Prepare for your application

Identify your category of application

Before submitting a Small Grant application, be sure that you know which category of grant you should be applying for: Professional Development, Staff Exchange/Consultation, or Project. Also make sure that your proposed activity is eligible for a Small Grant. These are explained under Scope of program, but if you’re not sure, ask us (contact@amicalnet.org). If you apply with the wrong category, you’ll delay the review of your application while we request the revised application from you.

Understand how your application will be reviewed

Each application is reviewed on the basis of certain criteria that are common to all applications. However, some questions on the application form as well as some additional review criteria are different for each category. Consult the review criteria that apply to all applications, as well as those for your specific category before drafting your application.

Submit your application

Applications should be drafted, and submitted via the Small Grant Application form, by the Small Grant “Applicant”. The Applicant is the person responsible for completion of the activity as planned, accounting for the use of awarded funds, and reporting on the activity after completion. In cases of activities involving more than one person, the Applicant is considered the grant’s PI (principal investigator) and the project/team leader.

Instructions for submitting the application:

1. The Applicant should draft and save their responses elsewhere (e.g. in a word processor) before copying them to the form.
2. The Applicant should share the title, budget and responses to the Overview and Timeline questions with their institution’s AMICAL representative before submitting the form to ensure that the representative will endorse it.
3. The Applicant should fill in the application form and submit it.
4. The AMICAL representative will receive a copy of the submitted form. They must forward this to contact@amicalnet.org with a brief statement that they endorse it, meaning that they believe it responds adequately to the review criteria.

The application must be submitted by midnight of the current cycle’s deadline. The representative’s endorsement must be sent by midnight on the day after the deadline.

Your application will be reviewed…

Small Grant applications with budgets above €500 are received and reviewed by the Grant Review Committee according to a schedule shared on the AMICAL website. The Grant Review Committee is composed of AMICAL’s Coordinating Committee officers and additional members recruited as necessary for representation across key AMICAL professional roles (libraries, technology, pedagogy).

Small Grant applications with budgets of €500 or less have an expedited review process described under Micro-grants.

In cases where the Small Grant applicant is from the same institution as a member of the Grant Review Committee, the Committee member recuses themselves from discussion and evaluation of that application.

Applications are evaluated according to the review criteria. The Review Committee may call on a standing committee chair to provide an expert opinion on applications related to a committee’s work. The chair may in turn seek input from their committee members if necessary.

Revision

In cases where an application is potentially fundable but falls short for certain criteria, a revision of the application may be requested; in such cases, the review committee (or the committee consulted) will try to provide feedback on how to improve the application.

If you plan to submit a revised application, it’s preferable to submit it at least a month before the next Small Grant application deadline. This will help the Review Committee to recall more easily your application, and your application will avoid being reviewed in competition with a new group of applications.

Revised applications should be submitted with the normal Small Grant application form, referencing the original application in the comments. Be sure to follow the guidelines carefully and cover thoroughly any issues raised in the Review Committee’s response. The substantially new or changes elements of the application should be highlighted in some way, to draw reviewers’ attention to the changes.

Notification of decision

In all cases, the review committee will provide a response to the applicant within two weeks of the periodic deadline following submission, or within two weeks of receiving the revised application.

Report on your application’s activity

The Applicant of an accepted application is required to submit a final report no later than two months after the conclusion of the funded activity. (Leadership development grants may be submitted up to a year later.) Follow the reporting guidelines while drafting and submitting your report.

Projects Applicants should submit a progress report as well consult the section on acceptable sharing of project outcomes.