SSRI Level 2

Close up of two hands holding a plant in dirt.

SSRI Level 2

- Open -

Pilot/Feasibility Studies To Support External Grant Applications And Other Impact
Eligibility: PSU social and behavioral science faculty
Financial support range: $5,000-$20,000
Deadline: Dec. 31, 2026

SSRI Level 2 funding is primarily designed to assist PSU social science faculty to support research projects with an identified team of Penn State faculty collaborators, specific research questions, well-conceived theoretical basis, and the potential to secure external funding and/or have other measurable impact i.e.. education, policy, implementation, dissemination, novel methods, etc.

Download Files :

Level-2-Proposal-Requirements-January-2026.docx (49.28 KB)
Level-2-Proposal-Form-January-2026.doc (86.5 KB)
Level 2 Budget Template 2025.xls (38.5 KB)
Level 2 Example Proposal.pdf (1016.47 KB)

Funding Contact :

ssri-seed-grant@psu.edu

Apply Here

Funded Projects

Project Team
Diane Williams, Professor, Communication Sciences and Disorders
Carol Miller, Professor, Communication Sciences and Disorders

Project Description

This innovative project will document how spoken and written language difficulties are manifested in the lived experiences of people with neurodevelopmental disabilities, their families, and their service providers. Our long-term goal is to create an assessment procedure that is relevant, actionable, and strengths-based. In order to create this rigorous, evidence-based assessment, we must understand what stakeholders need to make the assessment process meaningful and useful. We will use an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design. First, we will conduct interviews (n = 16) with key stakeholder groups. The results of the interviews will be used to build a survey to collect data from a larger sample of participants (n ~ 100) representing the same groups. The findings of the proposed project will be used in the preparation of a proposal for external funding to create and validate a quantitative assessment.

Project Team
Joseph Wright, Professor, Political Science

Project Description

Attention to the benefits of nonviolent activism demonstrates that nonviolent campaigns are significantly more successful than violent ones. The relative success of nonviolent campaigns stems, in part, from the sympathy and positive emotional experiences these actions build with the public that, in turn, increases participants’ investment in the campaign and helps movements grow. Yet, climate action presents challenges to movement building and success because climate action is plagued by negative stereotypes that disincline the public from becoming active in the movement. This project examines three types of nonviolent climate action tactics: conventional, creative, and comedic dilemma actions. To assess how tactics influence perceptions among both group activists and the public, this team project experimentally tests how these three distinct tactics influence group members’ and citizens’ perceptions of the climate activist group.

Project Team
Derek Kreager, Professor, Sociology and Criminology / Demography

Project Description

This two-year mixed methods study will follow the lives and social interactions of older previously incarcerated men (10+ years of incarceration) living together in a privately-run community home as part of a novel reentry program providing stable housing and peer support in the period immediately following prison release. The study combines longitudinal behavioral health and social network data and methods, individual qualitative interviews, and ethnographic observations to provide an intimate portrayal of the reentry and social support processes of a vulnerable and growing group of older previously incarcerated men in a shared community context.