Researcher-Practitioner Partnership (RPP) Grant Program

The RCHSS Researcher-Practitioner Partnership grant program supports the development of relationships that have the promise to produce robust research outcomes.  The ways researchers and practitioners work together are many and varied (e.g., consulting relationships, training partnership, or focused research projects).  What they share is a focus on leveraging and integrating expertise possessed by both research and practice.  Researchers who partner with practitioners are well equipped to understand local contexts, to identify pressing questions, and to produce informative and actionable findings.  Practitioners, for their part, can more easily access, interpret, and use research evidence in ways that benefit the communities they engage.

RPP projects can take many forms.  They can involve partnerships whose activities include inter alia conducting research, collecting data, reviewing processes, evaluating current programs, and/or piloting new programs.  Partners can include practitioners in public, nonprofit, or private agencies.  Partners can be located in the US or abroad.

Building research-practice partnerships often require significant investment.  It can take time to identity partnership opportunities, and it can take resources to establish the infrastructure needed to grow a relationship.  The RCHSS RPP fund is designed to support faculty efforts to build research teams that bring academic scholarship together with practitioners and members of the community.  

A RCHSS RPP grant is not an end in itself.  The goal of the program is to cultivate and support robust relationships that can be leveraged for extramural funding.  As such, recipients of RPP funding commit to developing a project for grant or foundation submission within 1 year of the funding’s conclusion.

• Eligibility: RCHSS full-time tenure or tenure-track faculty
• Funding: Up to $10,000
• Focus: Promote researcher-practitioner partnerships (RPPs) whose aim is to secure extramural funding
• Deadline: October 31 (Fall) & January 15 (Spring)

• Applicants must be tenured or tenure-track faculty member in RCHSS, with preference given to assistant and associate professors.
• RPP team must include at least one (1) RCHSS-affiliated researcher and at least one (1) practitioner from a public, nonprofit, or private agency.
• There is a limit of one (1) award per fiscal year.  

• Although intended to promote research partnerships, only RCHSS faculty may receive funding.
• Funds may be used for travel to make connections with practitioners. This includes flights, mileage, lodging, per diems, or other costs associated with eligible travel.
• Funds may be used for equipment, materials, and technology purchases essential to the project.
• Funds may be used for June compensation (subject to 33 1/3 % summer limit).
• Funds may not be used for faculty salaries or to secure course reassignments during fall or spring semesters.

NOTE: Funds must be expensed during the fiscal year in which they are awarded and must adhere to RCHSS year-end purchasing deadlines.

The application should be composed in an MS-Word compatible format using 12-point fonts and 1” margins.  Text should be double-spaced.

1. Cover Page: Title of the project, the names of partnering researchers and practitioners, degrees, and institutional affiliations (with full addresses, telephone numbers, and email addresses).
2. Abstract (250 words max): Describe the primary objectives of the project, the significance of the project, and key deliverables.
3. Project Narrative (2 pages max):  The narrative should include the following in clearly identifiable sections.
   1. Background Statement: What is the project or research question? Why is it significant? Include a brief statement on current approaches to the topic, identify existing challenges or limitations of the current approaches, and explain how the proposed partnership addresses those challenges.
   2. Statement of Objectives: How do you expect to leverage the researcher-practitioner partnership to execute the project?  What are the expected deliverables?  Avoiding unnecessary jargon, explain your approach and anticipated outputs/results. 
   3. Plan of Work: What is the project timeline? Provide a plan for meeting objectives, with an explanation of procedures, activities, risks, timeline, and milestones.  If appropriate, explain the plan for human/animal use and safety. Identify the contribution of each partner and provide a clear plan of collaboration.
4. Plans for Obtaining External Funding (1 page max): What are your follow-on plans?  Please provide the following: 1) The name and URLs for agency/foundation you plan to approach, 2) an estimate of the funding to be requested from the entity, 3) an indication of any interactions you have already had with these entities, and 4) applicable submission deadlines.  If considering multiple funding agencies, please provide above information for each.
5. Selected Bibliography (1 page max)
6. Budget with Justification (1 page max)
7. CV or Biographical Sketch(es) (@ 2 pages max): Each RPP participant should provide a current CV or biographical sketch.  Faculty applicants are encouraged to follow NSF or NIH format.
8. Statement on Human Subjects: All research involving human subjects must have IRB approval. While proposal that have not yet undergone review will be considered for funding, no funds will be disbursed until the project is approved.

• Semester
  Deadline
• Fall
  October 31
• Spring
  January 15

SUBMIT YOUR Spring 2023 APPLICATION*

NOTE: Proposals will be reviewed in the order received and all support is subject to available funding.

*Link not working? Materials should be submitted via email to RCHSSresearch@kennesaw.edu).  The email subject line should read “RCHSS RPP Proposal."

Proposals will be evaluated on the basis of: project feasibility; intellectual merit; clarity of objectives, methods, and anticipated results; reasonableness of costs; qualifications of personnel, including familiarity with the relevant literature, data, and methods to be used; demonstrated organizational capacity for – and commitment to – the success of the researcher-practitioner partnership; and the potential for outputs to serve as the foundation for a larger-scale, externally funded project.  

• Funded investigators commit to present their research at a seminar, workshop, or other event, if requested.
• Funded investigators agree to have research summarized in an RCHSS publication, if requested.
• Funded investigators agree to participate in follow-on activities such as efforts to support future awardees, if requested.
• Projects must be completed by June 30, 2023.  Extensions cannot be granted.
• Funded investigators commit to acknowledge RCHSS support in any papers and publication ensuing from the research.
• Funded investigators commit to providing copies of articles, chapters, or other scholarly outputs supported by the award, including any publicity materials, press clippings, or reviews.

A completion report is due to the RCHSS within 30 days of the project end-date.  Please email to RCHSSResearch@kennesaw.edu.

• The report shall include evidence of activities undertaken under the auspices of the funding, including meeting, preliminary studies undertaken, etc.
• The report shall also provide an accounting of expenditures.
• The report shall indicate plans to submit research project to an extramural funding agency, including a timeline.

A project cannot be “closed” until the report has been received.  An investigator with an “open” project is not eligible for additional RCHSS research funding.