CoA+A Research Support
The College of Arts + Architecture provides a variety of resources to support faculty, staff, and students in the pursuit of scholarly research as well as the pursuit and management of extramural funding. Team members the Division of Research and within the college provide education, consultation, communications and other services in support of our faculty’s research goals.
We also engage with other research-related counterparts across the campus. In these ways, we aim to address our Strategic Planning goals and the university’s mission to facilitate the growth of faculty research and creative practices.
Research support Faculty & Staff
Interim Director
Office of Research Services and Senior Assoc. Director, Proposal Development
COLLEGE OPPORTUNITIES
CoA+A Research Centers/Labs/Libraries: The College of Arts + Architecture supports research spaces to promote the depth of faculty and student scholarship and most importantly to provide opportunities to collaborate with partners in creative thinking and expression. Many times these spaces help foster the development of faculty research teams that apply for large research grant initiatives. The directors, physical spaces, and other materials are available to support faculty research related to the unique focus of each center or lab. Drop by one of the spaces listed below, or fill out a request form to get in touch with the center or lab director.
- Center for Community Heritage and the Arts (CHArt)
- Digital Arts Center (D-Arts)
- Design Lab (designLAB)
- City.Building.Lab
- Integrated Design Research Lab (IDRL)
- Hight Architecture Library
ArtXSci: The UNC Charlotte Art and Science Initiative (ArtXSci) foster collaborations between faculty in CoA+A and scholars in STEM fields with the goal of cultivating active/intensive exchange and sustained dialogue among those engaged in artistic and scientific inquiry within the University and Charlotte. These were first introduced in 2022 and we hope to provide a Request for Proposals in 2023. So, now is the time to begin thinking about a possible proposal.
CoA+A Research Fund: CoA+A Funding program is designed to provide initial financial support to faculty and staff to develop research and/or creative projects that would otherwise be difficult to initiate. Given the college’s recent “New Global South” initiative, this funding opportunity is being updated and additional information will be provided soon.
Vibrant Ecologies of Research Online Peer-reviewed Art+Design Research Journal: In this special collection of Ground Works, artists and designers explore “vibrant ecologies of research, deepening our understanding of the institutional, social, and epistemological systems that effectively weave arts-based inquiry into the scholarly fabric of research.” Learn more about this publication venue for our faculty.
Reassignment of Duties University Policy: View the policy here.
PROPOSAL DEVELOPMENT RESOURCES
Writing letters of inquiry
Today most foundations prefer a proposal letter or a letter of inquiry rather than a full grant application. They do this in order to ensure a researcher’s topic aligns with their giving priorities.
- How to Write a Winning LOI (Provided by GrantWriterTeam.com)
Writing Grant Proposals
- Guide for Writing a Funding Proposal: Prepared by S. Joseph Levine, Michigan State University; provides hints and examples of each proposal section.
- Grantspace.org Proposal Writing Courses: Courses include Introduction to Proposal Writing and Proposal Writing Boot Camp. They also offer a Government Funding: Writing the Proposal self-paced course, and a Guide to Proposal Writing Audiobook. The costs for the courses varies, but some are free.
- All About Grants Podcast: Although prepared by the National Institutes of Health, there is a wealth of information here that can be applied to any proposal. Topics include “Telling Your Story,” “Using Plain Language for Application Titles, Abstracts….,” “Budget Basics,” “Human Subjects Risk and Protection,” “Grant Writing for New Investigators,” and “Assembling the Right Team.”
- IES Research Funding Opportunities On-Demand Webinars: The Institute of Education Sciences hosts a series of on-demand webinars for those interested in their funding opportunities. The webinars are presented by the National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER) and the National Center for Education Research (NCER). Webinars include IES Grant Writing Workshop, Research Training Programs in the Education Sciences, and NCSER Research Training for Early Career Development and Mentoring. Both the video and the transcript is available.
- Grant Writing Tips Sheets by the National Institutes of Health: Prepared by the National Institutes of Health, but provides valuable tips for preparing/writing a proposal to submit to a federal agency.
- Education Resources Information Center (ERIC): ERIC provides a comprehensive, easy-to-use, searchable internet-based bibliographic and full-text database of education research. The information is used by educators, researchers, and the general public.
Resources for New Faculty
For new faculty, Hanover Research has shared a recording and slides from their November 2022 Webinar – Funding Landscape for Early Career Research. They each cover some topics of interest, such as:
- A review of major federal and foundation grant programs designed to support early career faculty research
- Major trends and themes among early career faculty grant programs
- Strategies for identifying the best fit opportunities for your experience level and field
- What a 5-year research plan might look like
Resources for Working with Students
- Resources for Mentoring Graduate Students
- Training for Mentoring Graduate Students
- Authorship Guidelines for working with Students
- Mentoring Undergraduate Students
- Ninercare – Guidelines for reporting concerns for students
Podcasts and Other Resources
- Mini-webcast: 8 Reasons You’ll Get the Grant: Prepared by the Grantsmanship Center
- Mini-webcast: How to Use Concept Papers: Prepared by the Grantsmanship Center
- The Carolina Population Center, a population research center located at UNC-Chapel Hill, recently opened a branch of the Triangle Federal Statistical Research Data Center, which is part of the Federal Statistical Research Data Center (FSRDC) program. The RDC is free for all researchers (faculty and graduate students) affiliated with a UNC System school. Under this program, the Census Bureau allows researchers with approved proposals to perform statistical analysis on non-public microdata from the Census Bureau’s economic, health, and demographic censuses and surveys. These datasets are among the largest and most important sources of statistical information in the U.S. and many of them can only be accessed through a FSRDC.