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The Large Grants Project

by admin — last modified 2008-09-15 17:57

Large Grants provide up to $30,000 in support for academic-advocacy research collaborations designed to change media / telecommunications infrastructure, practices, or policies.

Two rounds, totalling 14 grants, were awarded in 2007 and 2008. More...

General areas of interest for the program include:

Measuring the success or failure of mainstream media in advancing different public interest goals or values.
Measuring the impact of existing alternative or community media systems on communities, public discourse, or democratic processes.
Developing better, actionable accounts of the role of ‘new media’ in people’s lives.
Analyzing policymaking and/or regulatory systems.
Analyzing emerging systems, frameworks, or models of media and communications that transcend the current regulatory framework.
Analyzing economic models, industry structure, markets, or audiences for different kinds of media.
Creating analytical tools or research resources for use by advocates, communities, or the public.
Documenting or evaluating advocacy or organizing strategies around communications and media issues.

Grant recipients will be part of a cohort that meets and communicates over the course of the program.

Application for the Large Grants Competition takes place in two stages

Submission of a ‘Letter of Inquiry’ of less than 1,000 words outlining the proposed project, partners, and goals. Entries will be vetted by program staff in order to help applicants navigate the challenges of building effective collaborations in this area. More substantial proposals will then be requested from LOI submitters who meet the program criteria.

The LOI deadline for the 2008 Large Grants round has passed. Please continue to visit the Media Research Hub for news about upcoming grants opportunities.

A more detailed proposal describing the research, the partners, budget, timeline, and proposed outcomes. After acceptance of the letter of inquiry, applicants will have 8 weeks to submit this longer proposal. This process will be conducted via the SSRC online application portal.
Results will be announced after the Grants Selection Committee and external peer reviewers have reviewed all full proposals.

To Apply

Submit a Letter of Inquiry via email to mediahub@ssrc.org with subject line “Collaborative Grant Letter of Inquiry."

Letters of inquiry should not exceed 1,000 words, and should include the following:

Name or topic of the proposed research project;
A brief statement (two or three sentences) of the purpose and nature of the proposed study;
The significance of the issue addressed by the project;
How the research will address the issue;
How the issue relates to the applying organization, and why the organization is qualified to undertake the project;
Novelty and utility of the project vis à vis existing research;
Geographic area or country where the work will take place;
Time period for which funding is requested;
Information about those who will be helped by and interested in the work and how you will communicate with them;
Amount and breakdown of the funding requested (estimates are acceptable).

Applicants should provide the following contact information in a separate memorandum:

Name, postal address, phone number, fax number; and e-mail address of principal researcher
Name of the partnering organization
Organization’s postal address; phone number, fax number, e-mail address; and web address, if any
Name of the partnering organization’s chief executive officer or equivalent
Name and title of the main project contact person at the organization, if different from the above
Postal address (if different); phone number; fax number; and e-mail address of main contact at the organization

SSRC staff will respond to letters of inquiry within three weeks.

Applicant Criteria

Projects must involve substantive collaboration between:

A researcher based at a university, college, or other academically-oriented research institution. Advanced graduate students are eligible.
A US-based non-profit advocacy, organizing or community group working on media and/or telecommunications issues. (International proposals will be solicited via SSRC partner organizations).

Letters of interest and proposals must be submitted by the person primarily responsible for conducting the proposed research.

Other Conditions:

Public-interest groups with unusual financial status (e.g., non-profit fiscal sponsorship or non-commercial for-profit status) should contact SSRC program staff.
The academic research partner cannot be a paid staff member of the partnering nonprofit organization.

There are no citizenship requirements for participation in the program.
Applicants may apply for both small grants and large grants. Applicants with current SSRC collaborative grant funding should explain how the new proposal builds on completed work from that grant.

Project Criteria

All projects must:

Be strategically useful in their proposed advocacy and/or organizing context.
Produce scholarship that meets academic standards.
Have a realistic workflow, budget, and timeframe.
Explain their relationship to existing bodies of research.

Collaborations will be evaluated in part on whether they meet some or all of the following criteria:

Address issues of disparate impact on communities on the basis of race, class, gender, ethnicity, age or other identity/status category.
Build capacity—skills, tools, experience, access to data sets—within the "user" organization and/or community.
Have a clear plan for the dissemination of the research to target audiences
Have uses outside the immediate intended context.
Use methods or models of research that have proved effective in similar contexts.
Reflect diversity in the staff or group involved with the project.
Involve collaboration between two or more advocacy/community groups in the project design and the plan of use for the research.
Use participatory methods to engage community and/or advocacy group members in framing the questions, data collection, and/or analysis.

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