OIBR Seed Grant

FY2027 Faculty Seed Grant Program

Deadline: 6 pm on March 16, 2026

Submit to: oibr@uga.edu (single pdf)

Notification Date: May 15, 2026

Project Start Date: July 1, 2026

Funding Limit: $15,000

The Owens Institute for Behavioral Research (OIBR) invites applications for faculty seed grants in the social and behavioral sciences. Seed grant projects should directly contribute to future submission of an external grant proposal. Typical seed grant projects involve collection/analysis of preliminary data or a proof-of-concept. This opportunity is open to OIBR Faculty Affiliates, Distinguished Scholars, and Grant Development Participants. Post-docs are not eligible. In line with the mission of OIBR, projects should demonstrate commitment to interdisciplinary research. We encourage you to visit the OIBR website to find potential collaborators, if needed. The proposed project must be led by a UGA faculty member but can include faculty collaborators from other institutions.

Submission Guidelines:

  • Cover Sheet: OIBR Seed Grant Submission Form FY2027
  • Project summary (half a page)
  • Project description of up to 5 single-spaced pages (all-inclusive, except for references) in 11 pt. font or larger. See below for details
  • Estimated project budget listing main expense categories, dollar amounts, and detailed justification for use of funds.
  • Timeline describing timing of major seed grant research activities and external grant proposal submission(s).
  • List of Current, Pending, and Planned internal and external grant proposals that overlap with the proposed seed grant research.

Project description should include: background and significance of the larger research question that the seed grant project will advance, as well as discussion of how the seed grant contributes to that project; specific aims, with justification; research methods; discussion of how project findings are linked to planned external grant proposals, including description of specific external grant mechanisms that will be targeted; statement of researcher qualifications to conduct this research. Appendices are not allowed. Incomplete applications and those that exceed page/font limits will not be reviewed.

Proposed budget cannot exceed $15,000. Funds will be available for project start of July 1, 2026, and all funds must be spent by June 30, 2027. The seed grant will be managed by PI’s home unit business personnel (chart string will be provided by OIBR).

Examples of acceptable uses of seed grant funds are payment of participant incentives; purchase of small datasets to conduct data analyses; data collection costs (which may include travel); RA support. Any equipment purchased with seed grant funds will be returned to OIBR upon completion of the project. Seed grants cannot be used to fund faculty salary (summer or academic) or conference travel.

Applications should be combined into a single pdf and submitted to Andrea Horsman, OIBR Outreach & Communications Manager at oibr@uga.edu.

Review Criteria

Applications will be peer-reviewed by an interdisciplinary ad hoc OIBR committee using the following criteria:

1) Significance of research question(s), 2) justification of specific aims, 2) scientific rigor of research methods, 3) contribution to social and behavioral science research, 4) investigator(s) qualifications, 5) contributions to interdisciplinarity, and 6) potential for external funding.

Questions?

Questions about allowable expenses or any other facet of the faculty seed grant program should be directed to Jennifer McDowell, Associate Director of OIBR (jemcd@uga.edu).

OIBR is a service unit in the Office of Research

·        OIBR does not retain any indirect cost return from grants administered through the Institute

·        OIBR follows applicable College/School policies regarding allocation of indirect cost returns.

·        For grants submitted through OIBR, academic credit is given to the participant’s home unit and center/institute credit is given to OIBR