2024-2025 CIC Internal Funding Program for Research and Creative Scholarship
Faculty-Lead Projects (Track I)
How AI’s Design and Limitations Affect Human Learning and Public Knowledge
Alamir Novin, Ehsan Mohammadi, Sabrina Habib
$4,000
Perceptions and Content of AI-generated Media for News and Self-Presentation
Jacob Long, Ertan Ağaoğlu, Chinwendu Akalonu, Shamira McCray, Carrie Xiao
$4,000
Social Barriers to Fully Automated Vehicles (AV): The Sentiment, Threat, and Efficacy
of AVs on News and Social Media
Seihill Kim, Jungmi Jun, Ehsan Mohammadi, Ali Zain
$4,000
Cloutchasers, AI and the Black Influencers at the Digital Edge
Jabari Evans
$4,000
Student-Lead Projects (Track II)
Information Privacy: Attitude and Behavior of the Users in the Age of AI
Jiaxuan Zhang (iSchool), Samaneh Borji (iSchool), Yu Chen (SJMC)
$500
Navigating Digital Margins: Trauma-Informed Design for Nonsuicidal Self-Injury Information
on Social Media
Valerie Vera (iSchool)
$500
Health Information, Search, and AI
Amanda Lockett (iSchool)
$500
Investigating the Impact of AI-Chatbot Agency on Smokers' Motivation: A Self-Determination
Theory Approach to AI-Enabled Smoking Cessation Interventions
Ertan Ağaoğlu (SJMC), Mehrnoush Mokhtarnejad (iSchool)
$500
Purpose
In alignment with the CIC’s aspiration to be at the forefront of artificial intelligence
(AI), we are launching a call for proposals to support collaborative research and
creative scholarship that investigate AI within the realms of Information Science and Communications across the college. This call aims to support research endeavors that shed light
on the multifaceted implications, advancements, and challenges posed by AI in our
fields.
In addition to the focus on AI, priority will be given to proposals that include or promote the following:
- Great potential to secure external funding.
- Collaborations with other units on campus.
- Collaborative proposals such as multiple CIC faculty and students partnering together to advance research and creative scholarship.
- Research and creative scholarship that involves one or both of our labs, the Social Media Insights Lab and/or the Biometrics and User Experience Lab.
Tracks
Two types of grants are offered:
- Track I Faculty Grants: Up to $4000 will be awarded to a faculty-led project.
- Track II Student Grants: Up to $500 will be awarded to a doctoral student-led project.
Eligibility
All full-time faculty from the CIC are eligible to apply for Track I Faculty Grants.
All full-time Ph.D. students from the CIC are eligible to apply for Track II Student
Grants.
Funding
Up to $18,000 will be allocated to support selected proposals (4 Track I Grants and
4 Track II Grants). The college reserves the right not to offer funding if meritorious
proposals are not identified.
- Allowable costs: Research participants compensation, travel essential to conduct the project, project supplies, salary and fringe for student assistants (only for Track I Grants).
- Unallowable costs: Faculty salary; doctoral student salary for Track II Grants.
Proposals
Develop a three-page proposal (12-point font, single spaced, and 1-inch margins) that
include the followings:
- Introduction and objectives
- Significance
- Methods or design: Research questions and hypotheses, data collection and analysis plans for a research project, or tasks and expected accomplishments during the course for a creative project.
- Outcomes: Plan for presentations and publications, and a clear description of seeking potential external funding sources (with a timeline of seeking external funding sources). If other funding is involved, please specify in the proposal.
- References, a budget, budget justification, and timeline for project activities should be included but are not part of the 3-page limit noted above.
CVs for all study team members should also be submitted along with the study proposal.
Timeline and Other Details
|
Announcement Release Date: |
February 8, 2024 |
|
Application Receipt Date: |
May 10, 2024 |
|
Estimated Award Announcement Date: |
June 28, 2024 |
Proposals will be accepted through May 10, 2024. Please send submissions electronically to the Associate Dean for Research, Linwan Wu (linwanwu@mailbox.sc.edu). Please use “2024-2025 CIC Internal Grant Application” as the submission email subject.
Proposals will be reviewed by the Associate Dean for Research and faculty members of the Research and Scholarship Advisory Council or other CIC faculty invited to provide expertise in the proposed research and creative area. The funding decisions are anticipated by the end of June, 2024. Research projects should be concluded and summarized in a brief report by July of 2025.
Awarded principal investigators of the previous CIC Internal Funding Program (2023-2024) are not eligible to apply for this round of internal grant. Awarded principal investigators will not be eligible to apply for future internal grants until they finish their projects.
Progress reports will be required during the funding cycle. Funding recipients will be asked to present their progress at least once during or at the end of the funding cycle. Funded teams should acknowledge the source of funding in all publications and presentations resulting from the work.
Previous Awards
CIC Internal Funding Program for Research and Creative Scholarship
Track I – Faculty-lead Research
Hashtaging for Change: Exploring the Inter-Group Relationship of Social Media Influencers
During #BlackLivesMatter and #StopAsianHate.
Anli Xiao, Candice Edrington, Wesley Stevens
Award amount: $3,684
Resistance, Resilience and Engagement: Understanding the Social Media Practices of
LGBTQ+ Youth
Leigh Moscowitz, Vanessa Kitzie, Jabari Evans
Award amount: $4,000
Assessing Perceptions of Source Credibility on Twitter for Emergency & Risk Communication
Brett Robertson, Shannon Bowen
Award amount: $3,850
Instructors’ Roles in Providing Equitable Access for Blind, Visually Impaired, and
Print Disabled (BVIPD) Students at the University of South Carolina
Dick Kawooya, Eric Robinson, Clayton Copeland
Award amount: $3,250
Track II – Student-led Research
Examining the Sexual Health Information Seeking Practices of South Carolina Young
Adults on Social Media
Alexander Vera
Award amount: $1,000
The Impact of Black Male Superintendents’ Race and Gender in Organizational Change
Keisa Gunby
Award amount: $345
Announcement Release Date: Feb. 6, 2023
Application Receipt Date: May 12, 2023
Estimated Award Announcement Date: June 30, 2023
Purpose:
Based on some of the CIC’s strategic planning priorities, we are launching a call
for proposals to support collaborative research and creative scholarship across the
College and with other units on campus. We are seeking proposals from faculty and
doctoral students in the CIC to support research and creative scholarship in 2023-2024.
In line with the university’s strategic goals, these grants are designed to provide seed funding to fund pilot studies or projects that could lead to future external funding.
The focus of this grant call is open, but priority will be given to proposals that include or promote the following:
- Collaborative proposals such as multiple CIC faculty and students partnering together to advance research and creative scholarship.
- Research and creative scholarship that involves one or both of our labs, the Social Media Insights Lab and/or the Biometrics and User Experience Lab.
- Collaborations with other faculty or units on campus, such as the AI Institute, College of Education, College of Engineering and Computing, College of Nursing, Arnold School of Public Health, etc.
Tracks
Two types of grants are offered:
- Track I Faculty Grants: Up to $4,000 will be awarded to a faculty-lead project.
- Track II Student Grants: Up to $1,000 will be awarded to a (doctoral) student-lead project.
Eligibility
All full-time faculty from the CIC are eligible to apply for Track I Faculty Grants. All full-time Ph.D. students from the CIC are eligible to apply for Track II Student Grants.
Funding
Up to $18,000 will be allocated to support selected proposals (4 Track I Grants and 2 Track II Grants). The college reserves the right not to offer funding if meritorious proposals are not identified.
- Allowable costs: Research participants compensation, travel essential to conduct the project, project supplies, salary and fringe for student assistants.
- Unallowable costs: Faculty salary; doctoral student salary for Track II Grants.
Proposals
Develop a three-page proposal (12-point font, single spaced, and 1-inch margins) that include the followings:
- Introduction and objectives.
- Significance.
- Methods or design: Research questions and hypotheses, data collection and analysis plans for a research project, or tasks and expected accomplishments during the course for a creative project.
- Outcomes: Plan for presentations and publications, and a clear description of seeking potential external funding sources (with a timeline of seeking external funding sources). If other funding is involved, please specify in the proposal.
- References, a budget, budget justification, and timeline for project activities should be included but are not part of the 3-page limit noted above.
- CVs for all study team members
Timeline and other details
Proposals will be accepted through May 12, 2023. Please send submissions electronically to the Associate Dean for Research, Linwan Wu (linwanwu@mailbox.sc.edu). Please use “2023-2024 CIC Internal Grant Application” as the submission email subject.
Proposals will be reviewed by the Associate Dean for Research and the Research and Scholarship Advisory Council or other CIC faculty who may be invited to provide expertise in the proposed research and creative area. The funding decisions are anticipated by the end of June, 2023. Research projects should be concluded and summarized in a brief report by the July of 2024. Failure of meeting this deadline will keep the principle investigator from applying for future CIC Internal Funding Programs. Funding recipients will be asked to present their progress at least once during or at the end of the funding cycle. Funded teams should acknowledge the source of funding in all publications and presentations resulting from the work.
YingYing Chen, Jungmi Jun, Sei-Hill Kim, and Jacob Long: $10,000 - Anti-Intellectualism on Twitter: An Analysis of the Source, Content, and Network Features
Candice Edrington, Tara Mortenson, and Sarah Johnson (SJMC Doctoral Student): $6,690 - Cultural Projection via #IAmaBlackMan Challenge on Instagram
Jabari Evans and Ellen Wartella (Northwestern University): $10,000 - Diversity & Youth Participatory Action Research Project involving Haven Studios in Chicago and Richland Library Teen Center
Darin Freeburg and iSchool Research Assistant (TBD): $6,300 - A Study of Knowledge Work in the Library
Tara Mortensen, Brian McDermott (UMass, Amherst), and Bob Wertz (SJMC Doctoral Student): $6,400 – CIC Internal Collaborative Research involving the Biometrics and User Experience Lab
Ehsan Mohammadi, Sei-Hill Kim, Holly Overton, Linwan Wu, Tara Mortensen, Taylor Wen - The Mosaic of Communication Science: An Analysis of 20 years of Academic Publications
Tara Mortensen, Taylor Wen, Linwan Wu, Ehsan Mohammadi - Emotionality in Staff News Photography Versus Stock Photography
Jungmi Jun, Ehsan Mohammadi, Kim Thompson - Social Conversation on the FDA’s Modified Risk Tobacco Products (MRTP) Authorization of IQOS and Young Adults’ Interest and Trial Intent of IQOS During the Pandemic
Amir Karami, Robert McKeever, Brooke McKeever, Brie Turner-McGrievy (Arnold School of Public Health) - Detecting and Characterizing Health Posts of Malicious Actors on Twitter