The UGA River Basin Center announces the annual call for proposals for John Spencer Research Grants to graduate students. This program was initiated in 2017 with a contribution from Kathelen Amos in honor of her son, former RBC master’s student John Spencer. Ongoing funding is provided by donations to the RBC.
Research grants are available to all students affiliated with the River Basin Center. Affiliate status is open to any graduate student at the University of Georgia, including those in professional programs, as long as their research and/or interests align with the RBC mission, which is to connect water-related research at UGA with societal management and policy needs. Students can request affiliate status through the submission form. This can be done concurrent with submitting a proposal.
Research grants are intended to support a student’s research activities, including travel to conduct research and to present research at conferences.
Projects should advance the RBC’s goal of sustainable management of aquatic resources and ecosystems, but can be in any discipline. Funds can be used for research supplies, travel expenses associated with research, hourly wages for undergraduate research assistants, and graduate stipends. Conference travel funding is limited to $1000.
If you are unsure if funds can be requested for specific items or activities, please contact Krista Capps (kcapps@uga.edu).
Proposal Format (2-page limit, exclusive of budget and references):
- Title of proposal
- Applicant’s name, email address, department, degree program
- Introduction, problem statement, and research question(s) to be tested. Applicants should emphasize the work to be funded by the proposal but also explain how it fits into the broader context of their thesis, dissertation, or other project, as appropriate. Research questions should be specific, and the scope should be appropriate to the scale of the project.
- Research plan and methods. Be specific, but concise.
- Budget with justification. Budgets cannot exceed $2,500 (a proposal for conference travel is limited to $1,000). If the proposed work requires a budget greater than the limit, briefly explain what other funds will be used to complete the work. Please review the above information for travel-related research costs.
- References
Note: Students requesting funding for conference travel should use sections 3 (Introduction, etc.) and 4 (Research plan and methods) to detail the information they will be presenting at their conference.
Proposals must be accompanied by a brief (one page limit; one paragraph is sufficient) endorsement from the applicant’s advisor or other faculty sponsor of the work.
Proposals must be submitted using this form by midnight on the due date.
This year, the due date is January 30, 2026. Decisions will be announced two to three weeks later, and funding will be made available shortly thereafter. Funds will need to be spent by June 30, 2027, unless special arrangements are made. You must contact Krista Capps (kcapps@uga.edu) within 48 hours of receiving the award if you need an extension to spend the funds, or we may not be able to accommodate your request.
Proposals should be submitted as a single PDF file via this form.
Proposals will be evaluated by volunteer faculty affiliates of the RBC who have no conflicts of interest with applicants. Proposals will be evaluated both on quality of the project (potential contribution of the proposed work and relevance to the RBC’s mission) as well as quality of the proposal itself (i.e., how well it communicates the content and whether it includes all necessary components). Reviewers may secondarily consider the budget in order to maximize the number of proposals that can be funded. In some cases, partial awards may be offered. You may not use generative AI to write your proposals outside of using spell check in common word processing software.
Submission form link: https://forms.gle/7BD2PEuUBaSxHD3WA
Link to evaluation rubric if you would like to see how your proposal will be evaluated:https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1k7sBAFbdR6zniZ5GCV_OhK5acmHU61OGo2Pu0eEY6aE/edit?usp=sharing
You may view some examples of previously funded proposals here:https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1X6rPyQREdrjHHu8QOWtFlSr2tsCUnAbm?usp=sharing