The Tracy Farmer Institute for Sustainability and the Environment (TFISE) Impact Fund offers one-time funding opportunities of ≤ $1,000 to support environment and sustainability-related research.
As researchers, many of us have had the experience of a relatively small expense standing between us and success.
You need to purchase more materials, but the grant funds for materials are exhausted. You need high-quality transcriptions for a few hours of focus group recordings, but it's not worth pursuing a full grant to cover the cost. Your graduate student needs to attend a conference, but there is no departmental funding left at the end of the year. A seminar speaker is a potential research collaborator or graduate committee member, but their travel costs are higher than expected. You're hosting a research workshop, but don’t have any funds that can be used for refreshments. The TFISE Impact Fund aims to cover these one-time costs that can help keep a project or career moving forward.
Timeline:
- Requests for funding are accepted on a rolling basis throughout the fiscal year.
- You will be notified of a funding decision within 10 business days of submitting your request.
- Funds will be distributed in the fiscal year needed, regardless of when requested.
Examples of appropriate funding needs include but are not limited to:
- speaker fees
- instrumentation repair
- transcription costs
- software purchasing
- conference attendance
- field trip expenses
- refreshments for research events
Funding requests will be evaluated based on the following criteria:
- Relevance to environmental and sustainability research
- Potential for funding to lead to research products or opportunities
- Lack of alternative funding opportunities
If your funding request is denied, we will make every effort to suggest alternative funding sources.
Eligibility requirements:
- All UK faculty, graduate students, post-docs, and staff engaged in any kind of research are eligible to apply.
- Applicants are not required to have a research appointment to apply.
- Applicants can only receive Impact Funding once per fiscal year.
- If a previous application was denied, applicants may apply again during the same fiscal year.