GEM

The New Investigator Grant-writing Experience through Mentorship (GEM) program provides funding of up to $5,000 to enhance the professional development of new investigators through one-on-one research and grant-writing interaction with successful research mentors. The purpose of this program is to build the University’s research capability and increase extramural funding for scholarly activities by enhancing the proposal development skills of newly hired USU researchers. To facilitate this goal, it is expected that each funded GEM project will result in the development and submission of at least one proposal to an external funding agency. Proposals that have already been submitted to an extramural agency, or those already reviewed and found to be non-competitive by an extramural agency, are not eligible for consideration of GEM funding.

GEM provides 1-year seed funding of up to $5,000 to establish active collaboration between a new USU investigator and a more established colleague willing to serve as a research and proposal writing mentor. Most of these funds should be utilized by the new investigator for supplies or computer time needed to develop preliminary data, or to support travel to access specialized resources not available at USU or meet with potential collaborators or funding sponsors/agencies. In addition, up to $1000 of the total award may be allocated to the mentor to support time and effort or research-related contributions to the project.