THE HARRY FRANK GUGGENHEIM FOUNDATION
Guidelines for Submitting Applications for Research Grants
The foundation welcomes proposals from any of the natural and social sciences and the humanities that promise to increase understanding of the causes, manifestations, and control of violence, aggression, and dominance. Highest priority is given to research that can increase understanding and amelioration of urgent problems of violence, aggression, and dominance in the modern world.
Particular questions that interest the foundation concern violence, aggression, and dominance in relation to social change, the socialization of children, intergroup conflict, interstate warfare, crime, family relationships, and investigations of the control of aggression and violence. Research with no useful relevance to understanding human problems will not be supported, nor will proposals to investigate urgent social problems where the foundation cannot be assured that useful, sound research can be done. Priority will also be given to areas and methodologies not receiving adequate attention and support from other funding sources.
The Research Grant
The foundation awards research grants to individuals for individual projects and does not award grants to institutions for institutional programs. As discussed below in the section entitled "Taxation," individuals who receive research grants may be subject to taxation on the funds awarded, depending on locality, tax status, timing, nature of the award, and other factors.
For administrative convenience, a grantee may choose for the foundation to pay grant funds to an institution on behalf of the grantee, rather than to the grantee directly. If the grantee so directs, the grant will be administered and accounted for by the institution on behalf of the grantee in accordance with the budget prepared by the grantee and included with the application (subject to revisions approved by the foundation). Applications must clearly specify whether the funds requested will be administered through an institution or will be paid to the grantee directly. Administration of grant funds through an institution does not change the grant's tax status as a grant made to the individual researcher.
The foundation ordinarily makes awards in the range of $15,000 to $30,000 a year for periods of one or two years. Applications for larger amounts and longer durations must be very strongly justified.
The original proposal should contain the budget for the entire period of the project—not to exceed three years in any case—and requests for support in future years will be limited to the amount projected for that year. All awards, however, are for one-year terms initially. Further funding of projects tentatively approved for more than one year will require annual applications for continuation and will depend upon evidence of satisfactory progress and an account of expenditures during the previous year. Any substantial change in the distribution of funds within the budget of a grant awarded must be approved in advance by the foundation.
Requests will be considered for salaries, employee benefits, research assistantships, supplies and equipment, field work, essential secretarial and technical help, and other items necessary to the successful completion of a project. The foundation does not supply funds for overhead costs of institutions, travel to professional meetings, self-education, elaborate fixed equipment, or support while completing the requirements for advanced degrees (apart from that indirectly involved in research assistantships or awarded through our Dissertation Fellowship). The foundation will not accept applications for the support of meetings and conferences or travel costs for participants.
Timing
New applications must be received by August 1, for a decision in December.
Applications are received once a year and final decisions are made by the Board of Directors at its meeting in December. Applicants will be informed promptly by letter of the Board's decision. Grants ordinarily commence on January 1, but later starting dates may be requested if the nature of the research makes this appropriate.
Applications for continuation are also due on August 1 for a decision in December or on February 1 for a decision in June.
Continued support for a project tentatively approved for longer than one year depends on a satisfactory report of progress, an accounting of funds expended during the previous year, and the submission of a budget for the coming year not exceeding that originally approved. This application must be submitted at the appropriate due date, approximately five months before the start of the next funding year. Grantees are responsible for requesting the continuation form from the foundation's offices and meeting these deadlines.
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.
Final Report
Final reports to the foundation are mandatory. Grant recipients must submit written reports within six months after the end of the grant period. The report should include a discussion of the scientific and scholarly accomplishments achieved under the grant, and a detailed financial accounting of the funds in accordance with the approved budget must be submitted. If the project was carried out under the auspices of a publicly supported institution, the budget must be certified by a financial officer of the institution as having been used for the purposes for which the grant was made.
The resale value of any capital equipment initially worth more than $1,000 must be returned to the foundation at the termination of the grant period.
Publications
Any papers, books, articles, or other publications resulting from foundation-sponsored research should include a suitable acknowledgment, formally reflecting the foundation's contribution to the work. Copies of all such publications should be sent to the foundation.
Application Procedure
Submit THREE copies of a typewritten application in English to The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, 25 West 53rd Street, New York, N.Y. 10019-5401. The deadline for receipt by the foundation is August 1. Incomplete or late applications will not be processed. Applications may not be submitted by fax. Attend to the following items, including them in each of the three copies.
Please note: The forms for items A, B, and J (below) must be either downloaded from the foundation website or requested from the foundation. (These forms are in Acrobat format.)
A. Title Page
If necessary, this form may be copied or imitated on a computer. If the grant is to be administered by an institution, this page must be signed by an appropriate official of that institution.
B. Abstract
Enter an abstract describing the project in plain English and a statement specifying its relevance to human dominance, aggression, or violence. The abstract and statement of relevance should be self-contained and sufficient to serve as a succinct and accurate description of the project. The name of the principal investigator should appear on the upper right corner of the abstract and on all succeeding pages.
C. Personnel
Include curricula vitae and lists of relevant publications for the principal investigator and all professional personnel. Do not exceed two pages for each person.
D. Budget
Submit a budget in U.S. dollars broken down into informative categories. The budget must be projected for each year of support requested. (Please see "A Note on Budgets," below.)
E. Budget Justification
Describe the need for and planned use of the funds requested for separate items in each budget category.
F. Research Plan
Outline the specific aims of the project and discuss the background and significance of the proposed work. Describe the methods and procedures of the research and the means by which the results will be analyzed and interpreted. Be concise, but give sufficient detail for a proper evaluation. (Research plans typically range from 10 to 20 double-spaced pages.) Supplementary supporting material is not necessary but may be submitted. However, the foundation cannot be responsible for the return of such material.
G. Other Support
Describe facilities and resources already available for the proposed research. Also list the title, source, dollar amount, period of time for funding expected or being sought for this project from other sources during the period of the grant requested, and the expected notification date, including actual or probable publisher's advances. If no other applications have been or will be submitted, please so state.
H. Protection of Subjects
Discuss what steps will be taken to protect the rights and welfare of any human subjects who might be involved in the research. If non-human animals are to be used in the project, discuss how the animals will be cared for so that they will not suffer unnecessary discomfort, pain, and injury. If this concern is not applicable to your project, please so state.
I. Tax-Exempt Status
Include a copy of the Internal Revenue Service certification of tax-exempt status if the application is submitted by an institution in the United States. Such certification should indicate whether an institution is a private organization or is publicly supported. A foreign institution submitting an application should provide an affidavit attesting to its non-profit status.
J. Referees' Comments
Send a copy of the application and a referee form to each of two referees selected by you, the applicant, and enter their names and addresses in the appropriate place on the title page. The referees may not be involved in the project directly. Request that the referees complete the forms and return them to the foundation. They are due August 15.
A Note on Budgets
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
In conclusion, please remember that these restrictions 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.
Further Information
Requests for further information should be directed to The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, 25 West 53rd Street, New York, N.Y. 10019-5401, or by telephone to (646) 428-0971, or fax to (646) 428-0981. To discuss an application in detail, call or write to our program officers. More information is also available on our website: www.hfg.org.