by Joseph Rickert and Hadley Wickham
The second and final ISC Call for Proposals for 2017 is now open. In this round, with the intention of spreading the available funds as widely as possible, the ISC is encouraging the R community to submit proposals for projects that are smaller in scope than those solicited earlier this year. For this round, the total funds requested for an individual grant should be less than $10,000. Look at the Simple Features Project as an example of what can be achieved with this level of funding.
Note that the current funding cap should not discourage anyone with plans for a more ambitious project. The ISC tends to be conservative with initial grants for large projects. So, framing your initial proposal as a “proof of concept” or “initial objective” of a large project – with an estimate of the total project cost – will not necessarily slow down the work.
As always, proposals should clearly describe the problem that needs to be solved, and be likely to have an impact on a broad segment of the R Community. Keep in mind that the ISC generally does not fund projects that apply to a limited geographic region, or a very specialized domain.
Please do not submit proposals to sponsor conferences, workshops or meetups. The R Consortium is in the process of establishing a “Marketing Committee” reporting directly to the Board of Directors, for this purpose. Until the Marketing Committee establishes a more formal procedure, please send your request for a conference or meeting sponsorship to me, joseph.rickert@rstudio.com, and I will see that it gets forwarded to the committee.
The R Consortium and ISC are proud to report that, so far, we have awarded nearly half a million dollars in grants. With your help, we can continue this pace in the future. We need solid, well thought-out proposals. Act now! Submit a proposal using this form. The current call for proposals will end at midnight PST on September 15, 2017.