The 23 – 24 SCR Small Grant Program is closed.

Grantees to be announced in early 2024.

Do you do research in science communication? Could you use more funding? SCR offers small grants to UO faculty, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and undergraduate students to conduct science communication research that advances the missions of SCR and the University of Oregon.

Our interdisciplinary research collaborations advance the science of science communication and improve the understanding and use of science.

Research Areas

Our grant program gives preference to research that focuses on one of our four key areas:

• Human Response and Adaptation to the Environment: How does media coverage of environmental disasters affect how people respond to risks? How do interpersonal communication networks facilitate the sharing of scientific information? What drives conversations around climate change? How do emotions influence climate risk perceptions?
• Producing Positive Change in Health and Health Equity: How can physicians best present information so that patients understand and use it? What is the scientist’s role in communicating health research? Should public health officials persuade or inform, and how do they affect decision-making?
• Numeracy and Critical Reasoning: How do people make decisions when science is involved? What role does numeric reasoning play in decision-making? How do we overcome politically biased knowledge?
• Disruptive and Instructive Media and Technology: How do machine learning and artificial intelligence affect news production and consumption? How do game-related misogyny and sexism affect female gamers? What interventions increase participation from underrepresented groups in STEM fields?

Funding

We offer three types of grants:

• Faculty and postdoctoral researchers: Awards of up to $5,000 each for SCR Associates
• Graduate students: Awards of up to $3,000 each for SCR Emerging Scholars
• Undergraduate students: Awards of up to $2,000 each for SCR Emerging Scholars

Application Deadlines

Applications for Faculty, postdoctoral researchers, and graduate students for the 2023 – 2024 grant program will open Thursday, October 5th, and are due by Friday, November 3rd.

Awards for undergraduate students are accepted on a rolling basis.

Objectives

Our small grants program has four selection criteria:

1. Will this project foster science communication research excellence at the University of Oregon? For example, is the research project creating innovative and useful models and/or techniques for science communication? Please make your connection to science communication as specific as possible.
2. Does this research project grow interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers?
3. How competitive will this research project be for external funding?
4. Will the research improve diversity, equity, and inclusion consistent with the IDEAL Framework in the field of science communication at the University of Oregon?

Eligible Expenses

All expenses must be consistent with UO business expense guidelines. Examples of allowable research-related expenses include, but are not limited to:

• Monetary or other incentives in surveys/experiments/focus groups, research materials or equipment, software, data sets, presentation expenses, conference registration, travel, and undergraduate wages
• Software subscription costs or one-time costs related to software
• Travel costs related to research
• User testing
• Data sets
• Data analysis
• Compensation of experimental or survey participants
• Summer support for faculty scholarly work, faculty release time, and up to one month of summer support for graduate students. This funding is currently less likely, given limited resources. (Support for graduate students and stipends for faculty members during fall, winter, and spring terms are not eligible expenses.)

 

For examples of successful past proposals, contact SCR Program Lead Ian Winbrock.