Seed Grants

THINC Lab, the College of Arts, and the Canada Research Chair in Collaborative Digital Scholarship are combining to help get digital projects at Guelph off the ground. This fund supports early or small-scale projects to help get a first phase or proof-of-concept together that will help gain interest, collaborators, or funding to get it to the next stage. This grant can be combined with a College of Arts Seed grant provided that it will lead to a funding application within the following cycle. Projects that are aligned with other THINC Lab projects or Library expertise will be given priority.

These grants are open to faculty who are looking to start or materially advance a digital humanities or interdisciplinary research project. Tenure-track, contractually-limited, sessional faculty, and postdoctoral fellows undertaking substantial digital projects are eligible to apply.

The seed grants are intended for scholars new to some aspect of digital work to acquire the training and expertise needed to think through and design a digital research project, leading into to a larger grant application, although applications for other purposes will be considered. The duration of a seed grant is up to one year, with intensive work in the spring and summer. THINC Lab cannot provide online hosting or maintenance funds for projects but is delighted to provide workspace and meeting space to projects. Past grants have been awarded for a gamified writing instruction tool, digitization of Scottish inn registers, and translations of literary responses and intertextuality in 19th century women’s writing.

One or two grants will be awarded per year. They are not renewable.
 

Applicants may apply for the following resources:

• Up to $5000 stipend for training, development, technical work, research assistance, or research activities that will contribute directly to the digital component of the project. A modest portion of these funds can be for travel, software, or equipment (up to $1000).
• Consultation time with THINC Lab staff (minimum 1 meeting per term) for project planning, consultation on tools and platforms, training, technical advice, grant proposal development, or dissemination
• Priority access to space for you and your research team to work in THINC Lab
• Training for a research assistant at the DH@Guelph summer workshops, free of charge
   

As a condition of this funding, we ask that you:

• Work with us towards an MOU to ensure a clear understanding on both sides of deliverables and responsibilities
• Report regularly to THINC Lab on your project’s progress, and provide a project description for the THINC Lab website
• Present on the work you are doing in the lab, either in a short paper or hands-on demonstration (at least once, more if desired)
• Credit the support from THINC Lab in presentation and publications
• Write a blog post describing the work for the DH@Guelph website
• Provide a final report at the end of the year on activities and progress made.
   

In order to apply for this funding, please fill out the following form no later than Oct. 31st, 2019.

We strongly encourage prospective applicants to meet with us to discuss your ideas, please email dhguelph@uoguelph.ca and include the words “SEED GRANT” in the subject line to set up a time.