HFG || Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation

General Requirements | The majority of grants from the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation range between $15,000 and $30,000 per year, for one or two years, depending on the nature of the research. The size of our grants says something about the research we support. We aim to attract applications for projects that can be done within that range, and we expect budget requests to match the specific needs of the project. Budgets that add up to $29,999 or a flat $30,000 appear to us to be dictated by a desire for the greatest amount of funds available rather than by the needs of the project. Be aware that many solid pieces of research are proposed to us each year that can be done well within these budget limitations; projects that require larger budgets are simply not appropriate subjects for funding by this foundation, and projects priced at the highest end of funds available are not competitive with more frugal requests. We will not contribute a portion of costs to a large, expensive project unless an independent "Guggenheim component" of the research can be identified and shown to make a difference to what can be accomplished by the larger project, which must be fully funded otherwise. We will not contribute to a larger project for which necessary other funding is not yet secured.

We would prefer to make contributions exclusively to direct costs of research, including fieldwork costs, the expenses of library and archive work, essential assistance, and survey, subjects, and materials costs. However we recognize that in some cases salary support is necessary for the successful completion of a research project. Because our funds are limited, we restrict salary requests in a number of ways, described below. We also restrict the costs of assistance and materials to those necessary to the project proposed. It is not appropriate to request salary, assistance, or supplies that contribute to your general scholarly or teaching activities but are not essential to this particular project.

We mean to support specific research projects conducted by individuals, or a few principal investigators at most, with student assistance or fieldwork help when necessary, for specific tasks appropriate to assistants. We do not offer support for the ongoing expenses of a laboratory or other institutional setting, such as a percentage of a secretary's time, office rental, or support for a team of student assistants, unless these expenses are demonstrated to be necessary to the specific project proposed. Projects in which graduate students or other assistants are doing all of the work, "supervised" by the principal investigator, are not priorities for us, especially when the research involves sensitive or creative tasks for which a student may not be qualified. If students are substantial collaborators on the project, we expect to review each one's c.v. and list of publications, as with other professional collaborators. Student assistants must be paid only for the work they do, and at reasonable rates for junior researchers. We do not contribute to tuition remission or other university fees related to their status as students. Please do not try to hide tuition remission costs under the category of "benefits." Fees for "consultants" are generally not allowed: if the principal investigator cannot do the work without expert advice, then we consider that she may not be the right person for the project.

Our grants are not for team projects or for institutional programs. Contrary to what some applicants appear to think, when the c.v.'s of ten people appear in the personnel section of the application, we regard the project as work done by committee and automatically downgrade our expectations for its effectiveness. Such projects are rarely funded.

In conclusion, please remember that the restrictions outlined below exist in order to maximize the number of projects that can be supported. When you strip your request of $1000 in unnecessary supplies, that $1000 can be offered to someone else for expenses essential to their research. If you are not working at least 40 hours a week, nine months of the year on a project, it is unfair to request a full salary. If your research assistants are paid a large salary for a small amount of work to help them with living expenses while in school, your charitable contribution to their welfare is a loss to a student doing real work on another research project. And if you submit a budget that contradicts any of these carefully described guidelines, we will have reason to think of you as a careless reader and thoughtless applicant. This will inevitably be reflected in our estimation of the potential of your scholarship.

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Salaries | In most cases a grant from us is not enough fully to replace an average university professor's salary in the U.S. We generally do not fund projects that take up an investigator's full-time effort. Except in cases of extended fieldwork, archival research away from home, sustained writing projects, or other intensive work, most projects proposed to us do not appear to involve a full-time commitment, and even then our grants are usually not large enough to replace a full salary. It is allowable to ask for supplementation to a sabbatical half-pay, up to what we allow. However, as we evaluate your proposal we will consider whether the work really does need your full time. The grant will not be made if we consider that the project you describe to us can be done with sabbatical leave or other support you already have.

Applicants without a salaried job are instructed to request a salary commensurate with local rates for a person with comparable qualifications: avoid overestimating your value, refer to levels of compensation that are appropriate in your geographical area, and ask for support only for the amount of your time the project will require.

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Part-time Salaries | University professors are expected to do a certain amount of research already compensated by the salary they receive for their principal employment. Requests for 2%, 5%, or even 10% of a researcher's time appear to add nothing to the active scholarly engagement available for a project and often add up to large sums. Any project that budgets 10% or less of the applicant's time will not be a priority for the foundation. As well, our grants are not made to top up full salaries received for full-time employment, even if you might otherwise be using your free time for other activities. This includes requests for summer salaries (see below.) A salary is only justified if paid work will be given up to free time for the specific research project proposed to us. In these cases, we need to know your base salary, the duties you are expected to fulfill, what you will give up in duties and salary to conduct the research proposed, and how that relates to the salary requested from us.

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Summer Salaries | While on occasion a summer salary is necessary to the conduct of a research project, in general, requests for summer salaries are not a priority for the foundation, since we consider that most university professors are expected to conduct research during the time they do not teach but continue drawing a salary in the summer. We do not intend for our grants to add to your regular salary. If you request summer salary, please explain why the project cannot be conducted without such compensation. And unless you are doing something for which you should be paid, don't ask for a summer salary. Supervising a student assistant (who is really doing all the work) is not justification for expecting a salary supplement in the summer. In any event, don't ask for more than two-ninths (2/9) of your nine-month base salary, even if you plan to work on the project for three summer months, and keep to a ceiling of $10,000 no matter what your base salary. If you are paid more than $100,000 for the nine-month school year, don't ask us for any supplement. If your fringe benefits are paid by your employer throughout the summer whether or not you have acquired a supplement, don't ask for fringe benefits. We do not intend for our grants to reduce the university's regular costs of employing you.

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"Double Dipping" | This foundation is not an appropriate source of support for applicants who must maintain a home residence during extensive periods of field research or for any other reason require full salary as well as full per diem living expenses over most of the period of the grant. Salary should not be requested during fieldwork if fieldwork comprises more than 25% of the grant period and per diem expenses are also being requested.

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Equipment and Supplies | Ask only for equipment and supplies needed for this research project. While not all requests are as clearly fictional as the recent application with a budget line of $1000 for "pens, pencils, etc.," we do not consider general office supplies to be essential to a research project. Nor do we want to buy you a personal computer or any other equipment unless it is necessary to the project and unavailable otherwise. Note that the resale value of any equipment that initially costs more than $1000 must be returned to the foundation at the end of the grant period. Calculate the real costs of this particular project: if the phone bill is to be paid, tell us what the telephone will be used for in connection with this particular research and how you arrived at the total requested. Likewise, costs for postage, copying, supplies, travel. Rather than asking for $2000 for "trip to England," tell us what the anticipated airfare, lodging, transportation, and other essential costs will be, and ask for their sum. A reference to "computer time" in a previous budget memo has elicited requests for thousands of dollars for such an item from applicants who have not, when we asked, been able to describe what it means. Budget items for "miscellaneous," "unanticipated costs," "inflation," etc. are not allowed.

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Secretarial Help | It is appropriate to ask for secretarial help if a clerical assistant has tasks to do that are specifically related to the research project proposed. If so, describe that work and include a c.v. for the person to be employed. General office support, calculated as a percentage of a secretary's regular salary, is not an allowable budget item.

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Taxation | Regardless of whether the grant funds are paid to the grantee directly or are paid to an institution on behalf of the grantee, the grantee may be liable for some taxes on funds awarded, depending on locality, tax status, timing, nature of the award, etc. The foundation does not provide advice on tax matters. Applicants should consult their own tax advisors to determine the tax consequences to them of receiving a research grant.

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