Rolling EDF-Cornell Fast Grants
Overview
We understand that transformative change often requires acting in the moment, when opportunities for science, defense of science in U.S. Federal policymaking, or policy engagement are both truly urgent and significant. Therefore, in addition to our annual Environmental Defense Fund-Cornell Request for Proposals that funds projects via a Research Track or Impact Track, we now offer up to four EDF-Cornell Fast Grants for $5-25K each academic year, providing the agility and support needed to deliver meaningful results when timing is critical. We will endeavor to review and respond to these proposals within two weeks and will make funding available as soon as possible thereafter.
Purpose
The Rolling EDF-Cornell Fast Grants program provides flexible funding to support EDF and Cornell teams to collaboratively address time-sensitive, short-term (less than 12 months) opportunities with concrete deliverables.
Funding Amount
$5-$25K each
Typical Activities
Grants may support activities such as convening time-critical workshops, opportunistically collecting data, meet policy requests for information or comment opportunities, or capitalizing on opportunities to engage policymakers.
How to Apply
Please use this online Proposal form to submit your proposal.
Proposal Narrative (required)
Applicants must address the following within a 2-page limit (excludes figures, citations, budget)
Applicants must address the following:
- Opportunity: Describe the specific, urgent, real-world impact opportunity – such as responding to a government request for information, addressing an upcoming legislative or regulatory change, contributing to a fast-moving public policy debate, or capturing critical data to inform decision-making during a narrow time window – and explain why immediate action is needed.
- Deliverables: Clearly outline the specific knowledge products or outputs (e.g., open letters, policy briefs, workshops, events, videos, reports) that the EDF and Cornell collaborative team plans to produce.
- Outcomes: Clearly explain the expected results or impact that would be achieved by meeting this timely demand.
- Timeline:
- Provide a timeline for the intended activities and deliverables
- Link timeline with the specific motivating opportunity
Budget and Justification (required)
Use this budget template for funding requested for the Cornell co-PI (where applicable); save budget as “[YEAR]-EDF-CU-YourLastName.XLSX”
Work with Brice Kayiranga (bkayiranga@edf.org) to develop an EDF budget for funding requested for the EDF co-PI (where applicable); attach a pdf of the EDF budget form to the proposal submission form.
Use this budget justification template | Include budget template at the end of your proposal PDF packet
- The Excel budget should be submitted as a separate file when you submit your proposal.
- The budget justification should be included at the end of your proposal. The budget justification does not count against your proposal page count.
- Please follow the budget and justification templates carefully and provide the requested level of detail.
- Indicative budget guidance:
- Funds may be used to cover: personnel (excluding faculty salary), travel, supplies, equipment, and any other relevant costs.
- For Cornell PIs: Please note that Cornell Atkinson requires a cost share for tuition in line with sponsored research awards such as NSF. If graduate student tuition is built into the budget, the total tuition cost incurred must be cost-shared equally by Cornell Atkinson and your department or unit.
- Funds may not be used to cover faculty salary (including summer salary), laptops (unless it is dedicated to project work only), and staff bonuses.
- This is not an exhaustive list – please contact us with specific questions.
- For Cornell PIs: Cornell Atkinson will transfer allocated funds to an account in the Cornell proposer’s department. These funds have no indirect cost recovery associated with them.
- For EDF co-PIs: Awarded EDF funds will be made available to your program. These funds have no indirect costs associated with them.
Eligibility:
- Cornell Atkinson funds are subject to the same restrictions as any other university research funding. Applications are open to any Cornell University-eligible Principal Investigator.
- EDF co-PIs can be any staff responsible for overseeing or implementing the opportunity proposed.
Questions
- Cornell: Cindy Qiao, cq92@cornell.edu, Patrick Beary, pbeary@cornell.edu
- EDF: Doria Gordon, dgordon@edf.org
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