The Research Cultivation Grant (RCG) supports NCA’s mission to “foster professional success in research.” The specific goal of the RCG is to facilitate first-time grant-seeking for those without prior grant experience and/or those desiring to build a foundation for future grant pursuits. In this sense, RCG is a grant-seeding program with both short-term and long-term promise. Funded projects will have the potential to make significant contributions to the study and practices of communication.

RCG-funded projects will be those proposing innovative research (such as understudied domains, novel or creative methodologies), promoting IDEA as defined by NCA’s strategic plan (focused on historically marginalized groups), and/or engaged scholarship (such as research mobilized in non-academic contexts of pressing social, civic, and ethical concerns, or that translates communication theory into practice).

Applicants may seek support up to $12,500. Applications are due September 1 for awards given in following year.

 

Action Required: Reset Your NCA Grant Portal Password

On January 21, the National Communication Association launched its new member portal. If you updated your NCA Member Portal login credentials on or after January 21, you must reset your Grants Portal login information to match.

If you have not logged into the NCA Member Portal since before January 21, you can use your current NCA password to log in.

Eligibility Requirements

  1. All investigators listed on the grant must be NCA members at the time of submission.
  2. Project investigators must have no prior research grant funding since completion of the terminal degree. Applicants are required to hold a terminal degree.
  3. Officers, directors, trustees (the Legislative Assembly and its Executive Committee), key employees, substantial contributors or employees thereof, or grant selection committee members are not eligible to be considered for or to receive grants from NCA.

Funding Parameters

  1. Funding expenses must be directly related to the conduct of the research. Funding cannot be used for: conference travel or events, faculty salary or equivalent, computers and hardware for routine tasks like managing and tabulating data, writing or editing documents or manuscript preparation, construction and remodeling of facilities, subscriptions to journals.
  2. Funds must be dispersed within one year of receiving the award.
  3. NCA will pay up to 10 percent of indirect costs, but the total funding amount, including both direct and indirect costs, cannot exceed the $12,500 funding limit.
  4. Funds are disbursed to identified university fiscal agents, not to individuals.
  5. Undergraduate and graduate appointments must be on an hourly basis.

 

Applicants must indicate at the top of the application in bold letters that they are applying for a Research Cultivation Grant. For example, RESEARCH CULITVATION GRANT PROPOSAL: [Title of Project]

Applications require the submission of a single document that includes three parts: A detailed description of the proposed project, a detailed budget, and a CV for each applicant. Applications that do not meet eligibility requirements or whose applications do not provide the following criteria will be rejected prior to review.

  1. Detailed description of the proposed project written for a diverse audience of Communication scholars, no longer than 10 pages, double-spaced, which includes answers to the following questions:
    • What do you propose to investigate?
    • How is your project innovative and/or focused on innovation, IDEA, and/or engaged scholarship?
    • How clearly does the proposal articulate the goals of the project to a diverse audience of Communication scholars?
    • Why is this an important project?
    • How does this project align with NCA’s strategic plan?
    • Which methods, models, theories, or frameworks inform the proposed project?
    • What deliverables will result from this project?
    • How will this grant advance your program of research?
  2. Detailed budget, no more than two pages, including rationale for each expense.
  3. CVs for each Principal Investigator that are no longer than three pages and includes full name, contact information, and institutional affiliation.

 

Help for Grant Seekers

Applicants are strongly encouraged to view and utilize NCA’s resources for composing and submitting grant proposals. Click here to view these resources.

All grant recipients will be required to attend the NCA Annual Convention in the year following their award. Recipients will serve as panelists and provide reflections on their grant experience (to include development, process, etc.).

All grant recipients will be required to provide a final report (detailing status on articulated deliverables, financial outlays, conference paper submissions, article submissions or publications, creative/original activity, media production, and any other deliverables that may be result from the funded project) within six months of the grant completion date (see NCA’s Assessment Protocol).

All grant recipients are expected to check with their home institution regarding the rules and regulations involved with accepting grants to be sure applicants follow acceptable practice for their institution and state. NCA recommends that you share NCA’s Assessment Protocol and NCA’s Promotional Activities and Sponsorship Acknowledgment Policy with your grant officer before applying.

All scholars funded through this grant are required to include acknowledgment of support by NCA in any publications or presentations resulting from the RCG (see NCA’s Promotional Activities and Sponsorship Acknowledgment Policy).

  • NCA must be acknowledged as a sponsor of NCA funded events and projects. The NCA
    logo must be on all official correspondence related to an NCA funded event or project as
    well as any public documents, reports, or publications.
  • At the discretion of the Executive Committee, with advice from the Finance Board,
    “National Communication Association” should be incorporated into the official title of
    NCA funded events, especially when NCA is the sole or majority sponsor.
  • At NCA sponsored events, NCA should be acknowledged in public remarks (e.g.,
    welcome remarks, keynote address introductions, luncheon) and the NCA logo should be
    displayed in a prominent location(s).
  • NCA will work with event and project organizers to plan and execute pre- and
    postevent/project promotional plans, as appropriate, which use various NCA
    communications channels.
  • NCA will place event/project information on the NCA website (http://www.natcom.org)
    if appropriate. Relevant text and graphics must be sent to NCA by event/project
    organizers in a timely fashion. If a website other than the NCA website is created or used
    for an NCA funded event or project, NCA will place the URL link on the NCA website.
    Relevant information must be provided by the event/project organizer. If a website other
    than the NCA website is created or used for an NCA funded event or project, that website
    must post the NCA logo in a prominent location as well as a link to the NCA website.
  • Event registration materials should include information about NCA and how to join the
    association as well as a cover letter on NCA letterhead from the NCA President and/or
    Executive Director welcoming participants and thanking them for participating in an
    NCA funded event. Please request your letter from NCA’s National Office when you are
    putting together relevant materials.
  • Event organizers must provide NCA with contact information for event participants with
    the understanding that NCA may contact them in the future to solicit a membership to
    NCA.
  • Unless alternative arrangements are made in advance, all products, publications, and
    other works or results are the property of NCA and, as such, the copyright is owned by
    NCA. These items can be licensed for use by the original authors with the written
    permission of NCA.
  • Event/project organizers must write a news-style article about the event/project once it is
    completed. It should be submitted to NCA’s Director of Academic and Professional
    Affairs for dissemination to members through appropriate channels.
  • Somewhere in the materials for an event or a project, the following language should
    appear and should be made known to the participants:

      • During the course of this conference, I acknowledge that I may have my voice,
        likeness and/or actions captured in photograph, video and/or audio recordings. As
        a condition of my attendance at this conference, I agree to irrevocably grant to the
        National Communication Association (“NCA”), its assigns, licensees and
        successors the right to video, photograph, publish, record, broadcast, exhibit,
        digitize, display, copyright, license, transfer, reproduce, translate, modify, edit or
        otherwise use perpetually throughout the world, in all media now and hereafter
        known or devised, in whole or in part, my image, likeness, voice, name and
        actions in audio and video recordings, photographs and materials prepared by
        and/or disseminated by NCA.

For questions about NCA grant programs, please email the NCA Research Department.