AGENCY: William T. Grant Foundation

PROGRAM: William T. Grant Scholars Program

OBJECTIVES: The Foundation supports research to understand and improve the settings of youth ages 8 to 25 in the United States. The Foundation’s current research interests are: (1) studies that strengthen our understanding of how settings work, how they affect youth development, and how they can be improved; and (2) studies that strengthen our understanding of how and under what conditions research influences youth policy and practice. This program supports career development among promising early-career researchers. Scholar awards support the pursuit of five-year research plans that will significantly expand researcher’s expertise in different disciplines, methods, and/or content areas.

ELIGIBILITY RESTRICTIONS: Candidates must be nominated by their supporting institution. An institution may nominate only one candidate in any one year from a major division of the institution (e.g., College of Arts and Sciences, Medical School). In cases where a single institution nominates more that one candidate a letter must be written by a central administrative officer confirming that the applicants represent distinct university schools or divisions.

Applicants must be within seven years of receipt of their terminal degree at the time of application.

DEADLINES:
Internal BU Deadline: May 23, 2008
Nomination Deadline: July 9, 2008
 
FUNDING INFORMATION: Award recipients are designated W. T. Grant Scholars. Every year four to six W. T. Grant Scholars are selected, and each receives $350,000 distributed over a five-year period. Awards are made to the applicant’s institution.  This sum can include an indirect cost allowance of 7.5% of total direct costs. Requests to the Foundation to fund a salary must not exceed 50% of the total current salary received from the sponsoring institution, and the Foundation expects that the portion of the grant used for the recipient’s salary will be equivalent to the time freed up for research in this program area as a result of the award. The remainder of the funds may be used to support research-related work.
 
AGENCY CONTACT:
William T. Grant Foundation
570 Lexington Avenue
18th Floor
New York, NY 10022-6837
Telephone: 212-752-0071
Fax: 212-752-1398
Email: info@wtgrantfdn.org
Web: http://www.wtgrantfoundation.org/

INTERNAL REVIEW PROCESS: Faculty wishing to be considered for nomination should provide the following proposal material to Associate Provost Joan Kirkendall, Office of Sponsored Programs, 25 Buick Street, Boston, MA 02215, for internal review purposes:

(1) Letter of recommendation from the appropriate Department Chair or Research Mentor, highlighting the nominee's achievements and the basis for selection;
(2) Description of the nominee's proposed research project (maximum length 3 pages); including the relationship of the project to the Foundation’s stated research interests;
(3) Description of the nominee’s mentoring plan, including the name (s) of proposed mentor(s);
(4) Budget and budget justification; and
(5) Nominee’s biographical sketch (NIH format).

Nomination material will be collected and forwarded to the Office of the Vice President for Research for final selection. All nomination material should be received by Friday, May 23, 2008.

REMARKS: Nominations must be submitted electronically through the W.T. Grant Foundation website (http://wtgrantfoundation.org.)