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Scope of the Grant Award

The APSA Organized Section for Public Administration invites applications and research proposals from junior scholars researching public administration issues affecting governance in the United States and abroad. Proposals will be judged on their potential to shed new light on important public administration questions, their scholarly and methodological rigor, and their promise for advancing practice and theory development. Individual grants are not renewable.

As a part of the APSA Centennial Campaign, support from the Volcker Endowment can, but need not, involve research residencies at the Centennial Center in Washington. Recipients may conduct research on issues affecting or relevant to public administration at any level (or levels) of government, in any nation (or across nations), and from whatever locale is most useful or appropriate for their research purposes.

Application Materials

Proposals must address all items under the scope of the award and must be done in triplicate or sent electronically. Proposals are limited to five (5) single-spaced pages and must:

• State the purpose of the project
• State how the project contributes to scholarship within public administration and its applicability for practice and theory development
• State how the project relates to previous research and theoretical developments
• Specify research design
• Provide an itemized budget and budget justification
• Specify any additional financial support that the applicant is already receiving or anticipates receiving

In addition, each proposal also must include (in excess of the five-page written proposal):

• A cover letter summarizing project title, qualifications for successfully completing the project, and professional status (doctoral student working on dissertation or untenured assistant professor)
• An abstract of the proposal (maximum 150 words)
• A letter attesting to the quality of the research project (typically from a doctoral student's dissertation advisor or a junior faculty member's department chair
• A curriculum vitae (no more than three pages)

Eligibility

Eligibility is limited to doctoral students who have successfully defended their dissertation prospectus and tenure-track assistant professors. Applicants must be APSA members at the time of application. Membership in the Section for Public Administration is not required, but can be one of a variety of factors that the Volcker Awards Committee considers in making awards.

Funding Process and Purposes

Grants will be awarded annually by a three-person Volcker Awards Committee. The number, size of grants, and allocation of grants (to doctoral students and tenure-track assistant professors) awarded annually will be up to the Volcker Awards Committee. Individual grant awards are expected to average around $3,000. The number of grants and their size are determined by the Volcker Junior Scholar Research Grant Committee appointed each year. Funds may be used for such research activities as: travel to archives; travel to conduct interviews; administration and coding of survey instruments; research assistance; and purchase of datasets. This list is merely illustrative, but specifically excluded from funding are: travel to professional meetings; secretarial costs except for preparation of the final manuscripts for publication; and salary support.

Submission

Proposals sent electronically should be emailed to volcker@apsanet.org. Otherwise, three (3) hard copies of the total proposal package should be submitted to:

Paul A. Volcker Endowment for Public Administration Research and Education
Junior Scholar Research Grant Program
c/o American Political Science Association
1527 New Hampshire Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20036-1206

The 2013 proposal submission deadline is May 1, 2013. 

For further information please contact the APSA Centennial Center at volcker@apsanet.org.

Previous Recipients

2012
Aroon P. Manoharan, Kent State University
"Determinants of the Stages of County E-Government in the United States"

2011
William G. Resh, American University
"Political Control, Managerial Trustworthiness, and Active Dyadic Trust: Antecedents of Intellectual Capital and Bureaucratic Discretion in Federal Agencies"

2010
Amanda Girth, American University
"Perspectives from the front lines of contracting: Examining accountability and discretion through the enforcement of contract incentives"

2009
Yuen Yuen Ang, Stanford University
"Local Budget Allocation in One-Party Regimes:Analyzing New Data From China, 1979-2005"

2008
Susan Webb Yackee, University of Wisconsin, Madison
"Does Political Accountability Lead to Regulatory Delay? An Empirical Assesment of Federal Agency Rulemaking"

2007
Simon Andrew, University of North Texas
"Self-Organizing Governance within the Administrative Framework of Regional Emergency Preparedness Planning"

2006
Heather Getha-Taylor, Syracuse University
"Specifying and Testing a Model of Collaborative Capacity: Identifying Competencies and Incentive Structures in the Department of Homeland Security"

2005 
Alisa Hicklin, Texas A & M University
"Public and Private Networking in the Quest for Diversity: Public Management in Higher Education"

2004 
Donald P. Moynihan, Texas A&M University
"What Do We Talk About When We Talk About Performance? A Content Analysis of Legislaative Discussion of Performance Information"  

2003 
Laura Evans, University of Michigan
"Political Disadvantage and Policy Spillovers: The Interactions of Tribal Governments and Nearby Authorities"

Yilin Hou, University of Georgia
"Budgetary Decision-Making in Reforming Countries: Mechanisms, Theory, and Rationale -- The Case of China 1950-2000"  

Kimberley S. Johnson, Columbia University  
"Stateways: Public Administration in the Jim Crow South, 1930-1954"

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