PREP Program
Now Accepting Applications: ISCE PREP Program: Foundation Funding
The Institute for Society, Culture, and Environment (ISCE), a Virginia Tech research investment institute, is offering the Preparing your Research for an Extramural Proposal program for a cohort of faculty members whose work is grounded in the social sciences or humanities and who are planning to submit a competitive research grant proposal or fellowship application to a non-federally funded foundation (e.g. Spencer Foundation, W.T. Grant Foundation, American Council of Learned Societies) within the next nine months.
The program is intended for faculty who are relatively new to foundation funding, or whose prior foundation proposals for which they have served as PI or a co-investigator have not been funded, but who are actively pursuing an externally-funded research/scholarly agenda. Faculty selected for the program will receive ISCE mentoring and assistance to prepare the proposal to be submitted to a foundation of their choice
Spring 2026 Program Overview
This semester-long, structured program consists of didactic and interactive sessions where cohort members learn (a) the grantsmanship process, including how to write a compelling narrative and develop a budget (if necessary); and (b) to craft a competitive grant or fellowship proposal.
Semester activities include:
- Development of a compelling 1 to 2-page concept paper that presents the project idea for communicating with a program officer or foundation official;
- Attendance at mandatory, in-person sessions every 2-3 weeks of approximately 1.5-2 hours each to discuss grant writing basics and review funding agency requirements as well as sessions focused on writing, reviewing, critiquing, and discussing cohort member proposals; and
- Development of a complete draft of a proposal to be refined for submission to the identified foundation by August 2026 (or soon thereafter, dependent on organization deadline).
Cohort members are required to spend time outside of sessions on tailored assignments and preparing their proposals and brief written reviews of their peers' proposals. The ISCE leadership team will provide group and tailored mentoring throughout the semester.
Eligibility
Faculty from any department/program across Virginia Tech’s campuses whose research addresses significant societal concerns that impact people and places through a social science or humanist lens on topics of historical, cultural or social importance are eligible to apply. The PI is expected to be a full-time, tenure-track/tenured faculty member or a research faculty member with ORI approved PI status.
Requirements
Award recipients must commit to attending scheduled in-person meetings, contacting program officers as appropriate, providing feedback on proposal ideas and drafts of cohort members in a timely manner, and submitting a grant proposal or fellowship application by August 2026 (or soon thereafter) for which they will serve as PI. In addition, award recipients will provide ISCE with an annual report detailing activities leading up to the submission of the proposal as well as publications, presentations, and any other grant or fellowship submissions for three years after completion of the program.
To Apply
Please use the Resources menu on the right to find instructions for completing the application components and to download the required cover sheet.
Timeline
The deadline for applications is December 4, 2025. A single pdf file of the application [last name_ISCE_PREP.pdf] should be emailed to Yancey Crawford (yanceyc3@vt.edu). Notification of acceptance will be made by December 16, 2025.
Review Criteria
A committee consisting of the ISCE leadership team and affiliated faculty with diverse expertise in different focus areas will review the proposals. The review criteria will include a brief overview of the faculty’s research/scholarly agenda, the scientific merit, impact and feasibility of the proposed idea for which they anticipate pursing foundation funding, relevance to ISCE’s mission and thematic areas and/or the University’s Research Frontiers. Past recipients of ISCE awards will also be evaluated on outcomes of previous ISCE support.
Selected Applicants
ISCE anticipates selecting 6-10 applicants to participate in the program. Selected participants will:
- Receive group and tailored mentoring from ISCE leadership;
- Participate in in-person proposal writing seminars that will include comprehensive instruction on the details of successful proposal development and resources of the University that support proposal submission;
- Participate in in-person working sessions with other cohort members to share progress and obtain feedback for continuous improvement; and
- Have their proposal reviewed by an internal panel of experts (i.e., mock panel review).
In addition, the internal panel of experts and cohort members will select the top proposal to receive a small amount of funding to jumpstart their proposed project.
Questions
Contact Yancey Crawford (yanceyc3@vt.edu)
ISCE PREP Cohorts
Click on the tabs below to view the recipients and project titles of the past ISCE PREP cohorts.
- Austin Gray, assistant professor of Biological Sciences in the College of Science, "Assessing the Occurrence and Impact of CECs in Floodwaters in Disadvantaged Communities in Hampton Roads: An Ecological and Environmental Justice Approach"
- Isabel Prochner, assistant professor of Industrial Design in the College of Architecture, Arts & Design, "Design-driven methods and technologies enabling more effective, safe, and comfortable chest binding for transgender people"
- Rosanna Breaux, assistant professor of Psychology in the College of Science, "Validation of the Parent Emotion Socialization in Daily Life Measure"
- Zehra Gulseven, assistant professor of Psychology in the College of Science, "Examining Prosocial Development from Middle Childhood through Adolescence"
- Zhenshan Chen, assistant professor of Agricultural and Applied Economics in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, "Fair and Viable Carbon Markets for Farmers: Empowering Sustainable Agriculture Practitioners"
To read the VT News article, click here.
- Sweta Baniya, assistant professor of English in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, “Compounding Crisis and Communication: Strengthening Transnational Disaster Response and Community Resilience via Social Justice Oriented Crisis Communication”
- Rachel Cheng, assistant professor of food science and technology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Case-control Study of Foodborne and Non-Foodborne Acquired Salmonellosis in Children”
- Shaddi Hasan, assistant professor of computer science in the College of Engineering, “Advancing Digital Equity through Scalable Techniques for Improving Broadband Data Collection and Integrity”
- Rachelle Kuehl, research scientist for the Center for Rural Education, “Teaching Race in Rural Places: Investigating Contextualized Challenges, Successes, and Solutions in Contentious Times”
- Jessica Rich, research assistant professor for the Center for Coastal Studies, “A Comparative Study of Environmental Decision-Making in Coastal Virginia and Greenland”
- Ruichuan Zhang, assistant professor for the Myers-Lawson School of Construction in the College of Engineering, “Assessing Adaptive Buildings for Inclusive Disaster Response”
To read the VT News article, click here.
- Elinor Benami, assistant professor of agricultural and applied economics in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Reassessing drought indicators used to finance relief payments in the U. S. Crop Insurance Program.”
- Heather Davis, assistant professor of psychology in the College of Science, “Investigating shame as a mechanism underlying eating disorder comorbidity.”
- Junghwan Kim, assistant professor of geography in the College of Natural Resources and Environment, “Assessing urban walkability with an artificial intelligence (AI) method: A case study in small-sized U.S. cities.”
- Karin Kitchens, assistant professor of political science in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Science, “Identifying variation in juvenile sentencing.”
- Michael G. Sorice, associate professor of forest resources and environmental conservation in the College of Natural Resources and Environment, “Ecosystem stewardship as a policy target: Cultural expectations for private lands in the United States.”
- Hannah M. Sunderman, assistant professor of agricultural, leadership, and community education in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, “An intersectional approach to leader(ship) identity development through meaning making.”
- Clara H. Suong, assistant professor of political science in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Science, “Popular but unimportant? Power and language in digital diplomacy.”
To read the VT News article, click here.