Community Changemaker Challenge Grants

Funding will be made available through the President’s Office for two, two-year grants for up to $200,000 to be used to solve and/or address real-world problems confronting a local community or communities (these could be geographic communities or communities based on shared characteristics).

Community engagement and being a preeminent “steward of place” are a priority for the institution. Indeed, as President Pescovitz notes in the Strategic Vision 2030, “Throughout the strategic planning process, two primary questions were posed: How do we develop our university where community, collaboration and excellence in education and research are at the core of our endeavor? And how can Oakland be further integrated into our communities, and serve as a catalyst for progress?”

Timetable:
September 18: Grant competition announced
January 8: Submission deadline
February 1: First award(s) announced and two-year funding period begins

Proposal requirements:

• Connection to a community partner and how that partner will play a role in the project
• A community identified need- and/or opportunity-driven project
• Description of how the grant will solve, help solve or address a problem faced by a community (including multiple metrics)
• Description of how OU students will be involved in the project. For instance: Will a service-learning course be a portion of the project? Will students be a part of a research team that will investigate and address the specific problem?
• Emphasis on reciprocal relationships and measurable community impact
• Sustainability plan: How will this project continue beyond the two-year funding period? What sources of funding might be pursued after the two-year funding period?

Proposal Components

Submit all documents as PDF files: standard letter-size pages (8.5 by 11 inches), one-inch margins on all sides, single-spaced, with a font that is at least 11-point. The following documents are required for all proposals:

1. A one-page cover sheet that contains all of the following elements:
   1. The project title
   2. An abstract (not more than 300 words in length), written in non-technical
      language understandable to lay audiences. The abstract should
      summarize the proposed work, its significance, its goals, the proposed
      project plan, and expected outcomes.
   3. The project team (the investigator(s) and all significant/key personnel
      involved on the project). For each team member, provide:
      1. Their name
      2. Their institutional affiliation (if at OU, provide their department or
         unit affiliation)
      3. Their email address and telephone number
      4. Their role on the project (i.e., principal investigator, co-investigator,
         expert, etc.)
   4. The total budget requested - provide the total project cost, as a single line on the cover sheet: full budget details must be provided in the separate budget request form
2. A project summary (four pages or less) that speaks to the criteria outlined below. The summary must discuss the issue(s) being addressed, the research questions to be answered, the project timeline, community partner involvement, an assessment/evaluation plan, plans for dissemination of project findings, and anticipated impacts. The summary may contain figures and tables if needed, but these count against the page limit. Project summaries longer than four pages will be returned without review. Any reference style is acceptable, provided that it is used consistently throughout: but note that references also count against the page limit.
3. A three-page budget request, including justification. We recommend using the Research Office’s budget and budget justification templates for developing this document, though you won’t need to provide that level of detail in the one-page budget document: just the budget for each category (personnel, travel, materials, consultant costs, etc.) and information about how you arrived at your numbers for each category, levels of effort, and so on. Do include fringe benefits for any salary requests and graduate student support. Do not include indirect costs. The budget justification must explain the reason for each line item in the proposed budget, and also how you determined, estimated, or calculated the cost. Proposed costs must conform to all applicable University policies and standard costing procedures.

Unallowable Expenses
Community Changemaker grant funding cannot be used for any of the following:

• Direct funding support for collaborators outside OU
• Capital equipment (items of durable property that cost a minimum of $10,000 and that are expected to have a useful service life of at least one year)
• Conference travel
• Support for graduate students, undergraduate students, and/or postdoctoral researchers who are fully supported on existing research projects. However, if the student or postdoc is only funded for part of the year on one or more existing grants, some or all of their available time can be supported from CCCG funding.

Selection Criteria

• Community impact
  • What community problem will the project solve, partially solve or address?
• OU impact
  • What benefits will OU students, faculty and/or staff receive from this
    project?
• Community partner involvement
  • Evidence of a credible process used to solicit community partner input on the problem to be addressed
• Collaboration
  • Evidence of the collaborative roles of community partner(s) and students in execution of the project
• Feasibility
  • What is the likelihood of solving, partially solving or addressing the identified community problem?
• Sustainability
  • If the project will not be completed in two years, how will it be sustained to completion?
  • What plan exist for long-term funding to sustain the program?
• Experience and/or preparedness
  • Evidence can include, but is not limited to:
    • existing substantive expertise,
    • a track record of community-engaged publication and/or grant funding,
    • existing engagement with the community around this issue,
    • established contacts and relationships with community organizations who will be partners in the work,
    • experience managing a sizeable (i.e., $200,000) research budget,
    • experience with IRB or other compliance functions that might be required for the project.
• Measurement
  • Evidence of a strategy and plan to measure the impact of the project

Selection Committee
Dave Dulio, Distinguished Professor, College of Arts and Sciences and Interim Chief
Community Engagement Officer
Jennifer Lucarelli, Associate Professor, School of Health Science
Meaghan Barry, Associate Professor, College of Arts and Sciences
Nicholas DiPucchio, Assistant Professor, College of Arts and Sciences
David Strubler, Professor, School of Education and Human Services
Amy Banes-Bercelli, Vice Provost, Provost's Office
Dave Stone, Vice President for Research
Paul Fontaine, Research Office
Teresa Rodges, OU-Pontiac Initiative

Proposal Submission
Coming soon