Seed Grants

2020 Business & Social Analytics Seed Grant Program

Call for Proposals, Due January 17, 2020

MSU’s Center for Business and Social Analytics (CBSA) seeks to provide internal start-up and bridging funds for multi-college research teams that are focused on core elements in NSF’s 10 BigIdeas (https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/big_ideas/index.jsp) as they relate to analytics and Business and Social Science issues.  This is a rapidly developing domain with strong potential for external funding, and the program objective is to encourage collaborative innovation.  This funding could be used for student support, pilot experiments, buy-outs of courses, or access to data or other research resources. At least one co-PI must be from the Broad College of Business or the College of Social Science, and preference will be given to multi-college proposals.  The primary goal of this program is to encourage external funding of interdisciplinary research.  A secondary program goal is to create opportunities for research engagement for MSU students in this important new STEM area (e.g., in the MS-Analytics Program).  Proposals will be evaluated by an interdisciplinary panel with these goals in mind.  We anticipate being able to support individual proposals up to $25,000.  The duration of the award is for up to one year.  Faculty salaries, such as summer supplements, will not be funded as part of this program.

The proposal should include:1. A two page summary of the research challenge and how you plan to address it; 2. A one page summary of how your project aligns with external grant opportunities (including the amount you expect to seek from each source); 3. Current CVs for each PI and co-PI, and 4. A budget with a one-page justification for the expenses.  In accepting support from this program, recipients agree to (1) apply for external funding to continue their work; (2) report to CBSA on their progress in obtaining external funding; (3) publish a short CBSA white paper on their research findings by the end of the project.  While the CBSA is providing seed funding for external contracts and grants, it does not expect to share in revenue from those sources.  The next round of proposals will be due January 17, 2020, and decisions will be made by February3, 2020, if possible.  Completed proposals (as well as any questions) should be submitted via email to the CBSA Director (ashton@msu.edu)