SAFES is pleased to announce the 2022 Broadening Opportunities And Teams (BOAT) Grant Program.
BOAT Grants will provide funding to help build pathways for early-career, tenure-track research faculty seeking to join "Established Research Programs" at Penn State.
Seed funding in this program may be used to expand existing research teams with the inclusion of early-career faculty, to broaden the scope or research areas of a program by integrating new faculty members, or to support early career faculty in pursuing funding and collaboration opportunities with agencies where a past history of working with the agency is a critical element of developing the investigator-sponsor relationship.
Applicants should have an identified Established Research Program (ERP) at Penn State and should work with the project’s primary investigator to determine the goals for leveraging this seed grant funding -- ERPs that are appropriate for this seed grant will have been funded consistently over a period of 5+ years, and/or be funded for 2+ years into the future.
SAFES will provide funding to awardees in the College of Agricultural Sciences of up to $15,000, to support research collaborations; it is generally expected that most projects will be in the $5,000 to $8,500 range.
Examples of possible BOAT Grant projects:
- Hold a workshop to explore expansion of the ERP’s areas of inquiry, with a stated aim of bringing new faculty into the ERP;
- Purchase datasets or data-related services to enable the seed grant applicant to work on a new aspect of the ERP;
- Fund additional fieldwork, data collection, or analysis projects that bring the seed grant applicant into the work of the ERP;
- Purchase Penn State shared core services that bring the seed grant applicant into the work of the ERP;
- Summer stipends for graduate students or wage payroll positions for research support;
- Other research activities that support the integration of the seed grant applicant’s expertise into ERPs.
RFP, Deadline & Application
Download the full RFP here: RFP (PDF)
The deadline to apply for the 2021-2022 SAFES-BOAT Grant Program will be February 28, 2022, at 5:00 p.m. EST.
Proposals must be submitted through InfoReady Review (infoready4.com). The SAFES BOAT Grant may be found in the Seed Grants section of Infoready.
Office for Research and Graduate Education Support for Early-Career Faculty
In addition to applying for BOAT funds, full-time faculty members, in the initial phase of their academic career, within the College of Agricultural Sciences who hold the rank of Assistant Professor (includes NTT and TT faculty appointments) are also eligible to apply for funds through the Office for Research and Graduate Education (RGE). These funds, supported by the Joan Luerssen Faculty Enhancement Fund and the Horace T. Woodward Faculty Development Fund support professional development for early-career faculty. Typical awards are $1,500, but applications for up to $3,000 will be considered with adequate justification.
The RGE professional development funds may complement a BOAT award by providing support for activities that will advance early-career faculty in grantsmanship, leadership or management training, conference travel, publication costs, or other expenses of this nature that may be incurred as a necessary skill or activity in joining and contributing to an ERP.
