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Contact: Mary Emery, Director, Community Development/Grants and Contracts - 208/792-2460

Seed Grant Money Available to LCSC Faculty and Staff

No doubt money is harder to come by these days, but the “project funding well” isn’t dry. Thanks to LCSC’s Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP), there are now dollars available to help faculty or staff secure new external funding for worthy new projects.

Current lean times have inspired a Fiscal Year 2002 reactivation of a seed grant program that existed in the past. Today’s version is funded primarily by money that was left over from the funding of that original program.

OSP’s mission statement explains their involvement in making money available: “The Office of Sponsored Programs promotes the goals of the Institution through the pursuit, acquisition and management of external funds from public and private sources that support LCSC’s priorities and programs.”

The seed grant program works in two ways. Successful applicants can get an award for submitting a grant, up to $500, by providing to OSP copies of competitive proposals they’ve sent to an external funding source. Or applicants can get support for grant development, usually not more than $500, to help them with some of the expenses of grant writing (i.e., travel or cost of a funder workshop).

The Seed Grant Committee reviews the proposals and grant requests for quality; relation to institutional; departmental or divisional goals and mission statements; and potential for professional/institutional benefit. Seed money is awarded accordingly.

The program can already report a success: The first award went to LCSC faculty members Sean Cassidy of Fine and Performing Arts and Patricia Keith of Literature and Languages to assist them in securing grant money for their Alvin Josephy documentary. (Josephy is a journalist and historian who, among many other accomplishments, was the first person to compile a comprehensive history of the Nez Perce people.) Their project has attracted about $12, 500 in grant money, and they are requesting additional funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Mary Emery, Director of Sponsored Programs, is most enthusiastic about this program and hopes other faculty and staff at LCSC will take advantage of this opportunity to fund a project. As it says on the seed grant web page, "You could be next." Learn more at www.lcsc.edu/avptsp/marnewsletter02.htm.

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