CCS

Introduction

The UCSB Social Science Survey Center (SSSC) is seeking faculty proposals for its annual survey of Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. The successful proposal will specify the central focus and topic of interest for this year's survey. Sponsored by the Division of Social Sciences at UCSB, the study will be fielded as a Random Digit Dialing telephone survey of a representative sample of the local population. All the costs for calling, programming, sampling, along with technical consulting will be covered by the UCSB Social Science Survey Center. The successful applicant will receive the equivalent of an approximately $50,000 research grant.



Purpose

The mission of the Central Coast Survey is to provide an ongoing assessment of community opinions about various substantive topics. Reports (and eventually the data itself) will be made available to media, local government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and other interested parties in the Central Coast area. While a small part of the questionnaire will be used to track longitudinal items and will include demographic questions, we are seeking a comprehensive proposal for the main questionnaire module (approximately 30 items).   Issues covered in previous years can be proposed (previous reports are available at: http://www.survey.ucsb.edu/ccs/ ) , but we are especially interested in proposals that raise interesting, new, and timely topics.   Issues that have been the object of previous questionnaires include:

• Health care
• Housing and growth
• Impact of changing economic conditions
• Mass media
• Traffic

In addition to the funding provided through this award, PIs will be encouraged (and Center staff will provide assistance) in identifying and applying for other external funding that could be used to extend the scope and range of the survey.









Eligibility

Ladder faculty of all ranks in Departments and Programs in the Social Science Division of the College of Letters and Science are eligible to submit proposals.   Proposals that make good use of collaborative partnerships with professional researchers, faculty from other campuses or graduate student researchers at UCSB, are especially encouraged.  



Proposal Content

Proposal cover sheets are required for submissions and are downloadable from the ISBER web site at: http://isber.ucsb.edu/files/CCS-coversheet-2009.doc

Completed proposals should include the following:

• Cover sheet, including a summary of goals (250 words), a list of other funding received for the collaboration, and a list of any previous ISBER award(s) of any type or duration.
• A statement of the problem including a discussion of the topic's significance for the local community and/or relevant research literatures (2 pp. single spaced maximum, 12 pt. type).
• A plan of work (4 pp. single spaced maximum, 12 pt. type).
• If project is collaborative, rationale and explanation of its collaborative character (1 p. single spaced maximum, 12 pt. type)
• References cited (no page limit).
• Budget and justification if additional expenses are requested (see ISBER proposal coordinator, Paula Ryan for assistance in budget preparation: paula@isber.ucsb.edu ) .
• C.V. (abbreviated 2-page maximum) for all participants in the collaborative group.

Commitments:

The Investigator(s) will commit to:

• Design the questionnaire, in conjunction with the Social Science Survey Center staff and faculty Advisory Group
• Interact with community representatives to gain input on the chosen topic
• Coordinate with the SSSC programmers so that the questionnaire fielded can be faithful to the intent and scope of the proposal
• Collaborate in writing the report, and presenting the results to the interested community agencies
• Formally acknowledge the SSSC support in any reports, documents or publications

The SSSC will commit to:

• Collaborate with the proponent in designing the questionnaire
• Field the survey on a RDD sample of local residents (400-1000, depending on questionnaire length and complexity)
• Clean and produce a dataset and a first set of (primarily descriptive) results
• Post initial (primarily descriptive) results, after an embargo period the original dataset and codebook, and the final community reports

Timeline for award and proposed work

• Proposal deadline 6/1/2009
• CCS Faculty Advisory Group reviews proposals, award recipient(s) chosen, 7/1/2009
• Award recipient consults with community interest groups, designs questionnaire.
• Study is fielded, January-March 2010
• Data and first results shared with recipient and CCS faculty advisory group 4/1/2010
• Report writing and community presentations 4/1/2010-6/30/2010

Evaluation criteria:

Proposals will be evaluated on the following criteria:

• Timeliness and substantive interest in the proposed topic.
• Relevance of the topic for the local community, and substantive interest of local government, non-profits, citizen groups.
• Appropriateness of the research design for the topic that the proposal addresses (innovative use of methods are welcome).
• UCSB Graduate student involvement, especially research leading to degree completion and publication.
• Likelihood of being able to attract external funding to supplement UCSB funding for the survey (to extend the range and scope of the design)
• Probability of research publications
• Likelihood of continued interest and utility of dataset for future investigations
• Feasibility of the study and likelihood of completion within the established timetable.

Submissions of Proposals

Proposals must be submitted electronically (by June 1st, 2009) to paula@isber.ucsb.edu.

Prior to submission of proposals, please plan on consulting with:

•  Paolo A. Gardinali, x5213 ( ssscinfo@survey.ucsb.edu )

Attachment	Size
CCS-coversheet-2009.doc	83.5 KB
CCSRFP033109.doc	81 KB