Spectrum - Volume 21 Issue 02 September 3, 1998 - Seven get ReachOut grants

A non-profit publication of the Office of the University Relations of Virginia Tech,
including The Conductor , a special section of the Spectrum printed 4 times a year

Seven get
ReachOut
grants

By Clara B. Cox

Spectrum Volume 21 Issue 02 - September 3, 1998

Seven faculty projects that received ReachOUT Seed Grants from the Office of the Vice Provost for Outreach during the last academic year have been awarded over $235,000 in additional ReachOUT Partnership grants for successfully expanding their seed-grant activities.
"Partnership-grant recipients must have received a seed grant initially to become eligible for the second grant. The second level of grants, in amounts up to $40,000, helps to sustain the programs started with ReachOUT Seed Grants," said Dixon Hanna, interim vice provost for outreach.
Recipients and their projects are Jim Bohland, Healthy Community System Project; Mehdi Setareh and Mike O'Brien, Web-based Courses for CE-AIA; Catherine Dennison and Marc Zaldivar, Reaching Out with the OWL; Cliff Randall, Biological Nutrient Removal Technology; Robert B. Duncan Jr., Biopsy and Cytology Electronic Interface; Charlotte Reed, Travel and Tourism Institute; and Susan Eriksson, Electronic Access to Natural History Collection.
This second level of grants supports programs that have developed collaborative plans involving interdisciplinary teams of faculty members, agency personnel, other professional clients, or volunteers. Hanna said these second-tier programs have the potential to be scaled up, either by increasing the audience for a program or by adding a new dimension to the outreach activity developed under the ReachOUT Seed Grants.
ReachOUT Partnership grants are renewable for up to two years, depending on the availability of funding, the demonstration of a sustained or growing partnership relationship, and the continued support of the academic department or college. Awards may be used to cover program-related expenses that are consistent with university accounting policies and procedures. Unlike the ReachOUT Seed Grants, up to 25 percent of the partnership grants may be used to pay faculty members for their time.
"Among other things," Hanna said, "proposals for ReachOUT Partnership grants were assessed for the value of the proposed activity in support of the university's strategic direction and strategies in outreach and economic development as promulgated in the Academic Agenda."