLY once during this five year period, it is strongly
recommended that newly appointed faculty members apply.
Conversely, the student research competition involves a process of study or discovery that produces new
insights or theories.
Available to students twice a year, research results should be worthy of publication in refereed journals and
could serve as a foundation for an external funding application.
CREATIVE ARTS FUNDING
The next Aspire program available to both faculty and students is the creative arts program.
Adhering to the same deadlines as the Aspire Research competition, the goal of the creative arts program is
to provide support for projects that propose the creation and/or presentation of original works of creative
arts.
Eligible projects are those within areas supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.
HOLLIS FUND
Lastly, the Hollis Fund supports research in psychology and is available to both Junior Faculty and Graduate
Students only.
Proposals from any department are eligible as long as the project is psychology based.
DIFFERENCES
Now that we’ve discussed some of the similar programs offered to both Faculty Members and Students, let’s
review the additional programs only available to faculty and professional personnel.
START-UP PROGRAM
The Start-Up Program assists with the purchase of supplies, research-related items and/or travel to
conferences or workshops by providing a one-time grant award.
To apply for this grant, faculty members must be in their first year of a tenure track position with the
university.
REPRINT/PUBLICATION SUPPORT PROGRAM
The next Aspire Internal Grant is the Reprint/Publication Support Program which provides support for
expenses associated with publication, reprints, and page charges.
Funding however is not applicable to publication development and must have been previously accepted for
publication or published in a refereed or other scholarly journal.
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INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL/TRAVEL SUPPORT (STUDENTS)
The International Travel Program awards grants to tenured and tenure-track faculty members that facilitate
international academic or creative activity.
This award is intended to supplement funds provided by the faculty member’s college and department.
While the International Travel Program exclusively supports faculty excursions, we also have travel support
for students to assist with transportation expenses exceeding 200 miles, round trip from Muncie.
This support is specifically for students presenting their work at a professional meeting or performing and/or
exhibiting creative works, funding is transferred directly to a student travel account within the department.
ADVANCE PROGRAM
An alternative program open to BSU faculty members with over five years of experience and professional
personnel is the Advance Program.
To be eligible for an ADVANCE grant, the Principal Investigator must either have a record of external
proposal activity OR a strong record of scholarly activity if interested in pursuing external funding for the
first time.
In addition, the PI should also be planning a submission to a national-level sponsor in order to pursue this
opportunity designed to increase both the quantity and quality of competitive external grant proposals.
CLOSING
As you can see, there are a number of internal grant resources that support projects of Ball State Faculty,
Staff and Students in the areas of research, scholarly study and creative endeavors.
Seeking further support from external funding, the Aspire Internal Grant Program aims to provide seed
money for research, scholarly study and creative endeavors while assisting in project costs such as travel
and supplies.
To view these programs in detail or download grant applications, visit the SPO website at www.bsu.edu/spo
or for questions regarding the Aspire Program please email the Aspire Program Manager at aspire@bsu.edu.
Also be sure to check out the SPO Newsletter Blog and connect with us on Facebook and Twitter to stay
updated about office news and events.