Submit your Proposal Below

ALSN is excited to announce a pilot research grant opportunity made possible by the generous donations of our ALSN members and others. We are providing one $10,000 18-month grant for the 2025-2027 ALSN Pilot Research Award. This request for proposals will provide funding for a pilot study that advances the ALSN research priority areas¹:

1. Nurses’ health, well-being, resiliency, and safety in the workplace.
2. Developing and managing a nursing workforce to meet current and future healthcare needs.
3. Healthy work and practice environments for direct care nurses.
4. Healthy work and practice environments for nurse leaders.
5. Quantification of nursing’s value across the healthcare delivery system.
6. Nurse leaders’ development and essential competencies.

A Delphi study conducted by the ALSN and American Organization of Nursing Leadership (AONL) Foundation unveiled key areas where nurse leaders lacked evidence to inform their decision-making during the pandemic: resiliency, trust, leader visibility, the role of the leader in disaster planning, and strategies for leading in crisis.² Respondents identified the need for designing and testing innovations leaders and organizations adopted such as new care models, staffing models, and cross-training practices.² Findings of this study also revealed a need for nursing leadership science to move beyond descriptive research toward interventional research to understand what works, for whom, and under what conditions.³ These challenges and needs continue. Pilot studies are an essential foundation for advancing interventional research.

One grant will be awarded:
One $10,000 (US Dollars) award funded by the ALSN Research Fund

Notification of Award:

• Recipients will be notified August 1, 2025.
• The award recipient will be recognized on the ALSN website and at the annual conference.

Funding:

• Fifty percent of the grant will be disbursed in September 2025, contingent upon receiving documentation confirming Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval. Funds will only be disbursed upon IRB approval, but no earlier than September 2025.
• The remaining 50% will be awarded after a mid-grant Interim Review or upon need-based petition by the Grantee.
• Payments will be made in US Dollars.

Application:

Applicants MUST adhere to the following guidelines. If guidelines are not followed or submitted after the deadline, the application will not be reviewed.

• Grant applications must be submitted electronically. Click here to submit. Submit the complete grant application as a single electronic Microsoft Word document. The submission must include the cover letter, research plan, references, appendices, curriculum vitae, letter of support, etc. The research plan should not exceed six single-spaced pages, not including the cover page, reference list, and appendices, and must adhere to formatting guidelines: 0.5-inch margins and an 11-point font in Times New Roman or Arial.

• Project Title
• Investigator(s) name, title, department, affiliation(s), address, phone, and email address

Research Plan (6 pages max)

• Purpose of the project: including research question(s)/hypothesis and/or aim(s)
• Background and significance: Describe the most significant and current state of the research in this field of study. Articulate the study’s relevance to the ALSN research priority areas.
• Innovation: Describe how this study is innovative, how it will advance the field of leadership science, and the potential for future research.
• Methods:
• • Theoretical framework (if appropriate)
  • Research design
  • Sample and setting
  • Data collection, including measures
  • Data analysis
  • Methodological rigor – reliability/validity for quantitative studies, or trustworthiness for qualitative studies
• Plans for protection of human subjects
• Plans for dissemination and future study: Clearly articulate how the findings from this pilot study will be disseminated e.g., presentation venue(s) and publications, and used to inform a larger, follow up study. Indicate specific funder(s) you plan to submit the larger proposal and preliminary plans for the project.
• Projected timeline for accomplishing the plan of action
• Detailed Budget and brief budget justification

Additional pages to be included:

• A list of references cited in the proposal
• Appendix with instrument(s) and/or interview guide(s) to be used in the study
• Proof of author permission for use of proposed instruments
• Brief (up to 5 pages) Curriculum Vitae (may use federal forms, such as the NIH biosketch form) for each investigator
• Identification of any other funding sources for this project
• Letter of support from the organization where research will be conducted

Review Criteria:

• Applications will be evaluated based on alignment with the ALSN research priority areas, study significance, methods, feasibility, budget, and potential for future funding.
• It is the researcher’s responsibility to present the proposal in a clear and logical fashion, to make a convincing case for the significance and the ability to secure future funding, and to present sufficient detail about the research plans so that an adequate evaluation of the proposal can be made.

Questions:

• For questions, contact Dr. Linda Roussel and Dr. Lisa Hedenstrom, Co-Chairs of the Pilot Grants Review Committee.

ALSN-funded Investigator Responsibilities: Research award recipients are required to:

1. Obtain IRB approval prior to conducting the research and file a copy of that approval with the ALSN Research Committee Chairperson.
2. Conduct the research as proposed.
3. Manage their budgets and expend the grant funds in accordance with the proposed budget and grant guidelines.
4. Submit progress report by June 1, 2026.
5. Submit final grant report at the end of the project or by March 1, 2027. As ALSN strongly encourages publishing study findings to advance nursing knowledge. The final report should include a manuscript draft, a crucial first step toward publication.
6. Present findings to date (poster presentation or completed study as podium presentation) at the 2025 or 2026 ALSN Conference.
7. Awardees will acknowledge the ALSN Research Fund as appropriate as funding source on all publications and presentations related to the study.

References

1. Chipps EM, Joseph ML, Alexander C, et al. Setting the research agenda for nursing administration and leadership science: A delphi study. J. Nurs. Adm. 2021;51(9):430-438.
2. Hand MW, Alexander C, Lyman B, Parchment J, Joseph ML, Chipps E. Filling the knowledge gap for nurse leaders: Next steps following Covid-19. Nurse Leader. 2021.
3. Joseph ML, Nelson-Brantley HV, Alexander C, et al. Building the science to guide nursing administration and leadership decision making. J. Nurs. Adm. 2022;52(1):19-26.