SIOP Small Grant Program

The SIOP Foundation Small Grant Program provides tangible support to SIOP members for research-related activities, helps guide research activities in areas of interest to both practitioners and academicians within SIOP, and fosters cooperation between academicians and practitioners by supporting research that has the potential to advance both knowledge and practice in applied areas of interest to all members of SIOP.

$30,000 for grant funding is available.

Although there is no minimum amount per grant proposal, the maximum award for any one grant is $10,000.

Nomination deadline is June 30, 2025

General Procedures and Policies

An overarching goal of the Small Grant Program is to provide funding for research investigating topics of interest to both academicians and practitioners. Thus, considerable weight will be given to whether the proposal consists of a cooperative effort between academics and practitioners.

The grant submission package must include a grant proposal (see formatting guidelines below).

The principal investigator of the project must be a SIOP member (which includes Student Members) 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.

If the proposal has an organizational partner for the research, it is strongly recommended that a letter recognizing this support is included in the grant submission package to ensure their commitment to the project.

To encourage wide participation and a large variety of individuals and institutions involved in the program, an individual can only be involved in one proposal per review cycle per grant. In addition, individuals who received a SIOP Small 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 are 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 SIOP Small Grant Program is that grant funds may not be used for overhead or indirect costs. In the committees’ experience, most universities will waive overhead and indirect costs under two circumstances: (a) the grant is relatively modest in size, 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. In addition, grant funds may not be used to pay for travel to the SIOP conference.

The SIOP Small Grant can be used in conjunction with other funding for a larger-scale project. If this is the 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 for both academicians and practitioners
• 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 participants 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).

Evaluation Criteria

At least three members of the Grant Subcommittee will evaluate each proposal based on the following criteria:

• Significance:  Does the proposal address an important problem relevant to both the academic and practitioner membership of SIOP? Will the proposal advance knowledge and practice in a given area?
• Appropriateness of budget:  Is there clear justification and rationale for the expenditure of the award monies? Can the proposed work be accomplished with the funds requested or is there evidence that additional expenses will be covered by other sources of funding?
• Research approach: An assessment of the overall quality of the conceptual framework, design, methods, and planned analyses.
• Innovation:  Does the proposed research employ novel concepts, approaches or methods? Does the proposal research have original and innovative aims?
• Aimed at a wide audience:  The proposal should be clear, understandable, and communicable to a wide audience and have implications for all members of SIOP (academics and practitioners).
• Realistic timeframe: Likelihood that the project can be completed within 2 years of award date.
• Academic–practitioner partnership: Does the grant involve a partnership between an academic and a practitioner?

Administrative Procedures

The Awards Subcommittee will review and administer the grant. The subcommittee reserves the right to recommend that the award be withheld if a suitable candidate does not apply.

Although an individual can apply for multiple SIOP grants and scholarships, they cannot win multiple awards that fund the same project in the same year. Additionally, a student cannot be funded on multiple scholarships in the same year. If a project is recommended to receive two awards, the Awards Chair for grants and scholarships will make the determination of which award the individual will receive. If an individual is recommended to receive a scholarship by two different subcommittees, the Awards Chair for grants and scholarships will make the determination of which award the individual will receive.

Funds will be distributed to the recipient in a single payment in January following the submission deadline.

Deliverables

All grant recipients will be required to deliver a final report to the SIOP office within 2 years of the date of the award. An abstract of the research will be placed on the SIOP website.

Recipients are encouraged to submit the results of their research for presentation at SIOP’s annual conference.

Recipients should acknowledge funding from the SIOP Foundation in any presentations or publications resulting from the grant-funded research.