Production Grants

About this opportunity

Campus:

University-wide

Contact:

Ed Dallis-Comentale, Assistant Vice President for Arts and Humanities,iupah@iu.edu

Jason M. Kelly, Director, IUPUI Arts and Humanities Institute,iupah@iu.edu

Deadline:

January 31, 2024

Award cycle:

annual

Funding available:

Up to $15,000

This grant is intended to fund the technical manifestation of prior research/work. This program supports performance costs (e.g. hiring performers, sound equipment, studio rental); exhibit costs (e.g. shipping, packing); fees for monographs and article production (open access and image fees); sound, film, and video editing/production; printing and design; and advertising.

Eligibility

  • All IU tenured and tenure-eligible faculty are eligible to apply. Those employed at IU but not on the tenure-track, whose evaluation criteria include research or creative activity, are eligible to submit proposals with an explanation of the importance of research or creative activity to their evaluation in the letter of support from their chair or dean.
  • Visiting and adjunct faculty, part-time faculty, faculty emeriti, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students are not eligible.
  • Applicants should apply for the grant three months before production.

Does my project qualify for a Production grant?

Production (sometimes referred to as post-production) refers to the technical activities necessary to transform a research or creative object (article, book, film, music, exhibition, etc.) into a form that is accessible to wider audiences (professional or otherwise). Production is work that is completed after the core research, writing, and/or creative work is complete.

Technical activities covered by a production grant might include indexing, open access fees, printing, shipping costs, sound mixing, color correction, site hosting, and more. For example, the production grant would not fund the research for an exhibition or the writing of the exhibition catalogue, but it could cover the costs of staging the exhibition.

A good guide to use when it comes to applying for a production grant is defining what constitutes the core of your research or creative activity. A composer’s core work might be writing a music score, which might mean that hiring session musicians and an audio engineer are part of the production costs (i.e. the costs of converting the core creative work into a form accessible to wider audiences). A filmmaker’s core work might be filming and cutting, but they might need technical assistance to mix sound or color correct, which could be covered by the production grant.

Depending on one’s area of specialty, what constitutes production might vary. For example, an audio engineer who experiments with new engineering techniques would do this work as part of their research, and this work would not be eligible for the production grant. However, this same audio engineer might be hired by a musician to engineer their audio, in which case the engineering could be covered by a production grant awarded to the musician.

We encourage applicants to reach out to IUPAH administrators to verify that your project is eligible to receive a Production Grant.

Funding

  • Funding requests may not exceed $15,000.
  • This includes performance costs (e.g. hiring performers, sound equipment, studio rental); exhibit costs (e.g. shipping, packing); fees for monographs and article production (open access and image fees); sound, film, and video editing/production; printing and design; and advertising.
  • This funding may expand and enhance the scholarship of teaching in the humanities or the arts.
  • Funds may not be used for hosting conferences, workshops, or similar symposia.
  • Funds may not be used for the purchase of equipment that would normally be purchased by departments as part of a faculty member’s regular employment (for instance, most computer equipment); all requests for equipment valued at more than $5,000 must be explicitly supported within the letters of support submitted by department chairs. Equipment becomes the property of the applicant’s department after the expiration of the grant.
  • Travel funding requests must adhere to IU Covid-19 Travel Guidelines (https://iutravel.iu.edu/covid/covid19-message.shtml).
  • Funds not spent within 18 months of award can be considered for a one-time 6-month extension with a justification request for approval, after which time all remaining funds will be returned to the funding pool.

Application Requirements

Applicants must complete an electronic application in IU's InfoReady system and upload a completed application form and budget worksheet.

Application sections include:

  • Project Description (four-page maximum)
  • Completed Budget Worksheet
  • Budget Justification (two-page maximum)
  • List of all other funding sources (acquired or seeking)
  • Short memo from head of the applicant’s department, division, center, or institute 
  • A letter of support from an expert in the field, uninvolved in the proposal and not necessarily from Indiana University, assessing the significance of the project in their field of expertise and the likelihood of its impact on the field.
  • Brief C.V. (Three-Page Maximum)