Butler Awards Committee

BAC mini grants are not currently available.

Short course/workshop grants are not currently available.

Supports costs to present the results of a research, creative, scholarly, or professional project at a national or international conference.

Additional programmatic requirements for virtual presentation grants include the following:

1. Faculty may apply for registration funding for up to $2,200 in domestic travel ($500 more for international travel) per fiscal year (BAC grant fiscal years are on a 13-month cycle, May 1-May 31).
2. Faculty must submit a request for funding prior to the conference registration/presentation.
3. Presentation funding is meant to help faculty advance research and scholarship; examples include those presenting papers/posters, organizing or leading panel discussions requiring preparation, or speaking from expertise by request of a professional organization or association. Funding is only available for those presenting at conferences, and not for conference participation for professional development purposes only.
4. Applications for session chairs, conveners and presiders will not be funded.

Due Date:

Faculty should submit at least 4-6 weeks in advance of conference attendance.

Application Process:

The application must include the following:

• The conference to be attended
• A copy of the acceptance/invitation to present at the conference
• An abstract of the paper/poster to be presented (no more than 250 words)
• Proof of conference registration cost (screen print from the conference website or receipt)
• Signature of the applicant

How to apply:

Download the faculty travel to present application here. Once the application is complete, including all required signatures, faculty should scan the entire application package into a single pdf file and send to their college’s dean’s assistant. Once dean’s office signatures are in place paperwork should be emailed to ttpgrants@butler.edu.

Provides up to $1,000 in support for the development of new courses or the revision of existing courses, including Core courses and “topics” courses. The applicant is expected to teach the course supported by the grant during the following academic year.

Application Materials Required

As you prepare your application, please see the  assessment rubric for BAC instructional development grants for clarification of criteria. To ensure a clear, concise, and well-formatted application, consult the guidelines for BAC grant applications. 

Click here to download the BAC instructional development grant form

The application format includes the following specifications:

• No more than two pages typed and spaced at 1.5 line spacing, with one-inch margins
• Times New Roman font, size 11 or 12
• Signatures of the applicant, department chair, and dean. **PLEASE NOTE** Email approvals are allowed in lieu of hard copy signatures, but if using email approvals applications must include copies of the email approvals within the instructional development grant application as a single pdf, and not as separate attachments or in the body of the email submission to OSP.

Due Dates

Applications are accepted once each semester:

• The first Friday in February by 5:00 PM. Applications must be signed, scanned and emailed to OSP@butler.edu. Decision letters will be issued by early April.

Grant Periods

The grant period is:

• May 1 of the academic/fiscal year the grant is awarded to May 31 of the following academic/fiscal year. In exceptional circumstances, an extension of the grant period (for annual grants) is permitted. If an awardee requires additional time to complete his or her project, a request for an extension should be submitted for committee consideration no later than one month prior to the end of the grant period. No new grant money will be released until the first project, including the final report, is completed.

Reporting

A report describing the final design of the new course or improvements to the existing course is due to OSP no later than 60 days after the end of the grant period. Failure to submit this report will jeopardize chances for future BAC funding.

Provides up to $6,000 (or $7,000 with justification) in support of original, creative, and scholarly projects for qualitative or quantitative research.

Please Note: The grant provides funding for only one fiscal year.

Eligibility

To apply for a research grant, you must be a full-time faculty member with a required research component as part of your appointment.

Due Date

Faculty research grant applications are due on the first Friday of February, by 5:00 PM. Signed, scanned applications should be sent to OSP@butler.edu. Decision letters will be issued by early April.

Application Process

Your application must include:

• Program Statement—Please attach a description of the proposed project that addresses each of the topics listed below. Because proposals will be evaluated by readers who are not necessarily experts in the specific field of the proposal, the application should be written for a general audience to understand.
  • Rationale for Project & Future Implications—Need for the project in the current field of study, significance of the project for current and future studies. How the project can contribute to faculty research, as well as to the field at large.
  • Review of Literature/Relevant Background—For research projects, complete, relevant, and accurate literature review; for creative projects, discussion of the relevant history or tradition.
  • Objectives—Objectives of the project; expected outcomes.
  • Methodology (Processes, Measures, Analysis)—Processes applicants will use to achieve objectives including the creative process, and/or how data will be collected, used, and analyzed. 
  • Timeline – Anticipated timeline for the proposed project. Should detail how the work will be completed over the grant period.
  • External Funding (if applicable)—How research completed through this grant will create opportunities for future external funding.
  • References and bibliography—A list of all relevant references cited in the application and, if it is useful, a complete bibliography. This section is not part of the Program Statement and is not included in the five-page limit.
  • Progress since last grant (if applicable)—Describe progress on previous internal funding.
• Budget—The budget is an important part of the application, and care should be taken to ensure that it is clearly defined and all proposed expenditures justified. Include with your application a budget justification narrative that carefully details all expenditures and explains their necessity to the proposed work. Expenditures not fully justified will not be funded. Use the budget form from the online application.
  • Summer stipends—A faculty summer stipend of up to $4,000 gross (pre-FICA and TIAA-CREF deductions) is permitted to compensate you for the extensive time invested in conducting scholarship, creating a proposal for a book, or engaging in your artistic discipline, whether in the form of writing, music, dance, drama, or visual art. You should indicate any other grant that funds this work during the summer months.
  • Gross hourly wages for other personnel, including students, are also permitted up to $4,000 per person (pre-FICA deductions). It is expected that all other personnel/students will be paid by the hour. Summer payments to undergraduate students not enrolled in at least six hours must include funds to pay FICA. Students’ work need not be limited to the summer. Butler students may not receive Butler funding from more than one source.
  • Multiple collaborators—The gross $4,000 maximum faculty stipend (pre-FICA and TIAA-CREF deductions) may be divided among you and one or more colleagues. Two or more faculty members may submit multiple proposals for the same project, but limited resources make it unlikely that more than one grant will be funded in any one given year.
  • Total stipends/wages to all faculty and other personnel, including students, may not exceed $6,000 gross.
  • Travel/conferences—Allowable travel costs include those for food and incidentals, lodging, travel fares, and mileage. The Butler Awards Committee will not fund food per diem for more than 14 days. To cover additional travel expenses, you are encouraged to use college or department funds or to apply for a BAC travel-to-present award. Travel within a 50-mile radius of Indianapolis will not be supported.
  • Books—Generally speaking, you should be judicious in your request for the purchase of books and other texts. In the budget narrative, you must justify the purchase of books not otherwise available in the library or through interlibrary loan. Requests for materials readily available from the library or through interlibrary loan must be explicitly justified. It is the responsibility of the applicant to check on the availability of requested books and materials with the university library.
  • Costs of computer hardware and software will be supported only if they are essential to the unique requirements of the research project.
  • Exclusions—These awards are not to be used to support the completion of a graduate degree program. In addition, proposals will not be accepted for projects for which you are already being compensated, such as the writing of a book for which there is anything more than a nominal honorarium already being paid by the publisher to the author.
  • Supplemental funds—The maximum amount of the award is ordinarily $6,000. Proposals up to $7,000 will be considered in the case of extraordinary travel or equipment needs. In such cases, you are responsible for justifying the extra expenses. In no case, however, may the gross faculty stipend request exceed $4,000.
• Curriculum vitae—Include a two-page curriculum vitae that lists your education, skills, and research and teaching experience. In addition to these basics, the CV should include publications relevant to the project, grants and fellowships, professional associations and licenses, awards, and other information relevant to the funding for which you are applying.  Make sure dates are identified for all publications included.
• Appendix A (report on previous BAC-funded research)—If you have previously received a faculty research grant, you must include a report on the results of work funded by the most recent BAC grant and (if applicable) an explanation of how the new work relates to the previous project. If not already previously submitted to the Office of Sponsored Programs, reports should also be sent to OSP@butler.edu.
• Appendix B (report on extramural grant applications)— If you have received two or more faculty research grants, you must provide evidence that you have attempted to secure extramural funding to support your research.

The proposal should be signed by you, the chair of your department or program, and the dean of your college or library.

As you prepare your application, please see the  assessment rubric for BAC research grants  for clarification of criteria. To ensure a clear, concise, and well-formatted application, consult the guidelines for BAC grant applications.

Click here to download the BAC research grant application

The application format includes the following specifications:

• No more than five pages typed and spaced at 1.5 line spacing, with one-inch margins
• Times New Roman font, size 11 or 12
• Signatures of the applicant, department chair, and dean. **PLEASE NOTE** Email approvals are allowed in lieu of hard copy signatures, but if using email approvals applications must include copies of the email approvals within the instructional development grant application as a single pdf, and not as separate attachments or in the body of the email submission to OSP.

Duration

The grant period is from May 1 of the year in which the grant is awarded to May 31 of the following year. In exceptional circumstances, an extension of the grant period (for annual grants) is permitted. If you require additional time to complete your project, you should request an extension no later than one month prior to the end of the grant period. No new grant money will be released until the first project, including the final report, is completed.

Report

A report detailing exactly what was accomplished and the results of the project is due to OSP via OSP@butler.edu no more than 60 days following the end of the grant period. This report can take the form of a paper that has been submitted for publication. Failure to submit this report will jeopardize chances for future BAC funding.

Each BAC grant mechanism has its own submission requirements and deadlines. All applications require signatures by the applicant, department head/program chair, and dean of the college. Complete submission criteria and forms are available online for each mechanism. Procedural questions may be directed to OSP@butler.edu .

Upon submission, applications are reviewed by OSP and sent to the appropriate committee for review and approval. OSP staff and committees may engage in dialogue with the applicant if questions arise. Failure to complete follow-up requests may result in an application’s denial. Notification of approval or denial is sent by OSP to the applicant along with the appropriate correspondence from the committee.

For annual grant opportunities like Instructional Development and Faculty Research, the grant application will be submitted to the respective committee. Applications are then reviewed for completion and remitted to the committee. The committee will review and score the applications during a closed review session where funding recommendations will be approved. Application notifications – either approval or denial – will be submitted by the OSP to the applicant.

For all grant applications, the applicant will have 30 days from receipt of the notification to appeal a decision of denied funding. All appeals will be sent to the OSP director. The OSP director and the applicant will discuss any issues with the application or decision. After 30 days, the application will be closed to further review or discussion.

Each approved application will receive two award notifications—one from OSP and one from OBGA. The letters will outline the award amount and expenditure information. Each grant mechanism has an expenditure or project period, ranging from one month to a fiscal year, which governs the allowable time for funds expenditure and project completion. If the applicant is unable to complete the project and/or spend the funds by the end of the period, an extension may be requested. Each grant also requires post-award reporting, where applicable. The report outlines project results as well as how funds were spent. Most reports are due no more than 60 days after the grant period has ended. Details on project periods and post-award reporting requirements are provided online under each grant mechanism—one from OSP and one from the Office of Budgets and Grants Administration (OBGA-Kathy Hankins).

The Butler Awards Committee (BAC) considers proposals for the fine arts, humanities, and social sciences (qualitative research methods).  Committee members serve for a three-year term, and cannot serve for more than two consecutive terms. The expiration date of each member’s term is noted in parentheses. Committee chairs are elected by committee members. Chairs serve a one-year term and are eligible to be re-elected.

• Susan Adamson, COE (August 2027)
• Zachary Cooper, JCA (August 2026)
• Vivian Deno, LAS (August 2027)
• Lee Garver, LAS (August 2027)
• Tom Hanson, LSB (August 2026 – on sabbatical 2024-25 academic year)
  Stephanie Fernhaber – 2024-25 academic year  sabbatical replacement for LSB
• Xiaoqing Liu, LAS (August 2027)
• James McGrath, LAS (August 2027)
• Charlotte Peterson, Libraries (August 2027)
• Kristin Swenson, CCOM (August 2025)