LSU - IGERT

The purpose of this project is to integrate an important aspect of the CMC-IGERT into graduate programs in the colleges of Engineering and Basic Sciences and the Schools of the Coast and Environment and Veterinary Medicine at LSU. This would be a grant program, similar to the minigrant process in IGERT, which will allow graduate students from these colleges to apply for small grants ($100-5000) to be used toward research projects that will augment or expand the scope of their dissertation work. Special consideration will be given to projects that have a multidisciplinary focus. Currently, Deans Bassiouni and Carmen of Engineering and Basic Sciences have pledged support for the proposal and additional funding has been secured through APTEC (Applied Polymer Technology Extension Consortium).

The goals of this LSU Minigrant program would be to give graduate students the opportunity to get experience writing and reviewing grants, developing creative ideas for research, and doing interdisciplinary work. Currently, there are a number of travel grants available to students of various departments and university-wide, but there are few research grants available to graduate students specifically. We would like to set up our program so that as many as 12 students per year could receive grants of as much as $5000 to:

Purchase supplies for a new experiment either directly related to their dissertation work or that could produce a first author student publication,
allow a student to travel to another university to use equipment or learn a technique not available at LSU,
buy or repair equipment to facilitate their research.

Grant applications will be accepted throughout the year and decisions regarding funding would be made within 30 days. Grant applications will be collected by a student leader who will distribute them to a graduate student review board (3-5 students from different colleges) for assessment. The student reviews will then be forwarded to a committee of faculty supervisors who will make the final selection based on the student reviews. Students who receive funding will then be required to serve on the student review board during the next cycle and present an end of year report either in the form of a written statement or at a poster session (similar to the Economic Development Assistantship program). Currently, the plan is to limit eligibility to PhD students and to one award per student per year. We’re working to assemble enough support for an annual budget of between $30,000-60,000. So far we’ve received commitments of ~$25,000.

This is still preliminary, but we’re working to get a solid plan in place by the end of 2006 and then have the program running by fall 2007. So if you have any ideas, suggestions, or other comments we’re open to them. You can send an email to Legacy committee chairwoman Allison Richard or the CMC-IGERT program director Dr. Paul Russo.