SRF: Junior Faculty Research Grant Program

Sponsor: The Smith Richardson Foundation (SRF)

The Smith Richardson Foundation’s International Security and Foreign Policy Program is pleased to announce its annual grant competition to support junior faculty research on American foreign policy, international relations, international security, military policy, and diplomatic and military history. The Foundation will award at least three research grants of $60,000 each to support tenure-track junior faculty engaged in the research and writing of a scholarly book on an issue or topic of interest to the policy community. These grants are intended to buy-out up to one year of teaching time and to underwrite research costs (including research assistance and travel). Each grant will be paid directly to, and should be administered by, the academic institution at which the junior faculty member works. Projects in military and diplomatic history are especially encouraged. Group or collaborative projects will not be considered.

Procedure

An applicant must submit a research proposal, a maximum of ten pages, that includes the following five sections: (1) a one-page executive summary; (2) a brief description of the policy issue or the problem that the proposed book will examine; (3) a description of the background and body of knowledge on the issue to be addressed by the book; (4) a description of the personnel and methods (e.g., research questions, research strategy, analytical approach, tentative organization of the book, etc.); and (5) a brief explanation of the implications of the prospective findings of the research for the policy community. The applicant should also include a curriculum vitae, a detailed budget explaining how the grant would be used, a work timetable with a start date, and a copy of policy-relevant scholarship. A template for a junior faculty proposal is available at the Foundation’s website (www.srf.org).

Proposal Evaluation Criteria

Proposals will be evaluated based on the following criteria: (1) the relevance of potential analysis and findings to current and future foreign and security policy issues; (2) the potential of the project to innovate the field and to contribute to academic or policy literature on the chosen topic; (3) the degree to which research questions and analytical methods are well defined; (4) the degree to which the project will develop valuable new data or information through field work, archival work, or other methods; and (5) the applicant’s publication record.

Eligibility

An applicant must have a Ph.D., preferably in Political Science, Public Policy, Policy Analysis, International Political Economy, or History. He or she also must hold a position as a full-time tenure-track faculty member of a college or university in the United States. An applicant should explain how he or she meets all of these requirements in a cover letter to the proposal.

Amount: $60,000

Deadline: June 29, 2007

For further information, please visit: http://www.srf.org/grants/JF_Domestic_Description.php