School of Integrative Plant Science
Schmittau-Novak Small Grants Program
Annual Request for Proposals
- Request for Proposals: November 30, 2019 (annually)
- Proposals Due: February 21, 2020 (annually)
- Awards Announced: March 30, 2020 (annually)
- Funding Start/End Dates: April 15, 2020 – May 14, 2021
Program Budget
- Number of awards: ~10 per year (~$64,000 per year)
- Funding Level: $5,000-$10,000
- Grant Duration: Small grants have a duration of 1 year with the possibility of no cost extension.
- Program Duration: The program will continue all funds are disbursed. It is expected that the program will run through 2025.
Program Administration:
- Program Coordinator:
- Alicia Caswell, amd33@cornell.edu
- Program Directors:
- Dan Buckley, dhb28@cornell.edu (Chair)
- Teresa Pawlowska, tep8@cornell.edu (co-Chair)
About the Award
The Schmittau-Novak grant program is made possible by a one-time gift of $640,000 from the estate of Jen Schmittau in honor of Professor Joseph D. Novak and in support of research related to the integrative plant sciences. This is a current use gift made with the expectation that funds will be spent down over a defined period of several years. To leverage this gift in a manner that maximizes its impact, potentially reaching hundreds of people over time, it is being used to fund a small grants program for graduate students in the plant sciences. It should be noted that Cornell’s CSBC IGERT, which concluded in July 2017, hosted a similar small grants program with tremendous impact on graduate students in a wide range of fields.
The primary goal of the Schmittau-Novak grant program is to catalyze collaborative and innovative research in the Integrative Plant Sciences, and to provide graduate students with experience in proposal preparation and review. It is hoped that these projects will catalyze new collaborative relationships, provide a funding source for higher risk student-led research with the potential for novel discovery, and promote graduate student cohesion and community building within SIPS.
More information about program priorities, scope of funding, and eligibility