Last October, the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute (IHSI), in partnership with the College of Education and the Office of Foundation Relations, hosted the third session of the Funding for Engaged Research series, highlighting the William T. Grant and Alfred P. Sloan Foundations. The event attracted researchers from over 30 departments and 10 colleges across the Illinois campus. The presentation slides and video recording are now available.
During the event, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Professors Will Schneider and Jodi Schneider shared their experiences and successes with these funders. Julie Elzanati and Barlow LeVold, Office of Foundation Relations, augmented the discussion with an overview of each foundation and best practices learned while serving on campus.
Will Schneider, a professor of social work at UIUC, discussed his experience seeking funding from the William T. Grant Foundation Scholars Program. “They really want to know that your project is not just demonstrating that inequality in some aspect of US policy exists, but that your study is designed to offer a solution,” noted Prof. Will Schneider. “Across the cohort of scholars, there are a variety of projects using a huge variety of methods focusing on different populations, but what they all have in common is focusing on finding solutions to inequality and that they are really focused on underserved people, communities, and families.”
Jodi Schneider, a professor of information sciences, discussed her experience seeking funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. “The program officer at Sloan has a portfolio and is personally selecting proposals that look promising and then advocating for those.” Prof. Jodi Schneider also shared advice with Illinois researchers about the importance of building relationships and collaborations that pave the way for future funding success.
Additional resources
Subscribe to the IHSI e-newsletter for news and information about upcoming webinars.
Recordings of previous webinars in this series featuring McCormick, Spencer, Kellogg, Robert Wood Johnson, and MacArthur Foundations are also available on the IHSI website.
Support for Community-Academic Partnerships
IHSI’s Community-Academic Partnerships core creates and supports community-academic collaborations to improve health, promoting shared goals among partners to strengthen the community impact of health research. Please contact Kelsey Hassevoort with questions about our programs or to discuss your community-based project or needs.
The College of Education’s Office of Public Engagement initiates and sustains partnerships between community partners and College of Education faculty, staff, and students in research, teaching, and service. Please contact Emily Stone with questions about public engagement in education.
The Office of Foundation Relations is dedicated to securing support from private foundations for Illinois’ academic and public engagement programs. Please contact their office to advance partnerships with these funders through communications, proposal development, stewardship, and other activities.