All faculty at Texas A&M University may apply as Principal Investigator for AVPA grants. Proposals featuring collaborations with faculty from other member schools within the Texas A&M University System are encouraged.
 
Faculty from Texas A&M University System members who are interested in partnering with faculty at Texas A&M University are invited to contact the Director of the AVPA for assistance in seeking out appropriate collaborators.

A faculty member may only apply for one AVPA grant during each regular grant cycle. No more than two grants of each type may be awarded to a single faculty member in any three-year period (this rule only applies to principle investigators, grants awarded to co-investigators do not count against the two-grants-in-three-years total).

Grant proposals are evaluated by the members of the AVPA Advisory Board (including the Director). Each grant has specific evaluation criteria that can be found in each grant’s guidelines document. Make sure that you are applying to the correct grant for the project you are proposing.
 
All successful grant proposals have the following in common:

• Clarity and Comprehensiveness: the goals, methods, and outcomes of the proposed project are clearly stated and detailed. Tell us what the project will produce, and how you will use grant funds to accomplish those ends.
• Impact: impacts on students, faculty, and the community are clearly highlighted. The AVPA was founded to enhance the arts on campus; how will your project serve this goal? Be as specific as possible in detailing the numbers of students, faculty, and community members your project will impact, and the quality of the impact you will have on each constituency.
• Appropriateness: budget and investigator are well-matched to the proposed project. Your budget should be comprehensive and detailed, and your qualifications to accomplish the project should be evident.

No, grant proposals should be complete and comprehensive when they are submitted. Proposals are distributed to the AVPA Advisory Board soon after the proposal deadline; we cannot ensure that those proposals will be updated with revisions received following that deadline. In rare cases the AVPA Advisory Board will request revisions on certain proposals under review. In those cases, new deadlines will be set by the Advisory Board.

Sample successful proposals are available upon request. 

A detailed and itemized budget is essential to a successful grant application. When reviewing grants, the AVPA Advisory Board looks closely at the application’s budget to ensure it is sufficiently detailed, reasonable, and free of mathematical errors. Each part of the budget should be appropriate and essential to the project, and should demonstrate that the applicants are fully prepared to successfully execute the project they propose.
 
On all budgetary matters, please check with your department’s business office to ensure that your proposal falls within Texas A&M University guidelines for the official use of funds.

Yes, grant funds may be used to pay project personnel, especially undergraduate and graduate assistants. Employing students on granted projects is an important way your project can have an impact, and should be highlighted as such in your grant proposal. Nonetheless, personnel costs should not make up the majority of your proposed budget.
 
Your proposed budget must detail the hourly rate and expected hours for personnel, and your project description must make a clear case for how the requested personnel are essential to accomplishing your project.
 
If you have a particular candidate in mind for the personnel for your project, please include details on their appropriateness for the project in your project description.  

Yes, grant funds may be used to purchase equipment. Nonetheless, costs should not make up the majority of your proposed budget, and plans for the disposition of the equipment following the end of the project must be included in the grant proposal.  

No, grant funds cannot be used to pay any salary, fees, or similar to principle investigators or co-investigators. 

No, grant funds may not be used to purchase incentives, pay participants who are not essential project personnel, fund receptions, purchase refreshments for informational meetings, etc. Every item in your budget must be essential to the project proposed. 

No, grant funds may not be used to reimburse past expenses.

In most cases, AVPA grant funds are expected to be used within one year of their award. If a project has not been completed by the end of that one-year period the Principal Investigator should contact the Director and Program Coordinator of the AVPA to explain the circumstances and need for a project extension.