Early Career Grant

Eligibility 

• Applicants must be probationary St. Cloud State faculty and staff within their first five (5) years of service.
• Applicants may submit one (1) application. If an application is denied, an individual may re-apply during the next submission period, if eligible.
• Individuals with an active Early Career Grant are not eligible to apply.
• Applicants must meet eligibility requirements at the time of application, and through the proposed grant activity and potential award period.

Evaluation rubric

• Project meets eligibility requirements.
• Project has at least 3 clearly formulated objectives.
• Project activities are measurable and manageable.
• Timeline is appropriate for work to be done.
• Budget is appropriate and budget items requested are clearly linked to associated project activities.
• Project will clearly move applicant towards submission of an external grant application, or manuscript/publication.
• Proposal is complete, concise and written in a persuasive manner.

Overview

• The budget will be evaluated on how well requested expenses are connected and justified to accomplish project objectives and activities.
• Cost accuracy is important and undefined estimates will not be considered.
• Use appropriate budget categories as defined within the templates provided, and include calculation details.
• The budget justification MUST include –
  • Concise description of each budget items requested with explanation of why each item is necessary to complete the proposed project.
  • Specific cost for items request, including how the amount was calculated.
  • If personnel costs* are requested, include responsibilities/duties each individual will complete, and an estimate of time in hours or days.
    • *Per Article 10 of the IFO contract, “…as a professional, a faculty member shall devote a substantial amount of the faculty member’s workload to course preparation, research, the maintenance of professional expertise, innovations in teaching/learning and other similar activities” if requesting additional compensation please explain how these responsibilities/duties go beyond the parameters of the scholarly work and research expected of faculty.    

Allowable Costs

• Supplies required for the project (purchases remain property of St. Cloud State University).
• Non-conference travel related to the project.
• Personnel (e.g., clerical/student salary/applicant compensation and fringe costs) up to a total of $2,500.
  • Incorporating rigorous opportunities for undergraduate and/or graduate student personnel is highly encouraged.  
  • Compensation for the applicant can be requested, and applicants must explain how the work effort for the proposed project goes beyond the employee's assigned workload at the University.
    • Funds CANNOT be used to reduce the applicant’s workload.
  • Personnel should be calculated into the budget as compensation + fringe, and shall not exceed $2,500.
• Other identifiable costs
  • If you request compensation for an expert outside of St. Cloud State, you must provide the individual’s credentials, justification for the award, and explanation of your relationship with the individual.
  • Purchased services. 

Unallowable Costs

• Conference travel 
  • Applicants are encouraged to utilize professional development funds or are welcome to apply for Saigo Excellence Funds when presenting at a conference.  Student presenter(s) are eligible to apply to the Student-Mentor Collaboration grant competition.
• Technology that is available for checkout through the University Library or ITS, including computers, laptops, tablets, and printers.

Step 1: Review all of the the program guidelines and rubric to determine your eligibility, understand allowable expenses, learn submission requirements, and see how applications are evaluated for funding.

Step 2: Discuss your project and intent to apply with your department chair/director and dean/supervisor as upon submission, your proposal will automatically be routed to them for review and approval. All approvals (signatures) are facilitated electronically in the online portal and applications will not be considered without all required approvals.

Step 3a: Log into the Internal Grant Proposal and Award Portal for PIs using your StarID to complete an application and submit.

• Wizehive allows you to save your progress as you work on completing your application.
• Do not click the "Submit" button until your application is complete. A complete application includes the finished Application, Estimated Project Budget (download template by clicking on red button above, supporting documents and budget justification items, and, if applicable, Co-PI response(s).

Step 3b: If you have one or more St. Cloud State Co-PI's, you are required to complete a Co-PI Request form for each Co-PI participating in the project. This process will trigger a notification to your Co-PI(s) requiring them to acknowledge participation in the project.

Step 4: If applicable, confirm your Co-PI(s) have completed their Co-PI Request forms. You can confirm this by looking for the green box next their name(s) within the Co-PI Request section of your application.

Step 5: Click on "Submit" to put forward your COMPLETE application for consideration. It must be submitted prior to the posted deadline above or it will not be considered.

• Changes/updates cannot be made once your application is submitted.
• The application will be automatically routed in Wizehive to obtain the necessary approvals (signatures) from your department chair/director and dean/supervisor.
• To ensure timely reviews, it is the applicant's responsibility to ensure department chairs/directors and deans/supervisors know the application is coming.

Step 6: Once your completed application is electronically approved in Wizehive by your department chair/director AND dean/supervisor, your application will be distributed to a review panel for review and consideration. Please note that the review process takes time, so please be patient. Updates will be sent out as soon as the review process is concluded.

DISCLAIMER: Applicants are encouraged to submit their electronic application early to avoid potential access issues. Applications after the deadline will not be considered without official confirmation of campus-wide accessibility/technical outages. Previous versions of application forms will not be considered and will be denied.

• The Scholarship, Research, and Creative Achievement Committee will review the proposals. Funding recommendations are then provided to the Associate Provost for Research and Dean of Graduate Studies, who will make the final funding decisions.
• Reviewers may take the following into consideration: the quality of the proposal and the project; the likelihood that the project will be completed; the likelihood that the grant will lead to future external funding; and the likelihood that the project will lead in the foreseeable future to a publication/grant submission or a significant contribution to student learning.
• Proposals are reviewed using the criteria outlined in the Evaluation Rubric in the Grant Instructions section of the Proposal Package.
• Given proposals of comparable ratings, greater consideration is placed on those applicants who have not previous received funding through this program.

• Awarded funds are to be used exclusively for the work outlined in the proposal narrative.  Any modifications to the proposal must be reported to Research and Sponsored Programs by completing a Modification Form
• Final Report: 
  
  • Recipients are responsible for the submission of a Final Report within 60 days after the project's schedule completion date.
  • The report should clearly demonstrate that the work has moved the applicant towards peer-reviewed dissemination of their work, or the submission of a proposal for external funding.
  • The report is accessed through Qualtrics, therefore, responses do not save unless submitted.
  • The following information is collected on the Final Report:
    • Project title
    • Principal investigator information: email, department, school/college/unit
    • Co-Principal investigator information: email, department, school/college/unit
    •  Project completion date
    • Award amount granted and expended
    • Activities, measurable goals and objectives achieved by the project
    • Benefits of the project
    • How funds were spent to support the project
    • Outcomes/benefits of the project assisted with your professional development goals
    • Project next steps/dissemination plans

2026

No Awards

2025

No Awards

2024

No Awards

2023

Eunju Choi - $4,343.07
Community Psychology, Counseling and Family Therapy, “Relative effects of Self-paced and Machine-paced Learning under a Realistic Online Training Setting”

Michael Dando - $3,953.25
English, “The Comix Lab: Exploring Critical Literacy through Speculative Storytelling”

Sarah Gibson - $7,837
Atmospheric & Hydrologic Sciences, “Investigating the Diversity and Evolutionary Relationships of Early Mesozoic Redfieldiiform Fishes”

Feilin Lai - $5,327
Geography & Planning, “UAS (Drone) Mapping of an Invasive Plant Species in central Minnesota”

Gengyun Le - $3,200
Biology, “Hunteria Umbellata Aqueous Seed Extract Alleviates Polycystic Ovary Syndrome in Rats by Resolving Insulin Resistance and Reproductive Hormone Impairment”

Felicia Leammukda - $2,875
Biology, “Evaluation of Aqueous Extracts Allium Cepa and Momordica Charantia as Pre- and Post-Treatment of Seizures in Male Sprague Dawley Rats”

Angela McDonnell - $5,220.75
Biology, “Polyploidy in an Adaptive Radiation: Estimating Genome Sizes in Rare, Endemic Hawaiian Carnations (Schiedea, Caryophyllaceae)”

James Poole - $6,601.20
Chemistry & Biochemistry, “Nitrene Chemistry as a Route to Novel Heterocycles”

Jieyu Wang - $500
Information Systems, “Designing a Conversational Agent for Student Wellbeing”

Mengshi Zhou - $5,600.69
Mathematics & Statistics, “A Novel Computational Approach for COVID-19 Fake News Detection: Extracting Biomedical Information from News Articles and Developing Deep Learning-Based Prediction Models”

2022

Jungwon Ahn - $7,010
Environmental & Technological Studies, “Study of a Cost-Effective Manufacturing Process for a Prosthetic Running Blade”

Khadija Ali, Odessa Luna, and Ibrahim Soumare - $5,167
Community Psychology, Counseling and Family Therapy, “Examining Factors in SCSU Students of Colors’ Decision for Undergraduate and Graduate Majors”

Jennifer Lamb - $6,855.35
Biology, “Rare Species Detection with Environmental DNA (eDNA)”

Xiaoyin Li - $3,895.50
Mathematics & Statistics, “Detecting Pleiotropic Breast Cancer Susceptibility Variants from Genome-Wide Association Studies”

Andrea Thortensen & Alan Srock - $6,400
Atmospheric & Hydrologic Sciences, “Quantifying Impacts of Wildfires on Components of the Hydrologic Cycle using WRF-Hydro”

Brian Valentini - $2,378.61
Special Education, “Exploring the Make-up of Comprehensive Transition Programs for Individuals with Intellectual Disability”