FAQ

Yes if the travel is essential to the proposed research activity, and VT's travel policy applies. Please note all travel expenses must be spent within the performance period. Due to various uncertainties associated with travel, we recommend applicants to have a contingency plan if the travel budget cannot be spent on time.

Yes for the publications resulting from the proposed research activity. Please note, however, all budgeted expenses must be spent within the performance period. Because the manuscript draft, submission, review, revision, and acceptance process can be long and unpredictable, we recommend applicants to have a contingency plan if the publication budget cannot be spent on time. Also, the library has an open access subvention fund that can be used to assist with publication costs.

No. Salary, benefits, and indirect cost to full-time VT employees cannot be charged on this fund.

Yes, part-time VT affiliates may participate in and get paid from projects where two full-time VT employees serve as co-PIs. Note: this program is not intended to supplement VT employees' income. Therefore, part-time VT affiliates' participation period for this program should not overlap with their other VT contracts.

You should break down the larger project into smaller pieces and use this grant to fund a specific smaller piece of work that fits in the budget and the timeline. That being said, putting your project in the context of the larger project indeed shows the potential impact of your proposal.

Yes, both the co-PI collaborators and the substance of the projects need to be different from each other. In other words, you cannot submit the same proposal or multiple closely related proposals twice in the same funding cycle. In addition, any co-PI should not expect to work on more than two funded projects in this program in parallel (except for the summer due to the funding cycle overlaps).

This program is intended as a seed grant and hope to spur broader collaborations and more diverse ideas. If you have received funding from this program, we strongly encourage you to leverage the funding to build up work that will increase your success rate for external funding opportunities. Program co-directors reserve the right to decline follow-up projects or put them in a lower priority pool.

No. If you already know your collaborator and what idea you will be submitting, then you may directly submit the proposal. That being said, you are encouraged to submit a profile and/or participate in the Meet-and-Greet to get acquainted with other potential collaborators.

International students working hour limit is set by immigration law. Please double check with the Graduate School.