The Zedeck-Jacobs Opportunity Equity in Organizations Grant supports research that advances the understanding of organizational practices that hinder or facilitate access for all workers to opportunities for employment, advancement, and development; and to fair treatment as organizational citizens.
The research should be designed to gain deeper insights about and/or solutions to various forms of unfair discrimination (e.g., adverse impact, abusive behavior, internal equity concerns, and discrepancies across demographic groups) or new approaches to opportunity equity, social justice, and fairness in the workplace. The research can focus on any aspect of employment (e.g., recruitment, selection, career advancement, development opportunities, and adverse impact assessment and reduction). Of special interest are research proposals that point to new approaches to assessing or promoting various forms of opportunity equity and that blends I-O psychology, public policy, and the law.
The maximum size of the grant is $3,000
General Procedures and Policies
The grant submission package must include a grant proposal (see formatting guidelines below). The proposal should describe how the research will advance the understanding and practice of opportunity equity in organizations.
The principal investigator of the project must be a SIOP member (which includes Student Members) and must submit the research proposal. Proposals submitted with a student as the principal investigator must include a letter of endorsement from a SIOP professional member.
To encourage wide participation and a large variety of individuals and institutions involved in the program, an individual can only be involved in one proposal per review cycle per grant. In addition, individuals who received a Zedeck-Jacobs Grant within the last two years are ineligible. Before submitting a grant proposal, check with each of your co-authors to ensure that neither of these requirements is being violated.
When submitting application materials, applicants will also be asked if they are being investigated, or have been found responsible, for misconduct prohibited in SIOP’s Anti-Harassment Policy and to provide a brief explanation if this is the case.
Guidelines for Proposal Budgets
The explicit policy of the Zedeck-Jacobs Grant Program is that grant funds may not be used for overhead or indirect costs. In the committee’s experience, most universities will waive overhead and indirect costs under two circumstances: (a) the grant is relatively modest in size (e.g., under $10,000), and/or (b) the awarding institution (i.e., SIOP Foundation) does not allow it. If the above statement disallowing funds to be used for overhead is insufficient, a Chair of the Awards Committee will provide additional documentation and evidence explicitly recognizing this policy.
The Zedeck-Jacobs Grant can be used in conjunction with other funding for a larger-scale project. In this case, the proposal should describe the scope of the entire project, the entire budget, and the portion of the budget for which SIOP award money will be spent.
In addition, grant funds should not be used to pay for ancillary costs related to the project (i.e., publication or presentations at conferences, such as open access and registration/travel costs).
Criteria for Eligibility
At least three members of the Zedeck-Jacobs Grant Subcommittee will evaluate each grant proposal on the following criteria:
- Significance: The potential of the research for advancing the understanding of factors that impact access for all workers to opportunities for employment, advancement, or development.
- Research approach: The overall quality of the research design, methods, and planned analyses.
- Practical implications: The likelihood that the research will be highly translatable to practice.
- Innovation: The proposed project contains novel concepts or new approaches to assessing or promoting opportunity equity.
- Appropriateness of budget and timeline: Clear justification and rationale for the expenditure of grant monies; and likelihood that project can be completed within 2 years of award date.
Call for Nominations
Format of Proposals
The proposal should adhere to APA formatting guidelines and should include the following sections:
- Title Page (please include the names of all authors of the grant proposal)
- Abstract
- Literature review and rationale for the project
- Method—including information about the sample, measures, data collection strategies, and analytical strategies
- Implications of the findings or conclusions for research and practice
- References, Tables/Figures and Appendices
- Project plan, defined deliverables, and budget
Proposals should not exceed 10 pages of text (this does not include: title page, abstract, references, tables and figures, and appendices). The proposal should be double spaced and use a 12-point font and 1” margins. The proposal must be a single document, either a Word document or a .pdf file.
If applicable, the names of all authors of the grant proposal must be entered during the online nomination/application process. Please ensure that all participants in your nomination have current information in their siop.org profiles. All nonmembers should create an account at siop.org (creating accounts is not equivalent to applying for membership)
All proposals need to certify, by signature or other means, that the research will be carried out in compliance with ethical standards with regard to the treatment of human subjects (e.g., institutional review board or signed statement that the research adheres to the accepted professional standards regarding the treatment of human subjects).
Deliverables
All grant recipients will be required to deliver two copies of a final report to the SIOP office within 2 years of the date of the award.
Grant recipients should be aware that a synopsis of their research will be placed on the SIOP Web site. This synopsis will be of such a nature so as not to preclude subsequent publication of the research.
Recipients are encouraged to submit the results of their research for presentation at SIOP’s annual conference.
Recipients should acknowledge funding from the SIOP Foundation in any presentations or publications resulting from the grant-funded research.
Current Award Recipients
Award Type
Grants & Programs, Research Grants
