The University of Michigan’s Poverty Solutions initiative is announcing its fourth round of faculty grants with up to $180,000 available to support research on ways to prevent and alleviate poverty.
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Research supported by Poverty Solutions has led to the development of new ways to measure transportation instability, provided insight on how the Earned Income Tax Credit affects housing stability, and offered recommendations for preserving affordable housing and preventing the foreclosure of owner-occupied homes in Detroit.
For the first time, this year Poverty Solutions will award grants to U-M faculty through a rolling application process that offers more flexibility than the previous deadline system.
“This shift to a rolling review process allows faculty to explore opportunities as they present themselves throughout the year,” said H. Luke Shaefer, faculty director of Poverty Solutions. “Whether it be a potentially fruitful community partnership or policy challenge through an action-based research endeavor, we look forward to supporting programs that aim to make a real difference in the lives of struggling families.”
In addition to its faculty grant awards, Poverty Solutions also partners with U-M’s Detroit Urban Research Center to award annual community-academic grants to groups of U-M faculty and community partners that aim to evaluate and strengthen programs and policies that prevent and alleviate poverty.
“This funding mechanism has provided an outstanding opportunity for university faculty to partner with community organizations to have a positive impact on poverty in the state,” said Barbara Israel, Detroit URC director. “Recipients of these grants have repeatedly commented on the value of the grantees meetings in enhancing effective community-academic research partnerships and sharing insights and lessons learned among the participants.”
Poverty Solutions faculty grants
Poverty Solutions invites faculty at U-M’s Ann Arbor, Flint and Dearborn campuses to pursue research projects focused on informing strategies that seek to prevent and alleviate poverty.
Up to five awards of up to $20,000 each will be given for self-contained research projects or as seed funding that may be leveraged to pursue larger external awards. Projects are to be completed within one year of the funds being awarded.
This request for proposals seeks to support faculty research that can inform existing policies, practices or interventions meant to reduce poverty or research that lays out proposals for future policy directions. Junior faculty are encouraged to apply. Projects using either qualitative or quantitative data sources are eligible for funding.
Contact Poverty Solutions Administrative Coordinator Damien Siwik at [email protected].
Poverty Solutions-Detroit URC community-academic partnerships
The “Research Strategies to Prevent and Alleviate Poverty” grant will support collaborative research focused on evaluating and strengthening interventions, programs and policies in Michigan that seek to prevent and alleviate poverty.
Successful research projects must equitably involve community and academic partners in all aspects of the research process, and are to be completed within the 2020 calendar year.
Up to four awards of $20,000-$25,000 each — for a total of up to $80,000 — are available through the community-academic grant program. The deadline to apply is noon Nov. 7.
In addition to funding, three grantees meetings over the funding period will provide opportunities for grantees to gain an increased understanding of the core components of collaborative research, engage in structured project development activities related to their efforts, and build relationships among their cohort.
Visit detroiturc.org/poverty-solutions-grant or email Detroit URC Manager Carol Gray at [email protected].
