The James L. Outtz Grant for Inclusion, Belonging & Fairness in the Workplace

The James L. Outtz Grant for Research on Inclusion, Belonging, and Fairness in the Workplace supports research by a graduate student or early-career professional that deepens the understanding of inclusion, belonging, and fairness in the workplace.

The maximum size of the grant is $6,000.

General Procedures and Policies

The grant submission package must include a grant proposal (see formatting guidelines below). The proposal should describe how the research will have a significant impact on the understanding of inclusion, belonging, and fairness in the workplace.

The principal investigator of the project must be a graduate student (Masters or Ph.D. program) or an early-career professional (i.e., 10 years since Ph.D. was awarded) in I-O psychology.  Regardless of the principal investigator, a graduate student must participate on the project team. The principal investigator must also be a SIOP member and must submit the research proposal. Proposals submitted with a student as the principal investigator must include a letter of endorsement from a SIOP professional member.

An extension of up to two years beyond the 10-year early-career eligibility period may be granted to provide additional flexibility for members who have experienced life events, which hindered their professional accomplishments. To be considered for this extension, the nominator should submit a separate brief note which includes the length of the requested extension and the reasons for the request. This letter will be reviewed only by the Award Committee leaders and will not become part of the nomination package.

To encourage wide participation and a large variety of individuals and institutions involved in the grant program, an individual can only be involved in one proposal per review cycle per grant. In addition, individuals who received an Outtz Grant within the last two years are ineligible. Before submitting a grant proposal, check with each of your co-authors to ensure that neither of these requirements is being violated.

When submitting application materials, applicants will also be asked if they are being investigated, or have been found responsible, for misconduct prohibited in SIOP’s Anti-Harassment Policy and to provide a brief explanation if this is the case.

Guidelines for Proposal Budgets

The explicit policy of the Outtz Grant is that grant funds may not be used for overhead or indirect costs. In the committee’s experience, most universities will waive overhead and indirect costs under two circumstances: (a) the grant is relatively modest in size (e.g., under $10,000), and/or (b) the awarding institution (i.e., SIOP Foundation) does not allow it. If the above statement disallowing funds to be used for overhead is insufficient, a Chair of the Awards Committee will provide additional documentation and evidence explicitly recognizing this policy.

The Outtz Grant can be used in conjunction with other funding for a larger-scale project. In this case, the proposal should describe the scope of the entire project, the entire budget, and the portion of the budget for which SIOP award money will be spent.

In addition, grant funds should not be used to pay for ancillary costs related to the project (i.e., publication or presentations at conferences, such as open access and registration/travel costs).

Format of Proposals

The proposal should adhere to APA formatting guidelines and should include the following sections:

• Title Page (include the names of all authors of the grant proposal)
• Abstract
• Literature review and rationale for the project
• Method —including information about the sample, measures, data collection strategies, and analytical strategies
• Implications of the findings or conclusions for research and practice
• References, Tables/Figures and Appendices
• Project plan, defined deliverables, and budget

Proposals should not exceed 10 pages of text (this does not include: title page, abstract, references, tables and figures, and appendices). The proposal should be double spaced and use a 12-point font and 1” margins. The proposal must be a single document, either a Word document or a .pdf file.

If applicable, the names of all authors of the grant proposal must be entered during the online nomination/application process. Please ensure that all participants in your nomination have current information in their siop.org profiles. All non-members should create an account at siop.org (creating accounts is not equivalent to applying for membership)

All proposals need to certify, by signature or other means, that the research will be carried out in compliance with ethical standards regarding the treatment of human subjects (e.g., institutional review board or signed statement that the research adheres to the accepted professional standards regarding the treatment of human subjects).