Call for Proposals: UCLA Law School Animal Law and Policy Small Grants Program

Thanks to generous funding from Mr. Bob Barker, UCLA Law School is pleased to offer the Animal Law and Policy Small Grants Program (“UCLA ALP Program”). The UCLA ALP Program exists to encourage new academic empirical research, with the goal of developing better empirical bases from which to understand, evaluate, and pursue animal law reform. Applicants from a variety of academic disciplinary backgrounds, including economics, sociology, demography, social psychology, moral psychology, medicine, plant-based nutritional science, cognitive science, law, public health, and public policy are encouraged to apply. The UCLA ALP Program has two goals:

• Fostering sound empirical -- quantitative or qualitative -- knowledge related to human uses of animals, alternatives to uses of animals, and humans’ relationship to animals, which animal law and policy academics and practitioners could use to develop animal law and policy reform applications;
• Supporting empirical research that enables animal law and policy academics and practitioners to develop increasingly more sophisticated understandings of the impact of public policies and laws that affect animals directly or indirectly.

Eligibility

Advanced-level graduate students are strongly encouraged to apply. Established scholars interested in expanding their non-legal research agenda to include topics related to the UCLA ALP Program’s goals are also welcome. The UCLA ALP Program will not accept applications for support of any type of research on animals or applications from applicants based in foreign countries. Applicants must be affiliated with an accredited academic institution of higher learning. Grant recipients must be affiliated with such an academic institution at the time of receipt of funds and throughout the funded research period.

Budget Information

We anticipate funding five to seven projects with a suggested total budget for individual projects in the range of $1,000 to $4,500. Funds can provide both salary support and costs associated with acquiring and analyzing new or existing data sources. Proposals that are part of larger research initiatives are also welcome. We cannot provide funding for overhead or other indirect costs. Requests for travel funding must be limited to travel necessary to carry out the research project. Project budgets should be for activities that take place within one year or less of receipt of funding. Applicants should consult a tax adviser on any potential tax liabilities stemming from a grant award.

Application Process

The application must include:

1. Project Summary – a 200 word description of the project written for a non-academic audience.
2. Research Proposal – No more than 3 pages (not including list of suggested referees, budget narrative, and human subjects narrative), single-spaced with 1 inch margins around and a font size no smaller than 12 point. The research proposal should include the following sections:
1. Research Aims: Succinctly describe the specific research aims of the project.
2. Project Description: Describe the project and include the following information:
1. Significance of the project, including:
1. Significance to research: discuss knowledge to be gained and how it is relevant to the scholarly literature
2.  Relevance: describe how the project will contribute to at least one of the two goals of the UCLA ALP Program (above). The UCLA Law School Animal Law and Policy Small Grants Program: Advancing academic scholars hip to support law and policy reform to benefit animals. UCLA School of Law Box 951476 Los Angeles, CA 90095-1476 alp@law.ucla.edu
2. Research strategy/methodology, including a description of the project’s design, sampling and/or data collection procedures, and plan for data analysis;
3.  Plan for dissemination of results including expected research publications. Note: Investigators will be required to submit a summary of results for possible inclusion on the UCLA ALP Program website.
3. Applicant: Describe the qualifications of the applicant(s) and applicant’s organization to successfully complete the proposed research project.
1. List of Suggested Referees- List of two academic referees qualified to review the research proposal, including title, contact information (preferably email), and nature of academic relationship to the applicant (e.g., chair of doctoral committee, professor of course taken, research collaborator).
2. Budget and Budget Narrative- Budgets should outline the amount requested and the basis for all cost estimates. The budget should reflect resources necessary to complete the proposed project in a timely way. Please list other funding applications and sources that could or will in fact support the project, if it is part of a larger initiative. If the overall project budget is greater than the request to the UCLA ALP Program, please describe other sources of funding and the amount of funding those sources will or can be expected to provide. Having other sources of funding is not an impediment to receipt of a UCLA ALP Program grant, if additional funding will result in a better research product. For in-kind contributions, provide a letter from the institution providing these funds.
3. Human Subjects Narrative- Indicate if the project involves human subjects, and if so, identify the Institutional Review Board (“IRB”) responsible and what IRB process (e.g., expedited review) will be used. If human subject(s) approval is necessary, funds will not be released until IRB approval is obtained.
4. Curriculum Vitae for all key personnel involved in the project. Applications must be received by October 15, 2017, via email or mail, to be timely for the first application cycle. Awards will be announced by December 20, 2017. Early application submissions are encouraged and appreciated. For this first grant cycle, particularly strong applications may be funded on a rolling basis.
5. Please check that your application contains all the required information and send the completed application to:

• UCLA Law School Animal Law and Policy Small Grants Program
  UCLA School of Law
  Box 951476
  Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1476
  alp@law.ucla.edu

APPLICATION DUE DATE: OCTOBER 15, 2017 
For questions, please contact the UCLA ALP Program through email: alp@law.ucla.edu.