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Cornell University

Migrations

A Global Grand Challenge

Call for Proposals: Migrations Research

The Migrations initiative funds interdisciplinary, multispecies, and systems-level research that furthers our understanding of migration.

Only through such an understanding can we influence the way that migration is studied, governed, and even experienced. 

In this call for proposals, there are opportunities for Cornell faculty from any academic discipline to study migration at both the domestic and international levels. With support from the Mellon Foundation's Just Futures Initiative, we are funding U.S.-focused work that has long-term and discernible benefits addressing racial and immigrant justice on campus and beyond. Research that has a broader international focus may apply for multispecies, interdisciplinary Migrations grants on any subject related to migration. 

Deadline

All proposals are due by January 18, 2023. We will notify awardees no later than March 1, 2023. All funds must be spent by June 30, 2024.

Eligibility

All PI-eligible faculty at Cornell are eligible to apply (tenured, tenure-track, professors of practice, senior research associates, and clinical-track faculty), as are faculty-led programs and centers within the university, irrespective of their college or school of origin.

Info Session

The Migrations initiative co-directors answered questions about funding priorities, selection criteria, and guidance on successful applications. Watch the info session.

Track 1: Racism, Dispossession, and Migration in the United States

Supported by the Mellon Foundation Just Futures Initiative, this funding supports research and engagement focused on the United States and centered on the connections between racism, dispossession, and migration in interdisciplinary, innovative, and impactful ways.

Just Futures Team Research Grants

We expect to fund three proposals with up to $150,000 for one to two years. Review the thematic priorities driving this funding, which are:

  • Authority, Governance, and Racial Injustice

  • Climate, Dispossession, and Natural and Built Environments
  • Trafficking, Displacement, and the Right to Stay Home

Competitive proposals will bring together Cornell’s strength in multiple, relatively disparate fields to build innovative approaches to address cutting-edge questions around racism, dispossession, and migration. Within this context, we are looking for projects that advance research on migration from an interdisciplinary perspective, especially humanistic approaches. These projects should be impactful and lay the groundwork for scholars to work with diverse communities towards re-possession and redress.

We are particularly interested in teams that elevate antiracist and anti-colonial research approaches.  We would also like to support efforts that will lead to emerging collaborations with outside funders, and to support working groups both in and beyond academia across the interconnected themes of racism, dispossession, and migration. 

Requirements

  • Proposals must have an interdisciplinary perspective and articulate why the project theme likely cannot be investigated adequately using a single disciplinary lens.

  • There must be co-principal investigators from at least two colleges or departments.
  • Research teams must be sustainable, with work that can extend beyond the grant period and result in new knowledge, multiple high-impact publications, and/or opportunities for real-world change. 
  • Proposals should lead to emerging collaborations with outside funders and supporting working groups both in and beyond academia.

Eligible Expenditures

  • One postdoctoral fellow up to 90K (salary and fringes) and one graduate student fellowship up to 30K. Alternatively, three graduate fellowships (30K each) in place of the postdoctoral fellow.

  • Undergraduate and graduate research assistance. 
  • Conference, workshops, and meeting costs (limited to 20K) that are an integral part of the research project.
  • Postdoctoral and/or graduate student professional development.
  • Research assistance, including data collection and dissemination of research findings.
  • Requests for summer salary support of up to 1/9th and for travel to meet with collaborators will be considered, but given the lowest priority in funding decisions. 

Ineligible Expenditures

  • Administrative assistance, e.g., salary and fringes for staff.

  • Tuition. Please check with your college and the Graduate School, they may provide supplemental funding.
  • Computer purchases.
  • Association membership fees.
  • Support for students’ qualifying papers, master’s theses, and dissertations. 
  • Conferences and other convenings that are not central to the research project.
  • Any K-12 funding.

The review committee reserves the right to fund at a lower amount than requested.

Just Futures Small Grants

We will provide pilot funding for up to five projects, up to $10,000 each for one year, that leverage new or emerging collaborations with outside organizations, collaborators, or funders. Strong projects will relate to one of our three thematic areas. 

Funds can be used for data-gathering, workshops and meetings, travel, and student assistance. Grants may not be used for salary offset or summer salary, computers, and student tuition.

Just Futures Engagement Grants

We will support four to eight proposals that propose inclusive and participatory collaborations with community partners dedicated to applying research and/or pedagogy to further positive social justice or impact. Selected applicants will receive up to $25,000 each over one year.

We aim to support strategies for collective learning such as those that deploy public art, social media, podcasts, and other rich digital content for students. This public engagement should break down elite university spaces via interactive art installations, open-access media projects, and co-designed practical applications. These community-oriented, campus spaces will highlight the historical and contemporary role of the university in facilitating racism, dispossession, and migration while developing practical tools for accountability and redress.

Requirements

Awardees must:

  • Participate in occasional events through the Migrations initiative, including presenting at one research seminar during the grant period.
  • Submit annual grant reports and a final report (using a template provided by the Migrations initiative).
  • Prepare a news release announcing your results at the end of the grant cycle, in coordination with communication staff in the Office of the Vice Provost for International Affairs.
  • Acknowledge Cornell's Migrations Global Grand Challenge and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in all project products (reports, publications, presentations, etc.) that were made possible, in whole or in part, through this grant. 

    Eligible Expenditures

    Funds should be used to support migrant rights and representation in public discourse, including cross-disciplinary research and learning teams that apply their work to artistic, policy, and technological innovations that will improve the lives of racialized minorities and migrants in an era when rights and public benefits are under attack.

    • Collaborator support and materials
    • Programming 
    • Interns
    • Travel

      Just Futures Course or Curriculum Grants

      We will fund up to three proposals that build a transformative new curriculum co-developed with scholars and community partners that exposes the role of racism, dispossession, and migration in the academy. While working towards racial and immigrant justice on campus and beyond, proposed initiatives should advance an interdisciplinary pedagogy beyond borders that is based in multiple sites within and beyond New York State. This should include collaborative, interactive, and reflective pedagogy with local community members, including migrants, refugees, and communities of color. 

      Courses may receive up to $30,000 for one year. Courses are expected to launch the following year. 

      Funds can be used salary offset or summer salary, travel, student assistants, interns, and community partners' time. Grants may be not be used for computers or student tuition.

      Track 2: Researching, Teaching, and Building for a World on the Move

      This funding supports innovative, multispecies, and interdisciplinary approaches to key international migration issues. We aim to cultivate collaborations that advance science, scholarship, teaching, outreach, and engagement in ways that generate new insights into critical problems.

      Migration Cross-Disciplinary Team Research Grants and Migrations Individual Faculty Research Grants

      This funding opportunity promotes path-breaking research on migration at Cornell and, in particular, research with an impact that might resonate across multiple fields of study. Awards will be $10,000 to $50,000. For team proposals, we seek interdisciplinary teams of faculty from across Cornell, doing work on any subject related to migration. We will prioritize those projects that integrate knowledge across disciplinary families including natural and life sciences, physical sciences, engineering, social sciences, and the humanities.

      We are especially interested in proposals that

      • Support the preparation of external funding requests that show high potential for continued funding for migration research beyond the grant period. 
      • Build on existing strengths at Cornell while extending work on migration into new areas or collaborations.
      • Advance research on migration by junior faculty.
      • Create networks and platforms for the study of migration that facilitate connection among scholars from across the university and from around the world. 
      • Weave in engaged opportunities for undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty.
      • Have long-term, discernible benefits to the study of migration at Cornell.
      • Conform to the highest academic standards. 

      Requirements

      Awardees must:

      • Participate in occasional events through the Migrations initiative, including presenting at one research seminar during the grant period.
      • Submit annual grant reports and a final report (using a template provided by the Migrations initiative).
      • Prepare a news release announcing your results at the end of the grant cycle, in coordination with communication staff in the Office of the Vice Provost for International Affairs.
      • Acknowledge Cornell University's Migrations Global Grand Challenge in all project products (reports, publications, presentations, etc.) that were made possible, in whole or in part, through this grant. 

        Eligible Expenditures

        • Research/project staff stipends, including graduate student stipends and tuition

        • Travel expenses for research and meetings
        • Workshop-type events related to collaborative research
        • Hosting of visitors
        • Data collection
        • Translation
        • Website construction
        • Publication expenses 

        How to Apply

        Submit your application with all supporting materials electronically on InfoReady by 11:59 (ET) on January 18, 2023. Please complete the Excel budget template as part of the application.

        Proposals must include:

        • Full CVs of the applicant(s) and key collaborators in PDF format

        • Description of proposed project:
          • Maximum of 3 pages for all proposals, except for research team grants which can be up to 5 pages
          • Single-spaced, 12-point font, 1-inch margins, PDF format
          • The proposal should be free of disciplinary jargon such that its significance and contribution towards advancing research on migrations (i.e., the movement of people, plants, and animals) can be easily evaluated by faculty reviewers representing diverse disciplines.
        • Human subjects approval, where necessary for research. Human subjects approval is not necessary with the proposal but is a prerequisite for funds to be dispersed.
        • Detailed budget with justification of expenses (see Excel budget template in InfoReady), including:
          • PI(s) name and project title
          • Total funding amount requested
          • List of the individual expenses and a brief explanation of each expense
          • Your department administrative manager's contact information

        Apply

        Questions? Contact Migrations program manager, Mary Ball, with any questions about the grants or the application process.