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