The Smith Richardson Foundation’s Domestic Public Policy Program seeks to support the work of the next generation of public policy researchers and analysts. In 2008, the Foundation will award at least three research grants in the amount of $60,000 each to individuals who are interested in conducting research and writing on domestic public policy issues. Grantees are expected to produce a book or an article suitable for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. The grant can be used to cover the salary costs of the researcher and to underwrite research costs, such as travel, research assistance, and data acquisition. Each grant will be paid directly to, and should be administered by, the institution at which the researcher works.

Procedure
Applicants should submit to the Foundation a one-page executive summary and a ten-page research proposal.  The proposal should include the following sections: (1) a brief description of the issue or the problem that the project will examine; (2) a description of the background and body of knowledge on the issue to be addressed by the project; (3) a description of the personnel and the methods (e.g., research questions, research strategy, analytical approach, tentative organization of the final product, etc.); and (4) a brief explanation of the policy making implications of the project’s prospective findings.  In addition to this proposal, the applicant should include a curriculum vitae and a detailed budget explaining how the grant would be used.  Applicants should follow the Domestic Public Policy Fellowship program Proposal Template, which appears on the Foundation’s web site (www.srf.org).

Project Criteria
Preference will be given to proposals that address policy issues that have been priority areas for the Foundation’s Domestic Public Policy Program during the past three years: education and school reform; income support and anti-poverty policy; child and youth development; public finance; policies related to public entitlement programs, including Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid; urban and criminal justice policy; regulatory policy, including environmental policy; immigration policy; and the political process.

Proposals will be evaluated based on the following criteria: (1) the relevance of the analysis and findings to current and future domestic public policy debates; (2) the potential of the project to innovate in the field and to contribute to the literature on the chosen topic; (3) the degree to which research questions and analytical methods are well defined; (4) the degree to which the project will develop valuable new data or information; and (5) the publication record of the applicant.

Eligibility
Fellowships will only be awarded to individual researchers and not to research teams.  An applicant must have received a Ph.D. after January 1, 2002.  He or she must hold a position as a full-time faculty member at a college or university or as a full-time fellow at a public policy think tank or research organization in the United States.  An applicant should explain how he or she meets these requirements in the cover letter to his or her research proposal.

Deadline
Public Policy Research Fellowship Program proposals must be postmarked by June 30, 2008.  Applicants will be notified of the Foundation’s decision by October 31, 2008.  Grant funds will become available to researchers by November 15, 2008. The Foundation does not accept proposals submitted via e-mail or fax. 

Please mail one copy of your proposal to:

Public Policy Research Fellowship Program
Smith Richardson Foundation
60 Jesup Road
Westport, CT 06880


If you have any further questions, please consult the list of frequently asked questions on our web site. The Foundation will not provide applicants with any comments on their proposals either before submission or during the evaluation process.