Research With and About Community Engagement
The Research With and About Community Engagement funding opportunity will support original research aimed at empirically exploring community engagement initiatives and organizational change at institutions of higher education in Indiana or the effect community engagement has on students’ success during or after college. Funded research will support Community-Engaged Alliance's goal to “increase rigorous and deep assessment…of community engagement’s collective impact on the challenges facing Indiana” and beyond. This funding opportunity seeks to connect community-engaged scholars, both within higher education and community organizations, with individuals from institutional research or effectiveness offices as a means of supporting their research efforts.
The overall goals of the program include:
- Increase the amount of original research documenting the collective impact of community engagement practices on the challenges facing Indiana.
- Increase the number of published research outputs, traditional and non-traditional, that document research on community-engaged and/or community-based teaching and learning practices and their connection to institutional change and/or student success.
- Strengthen partnerships between community-engaged scholars, both within higher education and community organizations, and institutional research and effectiveness professionals aimed at increasing research about institutional community engagement practices.
The Research With and About Community Engagement seeks to fund two types of research projects:
- Original research that is in partnership with community organizations or community members and is focused on topics, issues, or questions that arise from the community (partnering organization or community at large) and because the community has determined it is important, relevant, or timely.
- Original research that is about the impact of community engagement on organization change at the institution—both higher education and/or community organization institutions—and the impact this has on the institution’s stakeholders.
Funding Award
$5,000
Required Institutional Match
$1,500 or 30% of requested amount
Who Should Apply:
Research Teams made up of any combination of campus stakeholders along with community representatives are encouraged to apply. Eligible campus stakeholders include:
SENIOR ADMINISTRATOR with responsibilities in overseeing university-wide community engagement initiatives
FACULTY from any discipline, and of any rank and is employed at the institution a minimum of 50% FTE
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT PROFESSIONAL OR INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH AND EFFECTIVENESS PROFESSIONAL who is employed at the institution a minimum of 50% FTE
DOCTORAL STUDENT(full- or part-time) from any discipline looking to support their dissertation research
Application Deadlines & Project Timelines
Proposals are accepted once per quarter (in May, August, November, and February) on the second Monday of the month.
Each project lasts about 15-24 months.
Submission Process
Applicants are responsible for proper routing and approval by their institution prior to submission. Detailed instructions on the submission process can be found in the request for proposal and on the main Community-Engaged Alliance Engagement Portal page.
Applications must be submitted via the Community-Engaged Alliance Engagement Portal. We require the Primary Investigator to create their own individual account for submission. Instructions on how to create a user profile can be found here.
Looking for Assistance?
Contact us to learn more or to discuss grant ideas. Our partners get the benefit of our team's expertise in navigating the grant application process, every step of the way.
Recently Funded Projects
Marjorie Schaeffer, assistant professor of psychology at Saint Mary’s College, was awarded a grant worth $5,000 through the Research With and About Community Engagement program from Indiana Campus Compact, a partnership of higher education institutions that prepares college students to advance the public good. Schaeffer and a group of researchers will collaborate on a project titled “Cultivating a Social-Change Orientation Among Faculty Across Campus.”
Mary F. Price, director of faculty development at the IUPUI Center for Service and Learning, was awarded a $5,000 grant from Indiana Campus Compact, a partnership of higher education institutions that prepares college students to advance the public good. Through the grant program, titled Research With and About Community Engagement, Price and a team of researchers will build on a decade’s worth of practitioner-scholarship to conceptualize, evaluate, and document the transformational potential of community-campus partnerships.
Additional Documents
Sample Reporting Guidelines
The Sample Reporting Guidelines are provided as a reference. Those who have received funding should refer to the individualized Reporting Guidelines provided with their funding notification. Contact us if you require another copy of your individualized Reporting Guidelines.