Due Date: Monday, October 21, 2024 at 5 p.m. MST 

Funding period: 1 Jan 2025 – 30 Dec 2025 

The Montana State University College of Agriculture and Montana Agricultural Experiment Station has funds available to support capacity-building research aligned with our strategic goals. These funds are intended to support new investigators, interdisciplinary exploratory research, cross-department collaborations and to encourage collaborations between on-campus faculty and Research Centers to address agriculture and natural resource related challenges in Montana through research.  

Funding limits: $25,000 for single investigator projects to support new investigators (junior faculty in their first 3 years at MSU), $50,000 for interdisciplinary projects with multiple investigators from at least two departments to explore new research ideas that are relevant to Montana. Awards are limited to one year but may be extended depending on the availability of funds, progress on objectives and compliance with reporting requirements. Funds may be used for graduate or undergraduate student support including tuition. Faculty salary is not allowed. 

Eligibility requirements: Faculty and Research Faculty who are approved by OSP to serve as a PI may submit a research project proposal. Faculty from other colleges and institutions may be involved in the proposal, but funds may only be expended by and for faculty in the College of Agriculture. Proposals should directly benefit the goals of the College of Agriculture and its Strategic Plan.  An ePCF does not need to be filed for these internal funds. Admin fees of 6% should be included in the budget. Only one proposal may be submitted by each PI. Faculty may contribute as Co-PI on no more than two proposals.

Preference will be given to junior TT and NTT faculty. All junior faculty are encouraged to apply to this program as a source of seed money for preliminary data collection or proof of concept to leverage for external grants.

Review and editing of minigrant proposals is available, please contact Rebecca Falks at rebecca.falks@montana.edu for assistence in preparing or review of minigrant proposals.

Proposal format: Three-page limit for the body of the proposal (items 1-11, below). Figures and tables can be added to the proposal with a two-page limit. Budget, Justification, and Literature Cited are not included in the three-page limit.  A Word template is available for download here. The proposal should include these sections: 

  • Project name 
  • Principal investigators and cooperators 
  • How the proposal meets the requirements of the grant program and the goals of the Strategic Plan, including Focus Area number 
  • Introduction and justification  
  • Objectives 
  • Materials and methods 
  • Expected results or outcomes 
  • Potential pitfalls 
  • Relevance and benefits to Montana and/or Montana agriculture 
  • Potential outcomes and impacts 
  • How this award will be leveraged for future funding (specify agency/agencies) 
  • Proposed budget 
  • Budget justification  
  • Current and Pending Support
  • Literature cited 

Click here to download the Word template

Please submit your minigrant application through Infoready here

Instructions for submitting a proposal through InfoReady are available here

 

A peer review panel will meet to review proposals and investigators will be notified in early December of the funding outcome. 

Questions can be addressed to: Rebecca Falks, COA Grants Coordinator at rebecca.falks@montana.eduand/or your department head. 

 

Post-award: A final report will be required and will be due 15 Jan, 2026. Photos of the project are encouraged. Outcomes and impact statements will be required in the final report.  

 

The list of previous awardees and titles of previously funded projects is available here