[A2k] Media / communications policy research grants available: Proposals due April 4

Tue Mar 13 15:34:00 2007

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Collaborative Grants in Media and Communications

Proposals Due April 4, 2007

Necessary Knowledge for a Democratic Public Sphere Program

http://www.ssrc.org/programs/media
<BLOCKED::http://www.ssrc.org/programs/media>

WHAT

The SSRC is pleased to announce its small grants project for
academic-advocacy collaboration in the media and communications field.
This project will provide grants of up to $7,500 for research that
supports efforts to change the media / telecommunications
infrastructure, practices, policies or content. The grants are intended
for short-term work, completable and usable by advocacy partners within
the next 4-12 months. Proposals for this round must be submitted by
April 4, 2007 by 5PM EST in order to be eligible for funding. Grant
recipients will be announced on April 20, 2007.

WHO

Proposals must be:

(1)        Submitted by a US-based nonprofit advocacy, organizing or
community group working on media and/or telecommunications issues.
Groups with nonprofit fiscal sponsorship are also eligible. (A limited
number of international non-profit organizations will be solicited by
invitation only.)

(2)        Structured as a partnership with an academic researcher based
at a university, college or other research institution. This can include
advanced graduate students.

There are no citizenship requirements for participants in these
projects.

CRITERIA

Please review the attached list of criteria carefully before preparing
your proposal.

All projects must:        Be strategically useful in their proposed
advocacy and/or organizing context.

                                     Produce scholarship that meets
academic standards.

                                     Have a realistic workflow and
timeframe.

The selection committee will also favor proposals that:

*               Have a clear plan for the application of the findings of
the research in policy-making processes or advocacy campaigns to change
the media / telecommunications infrastructure, practices, policies or
content. Scholarship that facilitates field-building (i.e. curriculum
development, tool-building, analysis of best practice) will also be
considered.

*               Be useful for organizations, communities, and advocacy
efforts beyond the applicant organization.

*               Address issues of disparate impact on communities on the
basis of race, class, gender, ethnicity, age or other identity/status
category.

*               Build capacity-skills, tools, experience, access to data
sets-within the "user" organization and/or community.

*               Use methods or models of research that have proved
effective in similar contexts.

*               Reflect diversity in the staff or group involved with
the project.

*              The committee will seek to fund a diverse mix of
projects, including consideration of regional diversity, issue-area,
scope (local, state-wide, national, etc), type of organization (national
lobbying, grassroots community, transnational, etc.) and goals and
methods (e.g., capacity-building, policy interventions, project or
movement analysis, surveys and/or data collection, etc.)

Bonus points for proposals that:

*               Involve collaboration between two or more
advocacy/community groups in the project design and the plan of use for
the research.

*               Use participatory methods to engage community and/or
advocacy group members in framing the questions, data collection, and/or
analysis.

*               Are related to issues of telephony, publishing, privacy,
intellectual property, independent media, or spectrum.

PROPOSAL STRUCTURE

Please submit proposals via email to mediahub@ssrc.org
<BLOCKED::mailto:mediahub@ssrc.org> . Please send a project outline of
no more than 5 pages including:

*	A short description (max. 100 words) of how the research will be
used to advance public-interest change in the media/communications
arena.

*	A description of the research project (max. 1000 words). This
should cover both process and outcomes, and address the criteria above.
Describe the final product you will deliver to the SSRC upon completion
of the study and how you see other organizations potentially using the
findings and products of the research project.
*	A description of the proposing organization (max. 200 words),
including mission, constituency, geographical scope of work, and annual
budget.
*	The name, institutional affiliation(s) and research experience
of the academic partner.
*	A project timeline.

Plus:

*	The researcher's CV.
*	A budget of up to $7500, with itemized major expenditures.  If
the project draws on other resources or financing, please indicate them.

SAMPLE PROJECT TOPICS

Proposals might seek to:

*	Measure the success or failure of mainstream media in advancing
different public interest goals or values.
*	Measure the impact of existing "alternative"/ community media
systems on communities, public discourse, or democratic processes.
*	Develop better, actionable accounts of the role of 'new media'
in people's lives.
*	Analyze policymaking and/or regulatory systems.
*	Analyze emerging systems, frameworks, or models of media and
communications that transcend the current regulatory framework.
*	Analyze economic models, industry structure, markets, or
audiences for different kinds of media
*	Create analytical tools or research resources for use by
advocates, communities, or the public.
*	Document or evaluate advocacy or organizing strategies around
communications and media issues.

BACKGROUND

The Collaborative Grants project is part of the Necessary Knowledge for
a Democratic Public Sphere (NKDPS) Program of the Social Science
Research Council, working in partnership with CIMA: Center for
International Media Action and the McGannon Center for Communications
Research at Fordham University. The program is funded by the Media, Arts
and Culture program of the Ford Foundation.

The NKDPS program is launching a series of funding opportunities to help
increase the production, use and capacity for research to serve
public-interest advocacy and organizing around media and communications.
These mini-grants for collaborative advocacy- academic partnerships have
been initiated to meet the short-term research needs of advocacy and
policy actors.

Past submissions that were approved in previous rounds can be viewed
online at: http://www.ssrc.org/programs/media/collaborative_grants/
<BLOCKED::http://www.ssrc.org/programs/media/collaborative_grants/>  .
Note that new applications do not have to work within the exact same
range of topics as we encourage a diversity of issues that relate to the
media and communications field.

Several other funding projects will be launched in the next months,
including a "Research Bounties" project that place prizes on
advocacy-defined research and a larger program to support longer-term
advocacy-academic research partnerships and training.

For more information on the program, see
http://www.ssrc.org/programs/media
<BLOCKED::http://www.ssrc.org/programs/media> .  For all program-related
inquiries, please write to mediahub@ssrc.org
<BLOCKED::mailto:mediahub@ssrc.org>  . Subscribe to
MediaResearchHub-News for program updates, research funding
opportunities, and conference information at
http://listserve.ssrc.org/mailman/listinfo/mediaresearchhub-news
<BLOCKED::http://listserve.ssrc.org/mailman/listinfo/mediaresearchhub-ne
ws>

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