DFM Scholarly Small Grant Program

Purpose of the Small Grant Program: The DFM Small Grant Program is designed to provide support to
faculty, residents, fellows and staff to pursue scholarly interests in order to contribute to the academic
culture of the department and develop their own career consistent with the mission and goals of the
DFM. For the purposes of this program, scholarly activities include the following categories*:
The scholarship of discovery that includes original research that advances knowledge;
The scholarship of integration that involves synthesis of information across disciplines, across topics
within a discipline, or across time;
The scholarship of application (also later called the scholarship of engagement) that goes beyond
the service duties of a faculty member to those within or outside the University and involves the
rigor and application of disciplinary expertise with results that can be shared with and/or evaluated
by peers;
The scholarship of teaching and learning that the systematic study of teaching and learning
processes. It differs from scholarly teaching in that it requires a format that will allow public sharing
and the opportunity for application and evaluation by others.

*"Scholarship Reconsidered" https://depts.washington.edu/gs630/Spring/Boyer.pdf

Scholarly activities generally fall under the following research framework:

Domain
Examples
Clinical
Human subjects, patient oriented, translational, QI, etc.
Educational
Curriculum, teaching, learning
Population Health
Health outcomes of a group of individuals
Community Health
Health outcomes of communities/neighborhoods/geography
Administration
Clinical and financial operations, financial sustainability
Informatics
Data collection, classification, storage, using computer networks

Who is eligible: Any DFM faculty member may apply. Residents, fellows and academic staff may apply
with a faculty sponsor. Requestors must have a DFM appointment of .25 FTE or more.
Timeline for applications: Applications will be accepted on a quarterly basis (January 1, April 1, July 1
and October 1). Applications for grants to cover faculty salary are due by April 1 for funding beginning
July 1 and October 1 for January 1 funding. Late applications will not be accepted.
What can be funded: Support can take the form of protected time, staff or student time, and costs of
project activities and must result in measurable outcomes. The maximum award is $25,000. Preference
will be given to proposals that result in manuscript submission, grant development or presentation at a
highly regarded meeting/conference. Funding support is variable depending on the faculty request and
department resources. Faculty at a DFM Affiliated site (Wausau, Milwaukee) will not be eligible for
funding of protected time. These applicants must demonstrate that they have looked to local sources of
funding. The budget must show that at least half of the total project is funded from the affiliated site.
How to apply for funding: Application instructions are available on the DFM internal website at
Scholarly Small Grant Application. The application will include a description of the proposed work
including: activity and tasks, a timeline, projected budget, and expected outcomes. Diana Myers,
diana.myers@fammed.wisc.edu 265-2106 is available for budget development if needed. Larry
Hanrahan, larry.hanrahan@fammed.wisc.edu 263-5846 is available for consultation regarding
development of the proposal.
Projects which constitute scholarly activities and meet the established funding criteria will be advanced
to a process that will allow for development of a more detailed work plan of the project. This would be
done with guidance from an advisory committee formed to work with the applicant and assure that the
work is conducted using best scholarly/research practices.