Announcing 2017-18 WFI Faculty/Doctoral Student Research Grant Program

In our current global and national moment, questions of social justice are as vital to Communication scholars and students as they have ever been. For this reason, we at Villanova University’s Waterhouse Family Institute for the Study of Communication and Society (WFI) are pleased to announce the CALL FOR FACULTY/DOCTORAL STUDENT RESEARCH GRANT APPLICATIONS for 2017/18.

The WFI—endowed by Mr. Lawrence Waterhouse, Jr., and housed within Villanova University’s Department of Communication—was founded on the principle that scholars, activists, and practitioners of communication have an important role to play in the creation of a socially just world. One of the ways that we enact this mission is through the annual funding of research grants. These grants support the work of Communication scholars across the world, work examining communication, its impact on the world around us, and its ability to create social change and social justice.

Our next application deadline for WFI Research Grants is now in place! Applications for 2017/18 WFI Research Grants will be due Friday, May 5, 2017.

WFI Research Grants are available to faculty at any institution of higher education, postdoctoral researchers, doctoral candidates, and other doctoral-level scholars. However, eligibility to apply for the WFI grant program is limited to those in Communication or a closely related discipline. Although we do not limit our grants to a specific methodological orientation or subdisciplinary focus, all projects supported by the WFI have two things in common: they make communication the primary, and not secondary, focus, and they engage communication in terms of its impact on the world around us, its ability to create social change.

WFI Research Grants are awarded selectively on the basis of academic peer review of all submitted proposals; in recent years, our acceptance rate has typically been 13-15%. Awards for research grants are typically in the range of $5,000-$10,000, though larger amounts may be awarded for projects that are deemed especially meritorious. The total number of grants awarded will vary, based upon budgetary constraints; however, in recent years, we have awarded 5-8 WFI Research Grants each year. Funds granted by the WFI and Villanova University (as an educational institution) may be applied to the hiring of graduate assistants, acquisition of resources or equipment, travel, and/or any other appropriate research related expenses. However, these funds may not be used to provide or supplement salaries. In addition, the WFI and Villanova (as an educational institution) do not provide funds for indirect costs associated with any grant. Each submitted proposal should include a budget that!
  clearly indicates how granted funds will be used, and that these funds will not be construed as salary or as indirect costs assessed by the awardee’s home institution.

For more details on the WFI and this research grant process—including specific information on previous recipients of WFI Research Grants, as well as the instructions for application—please visit http://www1.villanova.edu/villanova/artsci/communication/wfi/researchprojects.html

Questions concerning eligibility, or the nature of projects supported, please contact the Director of the WFI, Dr. Bryan Crable, bryan.crable@villanova.edu.
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