Advancing UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Global Affairs, the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Sustainability and Grand Challenges are pleased to announce the call for grants to promote multidisciplinary collaborations focused on advancing one or more of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Grants for Advancing Sustainable Development Goals facilitate faculty engagement with economic, social, and environmental issues that are critical to humankind at the local, regional, national, and international levels. These challenges are complex, and to address them requires multi-disciplinary, transdisciplinary, multi-stakeholder collaborations.

The purpose of the SDG grants is to advance inclusive global dialogues and projects that contribute to the achievement of the SDGs. Grants are co-led by diverse, interdisciplinary teams of UC Davis faculty working equitably and sustainably alongside local and/or international partners. Potential partners include universities, research entities, NGOs, private sector organizations, or others who can help UC Davis further the creative exploration of how the SDGs provide a common language and platform for tackling challenges both locally and globally. Successful grants reinforce campus commitments to global collaboration, diversity, equity and inclusion principles, and social and environmental sustainability and are grounded in addressing directly the systemic inequities at the core of the SDGs.

Proposals might advance the achievement of the SDGs in different ways, including but not limited to generating innovative collaborative projects or approaches that focus on specific SDGs in a particular region of the world (e.g. in Latin America, Asia, Europe, Africa, etc.) and/or a particular SDG-oriented challenge (e.g. climate change, addressing poverty, hunger or socioeconomic inequality); and/or the multifaceted cultural and societal contexts that need to be understood to approach complex problems in holistic ways.    

Grant funding supports workshops, seminars, speaker series, knowledge sharing, trainings, or other kinds of events or activities. These can take place either on the UC Davis campus, in the community, or in other venues around the world with UC Davis partnering as a visible, co-lead and/or organizer. Proposals for both virtual and in-person events are welcome.

Eligibility and Funds

UC Davis Academic Senate and Academic Federation members from any UC Davis location are eligible to apply. Proposals are encouraged from diverse groups of PIs/co-leads of whom the primary PI must be UC Davis faculty. Ideally, teams will include at least one international co-lead/collaborator and will represent a range of disciplines and experiences. Including undergraduate and graduate students in grant activities is highly encouraged, but they may not serve as project leads.

We expect to fund up to five awards of up to $7,500 this year.

• Two awards are open for projects that focus on any one or more of the 17 SDGs.
• One award will go to a proposal that is clearly focused on climate change (SDG 13).
• One award will go to a proposal that is clearly focused on SDG 10.3: “Ensure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities of outcome, including by eliminating discriminatory laws, policies, and practices and promoting appropriate legislation, policies, and action in this regard.”
• One award will be reserved for CAMPOS/CAMPSSAH scholars
  • CAMPOS and CAMPSSAH have as their mission to encompass the multicultural perspectives of academic faculty in STEM as well as social science, arts, and humanities. Both Centers focus on expanding the presence of women and underrepresented faculty in those disciplines.

Timeline of Funding

Proposed activities should take place between March 2023 and March 2025.

Budget

Please use the budget worksheet on the cover page to develop your budget in accordance with UC and UC Davis policies and, when possible, in conversation with your departmental staff who will be administering an award if granted. The budget can include the following categories and must be accompanied by a budget narrative:

• Personnel (salaries, honoraria for speakers, etc.)
  • Payment to personnel is closely governed by UC policies.  Salaries for full-time university employees CANNOT be included in the budget.
• Travel and Entertainment (facility rentals/costs, food, transportation, etc.)
• Materials and Supplies
• Misc. Services (conference fees, computer services, etc.)

Note: The budget is not subject to indirect costs.

Proposal Submission Requirements 

Proposals should include the following elements:

1. Proposal Cover Sheet including a one-paragraph abstract of the proposed project/collaboration. (150 word maximum)
2. A description of the proposed project including
   1. the SDGs that it addresses and how it contributes to their achievement,
   2. the proposed activities and how they incorporate global collaboration, diversity, equity and inclusion principles, and sustainability,
3. project timeline, expected tangible outcomes, etc. (2 pages).
4. Detailed budget and budget narrative. Please see the budget portion of the cover page on the Global Affairs website for details regarding expenditures. (2 pages)

Submit your proposal in PDF form. 
The submission portal will be open by October 16, 2022 and will close on January 9, 2023. 

Deadline

January 9, 2023

Grant awardees will be announced at the virtual International Connections Reception on March 9, 2023.  

Evaluation Criteria

We encourage applications for proposals that:

• Foster interdisciplinary collaborations or approaches;
• Engage diverse stakeholders (projects leads and audiences) to tackle a particular challenge either internationally and/or locally;
• Integrate clearly concepts of diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as environmental and social sustainability, in the topics examined;
• Incorporate well-articulated and visible connections to one or more SDGs;
• Create meaningful educational opportunities for graduate, professional and/or undergraduate students;
• Involve more than one PI collaborator/co-lead, each of whom brings different disciplinary or experiential lenses to the project.  The lead PI must be a UC Davis faculty member.

Evaluation Process

Applications will be read and evaluated by a review committee made up of representatives from all sponsoring offices and a representative from the faculty.  All applications will be ranked by at least two members of the review committee using the above criteria.

Final Reports

Grant recipients will be expected to submit a final report at the end of the award period. This will include information about the project’s accomplishments and future plans. It will also request information about how the funds were expended.  If the grant project takes place elsewhere, we expect that a brief presentation of the project and its results will be organized for the UC Davis community on campus as well.

More Information