Policy Research Grants Program

Summary

NOTE: The Policy Research Grants Program is not active at this time.  For more information, contact CLOSUP staff.  Information about the PRG program is provided below for archival purposes.

The CLOSUP Policy Research Grants (PRG) program seeks to foster applied research by UM faculty that sheds light on important issues relating to state, local and urban policy. CLOSUP is particularly interested in supporting work of direct relevance to policymakers at the state and local level.

Purpose

The CLOSUP Policy Research Grants (PRG) program seeks to foster applied research by UM faculty that sheds light on important issues relating to state, local and urban policy. CLOSUP is particularly interested in supporting work of direct relevance to policymakers at the state and local level.  While research need not involve a specific Michigan institution or program, it is expected that the results from the research will help inform important policy conversations in Michigan. 

Focus

Each project should be organized around a set of problems or issues that are both theoretically motivated from within one or more academic disciplines, and that are of practical importance to state and/or local policymakers. While projects can focus on any aspect of state, local, and/or urban public policy, CLOSUP is particularly interested in projects that will inform policy conversations and issues related to the state of Michigan. Collaborative and/or interdisciplinary projects are particularly encouraged. Research teams may also include policy professionals, students, and researchers from different universities or other organizations. Funds may be used as seed money or to support ongoing activities. Proposals may request funds for research- and/or outreach-related activities such as graduate student salaries, data collection and management, workshops, conferences, publication preparation, and dissemination of results.

Outreach

A central purpose of CLOSUP is to disseminate the results of academic research to the policy community.  Hence, each proposal must include a description of how the findings of the research will be communicated to a policy audience as well as an academic audience.  Potential dissemination strategies include presentation of the research findings at conferences, workshops or briefing sessions attended by policymakers or publication of a short, non-technical summary of the research findings (in web or paper form).