Frequently Asked Questions

Faculty with PI eligibility (members of the University's Academic Council or UML faculty).

Applications from the School of Medicine must include co-investigators from one or more Stanford schools to be eligible for funding.

Yes. Applications may be submitted by other personnel (grad students, postdocs, etc.).

This program is intended to support projects that are “beyond the usual” in scale and in the final stages of proposal development with most of the preliminary work complete.

The Small Propel Grants support collaborative teams who are finalizing their proposal for externally sponsored research funding in the next six months.

The Large Propel Grants support collaborative teams who want to obtain additional data or other elements to enhance the competitiveness of their externally funded sponsored research proposal in the next year.

Consider the readiness of your project. Propel Grants are not seed grants and are not intended to fund early-stage ideas that are still defining the research question or forming the initial team.

We expect teams to have an established foundation for their proposed project with most preliminary work completed and a plan to apply for external funding in place.

The definition of “beyond the usual” will vary considerably across disciplines and research areas. It is up to the applicant to explain how the scope of the project, budget, or team size go “beyond the usual” in scale for their discipline.

Essentially, “beyond the usual” means that the proposed effort is bigger and more collaborative than the typical “bread and butter” funding for PIs or research groups in that field. The funds support efforts that go beyond routine work to advance an individual's scientific career, such as complex or large-scale grants which are often better addressed by interdisciplinary teams and may involve multiple scientific/administrative components.

For example, projects with a STEM focus that target a center-type grant, such as NSF Science and Technology Centers, DOE Energy Frontier Research Centers, NIH P50, NIH U54, or similar align well with the Propel Grants. Projects in the arts, humanities, and social sciences that target large, collaborative funding opportunities, such as NEH Collaborative Research Grants, NEA Grants for Arts Projects, and some Mellon grants would be appropriate. This list is not exhaustive.

Funding from the Small Propel Grants may be used for activities that will elevate your external funding application and drive it forward. Examples can include a writing day, hiring a graphic designer or scientific illustrator, conducting an expert review of your proposal draft, or another activity to make the external application more competitive. These small grants are meant to help you finalize your external grant application and to position your proposal for success.

Please see the Stanford Purchasing Policies and Guidelines if you have questions regarding allowable expenses.

Funding from the Large Propel Grants is intended to help Stanford researchers position themselves well for larger, external sponsored research funding. Activities should be part of the final stretch of a grant application, not early-stage data collection. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• Conducting additional, desirable research experiments (not initial, essential preliminary data)
• Accessing archives
• Performing additional data analysis
• Consulting with experts or hiring research assistants
• Bringing new collaborators together to demonstrate existing relationships in the proposal
• Implementing a triangulation protocol
• Producing questionnaires and surveys
• Travel for site visits, and/or
• Other elements to enhance chances of external funding success

You could use a portion of the Propel Grant to cover the administrative costs required to manage the Propel Grant funded activities, such as hiring a student worker or support staff to organize a conference or workshop in preparation of the external grant submission.

Up to $5,000 of the Propel Grant can be budgeted for proposal development/beautification:

• Conducting an expert review of your proposal draft
• Hiring a graphic designer or scientific illustrator

Note that all applicable university fees apply. Award funds may be used to cover these expenses (e.g., Fees for Visiting Student Researchers, shared facility hourly rates, dedicated computing resources on Sherlock, Oak monthly storage, etc.).

Projects are encouraged to utilize existing institutional resources, including but not limited to Stanford Shared Facilities or the Stanford Research Computing Center.

Please see the Stanford Purchasing Policies and Guidelines if you have questions regarding allowable expenses.

Requests up to $100,000 and/or up to 24 months may be considered if the proposal is of high strategic value to the university.

A second award will only be considered for those teams who have proven to be good stewards of previous VPDoR-funded awards and with strong justification. Principal Investigators may be the lead on consecutive grants.

Teams may receive up to one small award and up to one large award for a given project, with a preference of only one award per team.

No. Principal Investigators may submit only one application for a Large Propel Grant as the lead PI per cycle.

Principal Investigators may submit a subsequent application in the next cycle. Grant recipients must have finished their project and completed their end-of-grant report or impact survey before submitting new applications.

Consider one of our other deadlines! We offer the Large Propel Grant twice per year, and the Small Propel Grants are reviewed on a rolling basis every two weeks; deadlines are listed in the “Timeline” section for each.

If the work you need to do requires a longer timeframe than the Propel Grant stipulates, you can still consider applying with a strong justification of why you need more time between the Propel funds and the submission of your external funding application. Funding decisions are based on review outcomes and availability of funds.

Exceptions to the deadlines may be requested if the proposal is of high strategic value to the university and when circumstances outside the PI’s control negatively impact the team’s ability to participate in the next cycle.

Such exceptions require a consultation with the Director of Research Development, Kim Baeten, in VPDoR and are evaluated on the review criteria by an ad-hoc committee. Please email us at at rdo_seedgrants@stanford.edu.

No. Proposed budgets for the VPDoR-sponsored Propel Grants do not need to be routed through OSR/RMG because they are internally funded grants; however, we encourage applicants to work with their department administrator/financial analyst on budget development.

No. Because of the source of these internal funds, the university infrastructure charge will not be assessed. No indirect charges need to be included in your budget.

Proposed budgets do not need institutional representative review for this internally funded program; however, we encourage applicants to work with their department administrator/financial analyst on budget development.

The Stanford Research Development Office (RDO) aims to strengthen collaborative or strategic research, scholarship, and creative activities. Please visit researchdevelopment.stanford.edu for more information about how RDO can help you.