[Mediaresearchhub-News] Media / communications policy grants available: CFP due December 4

[Rik Panganiban]

Collaborative 
Grants in Media and Communications

Call for Proposals Due December 4, 
2006

Necessary Knowledge for a Democratic 
Public Sphere Program 

http://www.ssrc.org/programs/media

 

WHAT: 


The SSRC is pleased to launch its next round of its 
small grants project for academic-advocacy collaboration in the media and 
communications field. This round will provide grants of up to $7,500 for 
research that supports efforts to change the media / telecommunications infrastructure, practices, policies or content. The grants 
are intended for short-term work, completable and usable by advocacy partners 
within the next 4-12 months. Proposals for this round must be submitted by 
December 4, 2006 by 5PM EST in 
order to be eligible for funding. Grant recipients will be announced on December 
20, 2006. (Note that proposals submitted 
during the rolling submission period from September will be also be considered. 
There is no need to re-submit, unless you wish 
to.)

 

WHO: 


Proposals must 
be:

 

(1)       
Submitted by a US-based nonprofit advocacy, 
organizing or community group working on media and/or telecommunications issues. 
Groups with nonprofit fiscal sponsorship are also eligible. (A limited number of 
international non-profit organizations will be solicited by invitation 
only.)

(2)       
Structured as a partnership with an academic 
researcher based at a university, college or other research institution. This 
can include advanced graduate students.  

 

There are no citizenship requirements for participants 
in these projects.  

 

CRITERIA: 


Please review the attached list of criteria carefully 
before preparing your proposal. 


 

All projects 
must:

·  Be 
strategically useful in their proposed advocacy and/or organizing 
context.

·  Produce 
scholarship that meets academic standards.

·  Have a 
realistic workflow and timeframe.

 

The selection committee will also 
favor proposals that: 

·  Have a 
clear plan for the application of the findings of the research in policy-making 
processes or advocacy campaigns to change the media / telecommunications infrastructure, practices, policies or content. Scholarship 
that facilitates field-building (i.e. curriculum development, tool-building, 
analysis of best practice) will also be considered.

·  Be 
useful for organizations, communities, and advocacy efforts beyond the applicant 
organization.

·  Address 
issues of disparate impact on communities on the basis of race, class, gender, 
ethnicity, age or other identity/status category. 

·  Build 
capacity—skills, tools, experience, access to data sets—within the "user" 
organization and/or community. 

·  Use 
methods or models of research that have proved effective in similar 
contexts.

·  Reflect 
diversity in the staff or group involved with the project. 

·  The 
committee will seek to fund a diverse mix of projects, including consideration 
of regional diversity, issue-area, scope (local, state-wide, national, etc), 
type of organization (national lobbying, grassroots community, transnational, 
etc.) and goals and methods (e.g., capacity-building, policy interventions, 
project or movement analysis, surveys and/or data collection, 
etc.)

 

Bonus points for proposals 
that:

·  Involve 
collaboration between two or more advocacy/community groups in the project 
design and the plan of use for the research.

·  Use 
participatory methods to engage community and/or advocacy group members in 
framing the questions, data collection, and/or analysis.

·  Are 
related to issues of telephony, publishing, privacy, intellectual property, 
independent media, or spectrum.

 

See the list of past 
grant recipients and sample topics below.

 

 

PROPOSAL 
STRUCTURE:

Please submit proposals via email to mediahub at ssrc.org by December 4, 2006. 
Please send a project outline of no more than 5 pages 
including:

 

A short description 
(max. 100 words) of how the research will be used to advance public-interest 
change in the media/communications arena. 
A description of the 
research project (max. 1000 words), covering both process and outcomes, and 
addressing the criteria above. 
A description of the 
proposing organization (max. 200 words), including mission, constituency, 
geographical scope of work, and annual budget. 
The name, 
institutional affiliation(s) and research experience of the academic 
partner. 
A project 
timeline. 
 

Plus:

The researcher’s 
CV. 
A budget of up to 
$7500, with itemized major expenditures.  If the project draws on other 
resources or financing, please indicate them. 

 

 

BACKGROUND: 


The Collaborative Grants project is part of the 
Necessary Knowledge for a Democratic Public Sphere (NKDPS) Program of the Social 
Science Research Council, working in partnership with CIMA: Center for 
International Media Action and the McGannon Center for Communications Research at Fordham University. The program is funded by the 
Media, Arts and Culture program of the Ford 
Foundation.

 

The NKDPS program is launching a series of funding 
opportunities to help increase the production, use and capacity for research to 
serve public-interest advocacy and organizing around media and communications. 
These mini-grants for collaborative advocacy- academic partnerships have been 
initiated to meet the short-term research needs of advocacy and policy actors.  


 

To view past submissions that were approved in the first 
round, go to: http://www.ssrc.org/programs/media/collaborative_grants/smallgrants.page 
. Note that any new applications do not have to work within the exact same range 
of topics as we encourage a diversity of issues as long as they are related to 
the media and communications field.   

 

Several other funding projects will be launched in the 
next months, including a "Research Bounties" project that place prizes on 
advocacy-defined research and a larger program to support longer-term 
advocacy-academic research partnerships and 
training.

 

For more information on the program, see http://www.ssrc.org/programs/media.  
For all program-related inquiries, please write to mediahub at ssrc.org 


 

Subscribe to MediaResearchHub-News for program updates, 
research funding opportunities, and conference information at http://listserve.ssrc.org/mailman/listinfo/mediaresearchhub-news

 

 

SAMPLE PROJECT 
TOPICS:

 

Proposals might seek to:

 

Measure the success 
or failure of mainstream media in advancing different public interest goals or 
values. 
 

Measure the impact 
of existing “alternative”/ community media systems on communities, public 
discourse, or democratic processes. 
 

Develop better, 
actionable accounts of the role of ‘new media’ in people’s lives.  

 

Analyze policymaking 
and/or regulatory systems. 
 

Analyze emerging 
systems, frameworks, or models of media and communications that transcend the 
current regulatory framework. 
 

Analyze economic 
models, industry structure, markets, or audiences for different kinds of 
media. 
 

Create analytical 
tools or research resources for use by advocates, communities, or the 
public. 
 

Document or evaluate 
advocacy or organizing strategies around communications and media 
issues. 
 

 

 

Rik 
Panganiban

Program 
Coordinator

Necessary Knowledge 
for a Democratic Public Sphere

Social Science 
Research Council

810 Seventh Avenue, 31st Floor

New 
York NY 10019

PH: 212.377.2700 x 
644

FX: 
212.377.2727

email: panganiban at ssrc.org

Web: www.ssrc.org/programs/media

 




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