Tips

Tips for preparing your CREATE Grant Application

• Carefully review all information posted to the CREATE Grant website, paying particular attention to the following:
  • Award Categories and Criteria
  • Project Types (Pedagogies, Exhibitions, Programming, Research)
  • Abstracts of CREATE Grant Awardees
  • CREATE Committee Membership Roster
• Reach out to the CREATE Committee representing your College or School for informal input and advice on your proposal as soon as you have decided to submit a CREATE grant proposal.
• Place University of Miami Libraries and/or the Lowe Art Museum’s cultural resources at the core of your proposal.
  • Pedagogies focused on works from these collections are central to the Mellon Foundation CREATE Grants Program, which is designed to support and advance “object-centered teaching and learning.”
    – Symposia and guest lectures will not be funded unless they meet this criterion.
  • Interdisciplinary projects are strongly encouraged.
• Develop an accurate, detailed budget that anticipates all projected costs for your project.
  • Be prepared to coordinate payment of project-related expenses with your departmental office manager and with Sponsored Programs at the University of Miami.
• Do not wait until the pre-submission deadline to complete your mandatory consultation with collections professionals at University of Miami Libraries and/or the Lowe Art Museum.

Eligibility

The following are eligible to apply for CREATE grants:

• Regular faculty and full-time research faculty members with twelve- or nine-month appointments.
• Faculty in Practice, Adjunct, Visiting or Affiliated Faculty, and Lecturers.

CREATE committee members may not apply for CREATE grants when they are actively serving on this committee. They may, however, apply after their term of service has ended.

Please note that CREATE grant recipients must wait a full calendar year before applying again for support through this program.

Grant Application Instructions

The following must be completed in its entirety and submitted by the relevant application deadline.

Pre-Submission Review Instructions

Before beginning this application procedure, you are required to contact the coordinator of the CREATE Grants Program by TBD.

All applicants will be required to have the relevant individuals listed below sign off on a pre-submission review attestation, which must be submitted to create-application@miami.edu by TBD, by 5pm ET.

Artwork, Artifacts, and Archival Materials

Professionals who oversee the University of Miami’s cultural resources are available to work with you as you develop your proposal and to assist you in realizing your CREATE project if awarded. Below is a list of the potential cultural resources available at the University of Miami and key contacts:

• Lowe Art Museum: Eugenia Incer (Assistant Director, Collections & Exhibitions)
• University Libraries, Special Collections: Cristina Favretto (Head)
• University Libraries, Cuban Heritage Collection: Elizabeth Cerejido (Chair)
• University Libraries, University Archives: Nick Iwanicki (University Archivist)
• Paul Buisson Architecture Library: Gilda Santana
• Judi Prokop Newman Information Resource Center: Doris Jui
• Law Library
• Rosensteil School of Marine & Atmospheric Science: Angela Clark
• Louis Calder Memorial Library
• Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, The Mary & Edward Norton Library of Ophthalmology

Additional Resources

As part of your project, you may find it helpful to consult with experts in the following areas:

• University Libraries, Conservation: Martha Horan, Head of Preservation Strategies
• University Libraries, Digital Production
• Learning Innovation and Faculty Engagement: Matthew Acevedo
• Curricular Assessment: Kineret Ben-Knann

These individuals are also available to advise you at preliminary planning stages as the coordinator of the CREATE Grants Program.

Scope of CREATE Grant Projects

CREATE grant projects are intended to be relatively modest in scope as an opportunity for faculty to test ideas, develop prototypes, or launch further engagement with the University’s cultural resources.

Application Requirements

All application materials must be received by TBD, and submitted electronically on Interfolio. Attachments are preferred as PDF files. Fellowship applicants must submit the following separate documents:

• Application Form
• Curriculum Vitae (short version, no more than 3 pages)
• Copy of pre-submission attestation (due by email by TBD to create-application@miami.edu
• Research Statement: a project abstract of no more than 250 words
• Research Plan: a description of cultural resources from the University of Miami Libraries and/or Lowe Art Museum that are central to the project, including a proposed specific list of artwork or archival materials
• Project Proposal: a project description of no more than 1,500 words
• Detailed Work Plan: timeline and budget
• Summative Assessment: goals and assessment metrics

Completed applications must also adhere to the following technical specifications:

• Font: must be easily legible (Helvetica, Arial, Garamond, Times New Roman, etc.) at a size of 12 pt. or larger
• Margins: at least 0.5″ each side
• Spacing: 1.5 lines or greater
• Length: total combined page length should not exceed 12 pages

Award Categories and Criteria

Applications will be reviewed based on the following criteria:

• Capacity to further clearly articulated pedagogical goals as well as positively impact UM’s mission-focused objectives
• Foreseeable impact, both short- and long-term; above all in the realm of student learning and engagement, advanced scholarship, and original research
• Foreseeable impact, both short- and long-term, on UM’s collections assets
• Scholarly, scientific, and/or creative merit of the proposal
• Feasibility of the project
• Diversity, equity, and inclusion/social justice 
• Inter-disciplinarity

Awards will be made to faculty applicants under four broad categories, all of which hold UM’s collections at their core and each of which can stand on its own or be combined with other areas in the case of more complex projects. These are:

1. Collections-based Pedagogies: Faculty seeking to integrate UMLLAM’s collections into their teaching may do so under this rubric. Sample projects include, but are not limited to, the development or revision of courses to incorporate UMLLAM’s materials in a meaningful way (including broader considerations of the history of collections and the roles and responsibilities of repositories); object-based research; and conservation pedagogies (with critical input from the Mellon Foundation Conservation Fellow).
2. Collections-based Exhibitions: Faculty-led projects falling into this category will promote the creation of new (virtual and physical) faculty- and student -curated exhibitions. It will also support the securing of loans from other institutions to complement and enhance UMLLAM holdings.
3. Collections-based Programming: Collections-based public lectures, talks, performances, film series, etc., delivered by faculty scholars and/or specialist administrative staff fall under this heading, which focuses on engaging UM’s internal and external constituencies.
4. Collections-based Research: With hundreds of thousands of objects available through UMLLAM, UM’s faculty and students have an array of original artifacts and artwork at their disposal for scholarly research projects. Such research could be conducted as part of a broader pedagogical strategy (category 1), incorporated into an exhibition project (category 2), and/or combined with a public presentation of findings or other program (category 3).

Budget

CREATE Grant applicants are responsible for developing an accurate, detailed budget that will support costs affiliated with their proposed projects. This budget should cover all expected costs and should be in its final version at the time that the applicant submits the application for review. Applicants should coordinate payment of expenses with their departmental office manager and with Sponsored Programs from the University of Miami.

Applicants should take care to justify each item in their budgets. Justification of requests for research support personnel and supplies that are typically provided by the academic department (art supplies, computers, scanners, printers, etc.) should be specific and compelling. Any equipment purchased through support of the CREATE Grant becomes University property and is to be housed in the grant recipient’s department. Any funding support contributed from other sources (departmental research, etc.) should be indicated.

While CREATE Grant funds may be requested for travel associated with the execution of the proposed work, they may not be used for conference travel. Requests for travel to work with archives must include evidence that these archives are not available via the Internet. Travel funding will be disallowed if archived information is available digitally and/or online.

Any projects involving digitization, conservation, or exhibition of objects require prior budgetary approval by meeting with [, as well as with staff members at the Lowe Art Museum and/or UM Libraries who would assist in realizing these specific types of projects.

Publication costs and student wages may be funded.

Membership fees and salaries will not be funded.

Feedback from the CREATE sub-committee will be summarized and made available to applicants upon conclusion of the review process.

Award Terms

• The award period begins immediately following notification of the grant award and continues through the last day of the specified academic term.
• Sponsored Programs will assign the CREATE Grant project a grant account number, and all expenses will be processed by the grantee’s departmental office manager.
• Awardees must adhere to the award budget. Funds may be re-budgeted with prior approval from the CREATE subcommittee.
• Grantees who need to make minor adjustments to their approved budgets can do so by consulting with the Coordinator of the CREATE Grants Program.
• An adjustment of expenses that exceeds 25 percent of the total budget requires approval by Dr. Jill Deupi (Beaux Arts Director and Chief Curator, Lowe Art Museum) and Dr. Chuck Eckman (Dean of Libraries).

Reporting Requirements

CREATE awardees are required to submit a final report to the CREATE subcommittee within 60 days of the funded project’s completion date. This report must include:

• A detailed summary of all relevant activities performed during the period of the award
• A review of goals and objectives attained, including qualitative and quantitative data
• A summary of the project’s impact on UMLLAM’s collections, including a final checklist
• A review of project’s impact on diversity and inclusivity goals
• A final budget detailing all expenditures and indicating any unspent balances

Final reports and related documentary materials of awarded Mellon Foundation CREATE Grant projects will be added to Scholarship@Miami.

Grant Cycles and Deadlines

NOTE: The call for proposals for each grant cycle will be made at least five weeks in advance of the deadline.