Grants and Contracts Office
The Office of Research Administration supports the mission of the college by providing administrative and management services for sponsored projects. Sponsored projects include grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements–from both the public and private sectors–which support research, instructional and service projects.
Our goal is to provide effective and efficient support services throughout the life of all sponsored projects (pre-award, post-award, and close out). We also work to ensure compliance with Federal regulations and requirements as well as with the policies, procedures, and guidelines of the University.
- Pre-Award Services: provide proposal and budget development support services to faculty and staff necessary to identify, develop, and submit external grant and contract applications, and administers internal funding opportunities.
- Post-Award Services: provide fiscal support necessary to responsibly manage funds awarded, consistent with University policy, requirements of funding sources, and federal regulations and time/effort reporting.
- Research Compliance: provide information and training for successful preparation for and ethical implementation of research within federal, state, local and institutional regulatory practices including, but not limited to, protection of human and animal subjects, hazardous materials, biosafety and HIPAA.
- Limited Submissions: work with the Office of the Vice President for Research to respond to research funding opportunities for which a limited number of submissions are permitted from Penn State.
- COINS: Help faculty with disclosures of significant financial interests and all annual updates for COINS (Conflict Of INterest System).
- Conflict of Interest: help with individual and institutional conflict of interest policies, guidelines, and procedures and strives to ensure compliance with all federal regulations and University policies.
- Funding Opportunities: help faculty find targeted funding opportunities.
If you are starting the proposal process, please complete the "Intent to Submit Proposal" form to inform our office. To ensure the best possible service from the Grants and Contracts Office, please complete this form at least four weeks prior to submission.
Active Awards in the College |
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Recent Awarded Research Spotlight
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Dr. Cristin HallSociety for the Study of School Psychology Factors Affecting Implementation of an Evidence-Based Intervention in Child Care Centers: A Mixed Methods Study Center-based child care programs serve a majority of preschoolers in the United States, but evidence based supports for school readiness are rarely evaluated in this context. The REDI-BKC (REsearchBased, Developmentally Informed - Better Kid Care) program is an evidence-based school readiness intervention currently being evaluated in community-based child care centers. With a unique model for sustainable professional development and coaching, REDI-BKC may enhance teaching quality and in turn boost the readiness skills of at-risk children; however, whether child care teachers and their directors are able to implement the evidence-based program with fidelity while working in a high-stress context is
unknown. This study applies a mixed methods design to understand how factors specific to the experience of child care personnel affect their ability to implement an evidence-based school readiness intervention with fidelity. Teachers’ and directors’ experiences will be captured using qualitative interviews, and implementation fidelity is measured quantitatively within the purview of the larger effectiveness trial. This study adds to the field of school psychology by providing a holistic perspective about school readiness interventions, which is an increasing focus for school psychology prevention and intervention research.
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Dr. Rebeca TarlauSpencer Postdoctoral Fellowship: Teacher Activism Across the Americas: Union Politics and Educational Change in Brazil, Mexico, and the United States Under what conditions do unions start acting beyond their economic interest and become broader actors for social change? In this study, I answer this question by analyzing instances of “oppositional unionism” within teachers' unions in Brazil, Mexico, and the United States. Oppositional unionism occurs when union members come together to contest the leadership of their union and transform the union’s daily practices, priorities, and demands. By examining the diversity of internal groups and theories of social change within unions, I contest the assumption that teachers’ unions are unitary actors simply “blocking” education reform efforts. Instead, drawing on the labor studies and social movement literature, I argue that unions are complex organizations that reflect their political-institutional contexts, which shape their forms of political engagement. This research is comparative and ethnographic, focusing on the internal politics of teachers’ unions in three countries. Through participant observation, interviews, and archival research, I examine the relationship between teachers’ unions, the state, and political parties; internal union divisions; the moments when teachers organize for broader demands; and how union disputes influence education. This project will shift our understanding of teachers’ unions as simply “self-interested” or “selfless,” to a more nuanced assessment of the role teachers play in politics, the diversity of political groups within unions, and the ways that teachers’ unions in diverse contexts go beyond self-interest and become social movement actors |
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Dr. Fran ArbaughCollaborative Research: Early Field Experiences for Prospective STEM Teachers: Scaling the UTE Model Among many dimensions of improving STEM education in the U.S., this research addresses two of particular urgency: (1) improving the preparation of secondary STEM teachers and (2) improving STEM learning and learning environments. The proposed project will assess the effectiveness of an early field experience model for secondary prospective teachers (PSTs), initially developed and tested at Michigan State University with prior NSF support. The model, called the University Teaching Experience (UTE), involves mathematics teacher educators serving as mentor teachers for PSTs as they teach in an undergraduate gateway mathematics course. This IUSE Development and Implementation for Engaged Student Learning project will have two broad aims. First, the project will involve collaboration across three different teacher preparation institutions to assess the portability of the UTE model to a wider range of university-based teacher preparation institutions. Second, the project will empirically assess the effectiveness of the UTE model in supporting the development of PSTs' understanding of the practices of eliciting and responding to student thinking, both of which are high-leverage teaching practices and are essential for achieving ambitious learning outcomes. |
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Dr. Gabriela RichardSpencer Foundation: Cultivating Inclusive Ecologies of Learning through Making and Gaming: Interrogating Culturally-Sustaining Pedagogical Approaches and Technology-specific Material Affordances for Learning and Diverse Engagement
Despite influential theories and designs, research and practice continues to face significant questions around key crucial relationships between the scale of influence of informal or interestdriven technology activities to lifelong pursuits, and the complexities involved in scaffolding culturally-sustaining, equitable and accessible STEM learning in informal making and gaming contexts. For instance, youth-supportive content creation communities, such as Scratch, have become increasing critiqued for agnostic design, while commercial content creation platforms that have traditionally operated from content agnostic positions have become increasingly leveraged for formal and informal education. The proposed research for this project will integrate this collective body of work to interrogate how culturally-situated tools and culturally-responsive practices are (or are not) designed within wide-reaching, informal learning ecologies around making and gaming, how learners respond to those designs, and how we can bring effective applications from more formally-influenced environments to these naturalistic, interest-driven ones. Richard will utilize naturalistic observational techniques, mixed methods and iterative design-based research techniques to (1) better understand the ways that learners integrate playing and making in their naturalistic learning ecologies, by utilizing livestreaming as a participatory learning and teaching tool; (2) interrogate the affordances and limitations for culturally sustaining practices in informal learning, including in naturalistic learning ecologies; and (3) explore alternative models for fostering inclusivity by utilizing and reframing implicit values in digital media and content creation tools. Results will provide groundwork for scalable interventions aimed at designing informal learning environments and systems for socioculturally diverse and prosocially supportive computational participation and STEM pathways. |
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Documents and Resources Intent to Submit and FAQ Contact Us
Pre & Post Funding Administration Top 10 FAQ Education Research Office
Find Funding Intent to Submit 240 Chambers Building
Proposal Training Resources Research Space L-OER@lists.psu.edu
Other Useful Links Export Control Compliance 814-865-0596
Suggestions for Research Office |
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