Call for Proposals - Digital Track of SWAP Fund

Scholarly publishers are just beginning to find a foothold in the realm of digital media. The CFDE is currently seeking proposals for the Digital Track of the Scholarly Writing and Publishing Fund,which aims to encourage faculty in the early stages of a project to experiment with making serious scholarly works more compelling, effective, and powerful through these new modes of analysis and delivery.

Absolutely no expertise is expected or required in the digital arena for applicants to this fund. The intent is to identify projects early on in the process whose impact would be enhanced via e-books and other digital platforms and via content such as digital images, sounds, video, cartography, data and data analysis, data visualization, animation, new forms of textual representation and analysis. The fund is aimed to support the development and delivery of research outcomes through such platforms and content.

As applicants prepare to apply to this fund, please know that the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship offers workshops and other learning opportunities in this area. The CFDE staff is also available for consultation. Please contact Allison Adams, associate director, CFDE, at aadam02@emory.edu.

All grants through this program are set in the amount of $2500.

Eligibility

All faculty in long-term appointments — including lecture track, clinical track, tenure track, and tenured — may apply.

• Excluded from eligibility are adjunct or visiting faculty members, as well as faculty members whose contracts will not be renewed for the following year and faculty members who plan to resign their appointments at the end of the current year.
• The applicant must be in the early stages of developing research into a scholarly project.
• No faculty member may receive support from this fund more than once in a three-year period. Unsuccessful applicants may reapply without prejudice.
• The work must be a scholarly project created solely by the faculty member or a scholarly multi-author work of which the faculty member is the primary author or sole editor. The work may be in any discipline or multi-disciplinary.

Uses of Grant

Faculty may apply for a grant to begin to develop the content of a scholarly project in digital media modes. Recipients will meet with staff in the CFDE and Emory Center for Digital Scholarship for initial consultations to design and set the technological framework for the project. They will then be matched with a technical expert (or experts) to execute the plan.

Grants must be used only for expenditures directly related to the digital aspects of the project. The grant funds may be applied toward the costs of enlisting technical expertise, equipment, or software, for example.

Requirements

In addition to the initial consultations with the CFDE and ECDS, grant recipients are expected to meet with those staffs and other grant recipients every two months during the year to discuss their projects and progress.

Recipients will also be expected to keep clear records of their contributions to collaborative projects.

Recipients must submit a twelve-month status report that describes the project's inception and fruition, including theoretical underpinnings, process, intellectual rigor, and results of their work. The report must also detail expenditures from the grant.

If the work is published, the author(s) must agree to acknowledge the Office of the Provost, the Center for Faculty Development and Excellence, and the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship in the acknowledgement section.

Applications

A complete application, submitted via email, consists of the following:

1. The completed application cover form
2. A letter describing the project, its current status, your goals for its development in digital media modes. The cover letter should also address the criteria described below (letter not to exceed three single-spaced, typed pages).
3. Your curriculum vita.
4. A letter or email from your department or program chair in support of your digital project.
5. Evidence, if applicable, of publication interest from a scholarly press.
6. Any additional supporting materials.

Criteria

A competitive proposal must

• Describe the origins of the project.
• Outline a clear and original scholarly argument.
• Propose a project that intertwines scholarly method, and new modes of knowledge formation, analysis, and delivery. Include a description of forms of digital media you wish to engage (for example, e-books or other platforms, images, 3-D images, video, audio, cartography, data and data analysis, data visualization, animation, new forms of textual representation and analysis).
• List the digital tools you anticipate employing for this project.
• Describe how the digital environment will enhance the scholarly impact of the project beyond traditional print publishing and its analogs.
• Make a persuasive case that the grant will help you design and execute the project in a digital media format.
• Identify the intended audience for the project.
• Clearly state whether the project is a collaboration, and if it is, identify the collaborators and each of their roles.
• Include a background bibliography.
• Propose a method of evaluation for the project.
• Articulate the contribution this project will make to the research mission of the university.

Please submit all application materials via email to Allison Adams, aadam02@emory.edu.