Community Changemaker Challenge Grants

Selection Criteria

• Community impact

• What community problem will the project solve, partially solve or address and why?

• OU impact

• What impact and/or benefit will OU students (e.g., experiential learning opportunity, research opportunity, etc.), faculty (e.g., publications) and/or staff see or experience as a result of this project?

• Community partner involvement

• Evidence of a credible process used to solicit community partner input on the problem 

• Robust, equitable partnership with mutually-beneficial goals

• Collaboration

• Evidence of the collaborative roles of community partner(s) and students in execution / implementation of the project

• Project co-created with shared leadership and accountability

• Feasibility

• What is the likelihood of the project achieving its design goals / outcomes? 

• Sustainability

• At the end of the two-year funding period how will it be sustained to completion?

• What plans exist for long-term funding to sustain the program?

• Experience and/or preparedness

• Evidence can include, but is not limited to:

• existing substantive expertise,

• a track record of community-engaged publication and/or grant funding,

• existing engagement and partnerships with the community around this issue,

• established contacts and relationships with community organizations that will be partners in the work,

• experience managing a sizeable (i.e., $200,000) research budget,

• experience with IRB or other compliance functions that might be required for the project.

• Measurement

• Evidence of a strategy and plan to measure the impact of the project

Proposal Components

Submit all documents as PDF files: standard letter-size pages (8.5 by 11 inches), one-inch margins on all sides, single-spaced, with a font that is at least 11-point. The following documents are required for all proposals:

1. A one-page cover sheet that contains all of the following elements:

1. The project title

2. An abstract (not more than 300 words in length), written in non-technical
   language understandable to lay audiences. The abstract should
   summarize the proposed work, its significance, its goals, the proposed
   project plan, and expected (potential?) outcomes.

3. The project team (the investigator(s) and all significant/key personnel
   involved in the project). For each team member, provide:

1. Their name

2. Their institutional affiliation (if at OU, provide their department or
   unit affiliation)

3. Their email address and telephone number

4. Their role on the project (i.e., principal investigator, co-investigator,
   expert, etc.)

4. The total budget requested - provide the total project cost, as a single line on the cover sheet: full budget details must be provided in the separate budget request form

2. A project summary (four pages or less) that speaks to the criteria outlined below. The summary must discuss the issue(s) being addressed, the research questions to be answered, the project timeline, community partner involvement, an assessment/evaluation plan, plans for dissemination of project findings, and anticipated impacts. The summary may contain figures and tables if needed, but these count against the page limit. Project summaries longer than four pages will be returned without review. Any reference style is acceptable, provided that it is used consistently throughout: but note that references also count against the page limit.

3. A three-page budget request, including justification. We recommend using the Research Office’s budget and budget justification templates for developing this document, though you won’t need to provide that level of detail in the one-page budget document: just the budget for each category (personnel, travel, materials, consultant costs, etc.) and information about how you arrived at your numbers for each category, levels of effort, and so on. Do include fringe benefits for any salary requests and graduate student support. Do not include indirect costs. The budget justification must explain the reason for each line item in the proposed budget, and also how you determined, estimated, or calculated the cost. Proposed costs must conform to all applicable University policies and standard costing procedures.

Unallowable Expenses
Community Changemaker grant funding cannot be used for any of the following:

• Direct funding support for collaborators outside OU

• Capital equipment (items of durable property that cost a minimum of $10,000 and that are expected to have a useful service life of at least one year)

• Conference travel

• Support for graduate students, undergraduate students, and/or postdoctoral researchers who are fully supported on existing research projects. However, if the student or postdoc is only funded for part of the year on one or more existing grants, some or all of their available time can be supported from CCCG funding.