The Research Assistance Fund provides small grants (up to $2,000) for conducting and disseminating research and creative work. The awards are intended for specific, short-term needs. Expenses must be incurred before the end of each fiscal year. 

Eligible Applicants

• UWM faculty and career staff who conduct research or creative projects, are employed at least half-time, and are not concurrently enrolled as UWM students.
• Co-applicants are not allowed.

Ineligible Applicants

• Administrators with positions at the dean level or higher
• Those in the TTC Post Degree Training job family (e.g. post-docs, research associates, research interns)
• Students (including those who are also UWM employee
• UWM faculty and staff who are a Principal Investigator on a current UWM Discovery and Innovation Grant (DIG) or Advancing Research and Creativity (ARC) award
• Those who received a RAF award between July, 1 2025 and June 30, 2026
• Those with uncommitted start-up funds of $20,000 or more
• Those who are on notice of non-retention or who have accepted offers at other institutions
• Visiting scholars

Additional Application Restrictions

• Applicants may submit only one request per cycle.
• Those who receive an award between July 1, 2026 and June 30, 2027 will have to wait at least one application cycle before applying again. Specific eligibility periods will be published with each Request for Applications.

Examples of Eligible Expenses

• Conference/workshop/exhibition fees (remote or in-person) and travel to these events where you are presenting your research, artistic, or curated cultural works
• Subvention fees, open access fees, page charges, etc.  Note that publications that result in revenue will require a Royalty Sharing Agreement.  Contact your Divisional Finance Officer for more information.
• Materials and supplies, user fees, and purchase of services for use related to a research project.
• Participant incentives
• Specialized software
• Hourly graduate students for assistance related to a research project
• Travel to conduct research
• Indexing for book manuscript

Ineligible Expenses (inlcude, but are not limited to)

• Course releases, academic-year salary, summer salary, sabbatical salary.
• Curriculum development.
• Support for service projects that do not have a research component

Deadlines

Applications will be accepted and reviewed each fiscal year on a rolling basis until funds are exhausted. Unless additional information is required, applicants will be notified of funding decisions within 6 weeks of submission. Application submission well in advance of a specific event date is strongly encouraged.

Outcome Report

All award recipients must submit a short report (up to one page) on the outcomes of the funding.

Compliance with policy

All award recipients must follow UWM and UW-System policies, including but not limited to those for travel, procurement, and hiring.

For administrative questions about the RAF program (deadlines, eligibility, requirements, etc.) contact Kathleen Koch, kjk@uwm.edu  . 

For assistance with using the SM-Apply application system please review the vendor FAQ: 
https://help.smapply.io/hc/en-us/articles/115001445354-Completing-an-Application-FAQ .

For technical questions regarding the use of the application system (logging in, issues submitting, missing programs, etc.) or the budget spreadsheet, contact Kaitlyn Mayer, kstielow@uwm.edu