Promising Practice Grant

PPG grants are intended to help cover expenses relating to professional credentialing exams such as certification or licensure.  Applicants can apply for up to $1,500.00 dollars for non-travel-related expenses and up to $1,000.00 for travel-related expenses.

Non-travel items covered by this grant include:

• Exam registration fees

• Licensure or certification fees

• Examination preparation material such as review books or practice exams

Travel items covered by this grant include:

• Travel to and from exam locations (airfare, mileage, local transportation, etc.)

• Lodging

• Meals

Requested daily rates for travel must not exceed those listed in the FSO Meals/Lodging Cost Index and the FSO Transportation Policy.  Please refer to this manual when preparing your budget and application.  

Prohibited Items:

• Expenses made before the award date

• Tuition

• Membership dues

• Office equipment or supplies

• Childcare

• Travel for reasons other than taking a professional exam.  This includes travel to conferences, symposia, workshops, internships, or other professional events.  These events are covered by our travel grant: https://gpsc.arizona.edu/travel-grants

• Applicants must be University of Arizona graduate, professional or undergraduate students at the time of award.

• Applicants must plan to take their certification or licensure exam within one year of receiving the award. 

• Applicants may only submit one application at a time. 

• Applicants are only eligible to receive one PPG Grant per academic year.

• The number of awards is contingent upon availability of funds and the number of applications received.  PPG is not a guaranteed source of funding.

• Applications are reviewed by students from various career paths and disciplines.  After the judges submit their evaluation scores, a cutoff score is generated based on the number of applications and the amount of funds available.

• For information regarding the necessary components of a PPG Grant application as well as the criteria used by judges to evaluate PPG grant applications, please refer to the GPSC PPG Grant Evaluation Rubric.

GPSC PPG has the following deadlines. All required materials must be submitted to the online portal by 11:59 PM Arizona Time on the deadline. No exceptions will be made.

Fall Round:   Application Opens September 01 / Closes October 13

Spring Round:   Application Opens February 01 / Closes March 14

• An automated submission confirmation email is generated once an online application is submitted. If you do not receive a confirmation email, please contact the Submittable Technical Support team at support@submittable.com

• Applicants will be notified via email when their application status changes (Accepted, Declined, etc.). Applicants may also check the online application portal for status updates. 

• Applications are reviewed after the application deadline closes.  Award decisions will be sent 4-6 weeks after the deadline.

• If awarded a PPG grant, the applicant will be asked to accept or decline the award. Upon accepting the award, the approved amount will be distributed through the awardee's Bursar's account as a stipend within two to three weeks after award notification. Stipends are considered taxable income and may affect financial aid status. 

• Applicants who were not awarded are encouraged to reapply during subsequent rounds, provided that all eligibility criteria are met (see the “Eligibility” section above).

• If you are awarded a PPG Grant but would like to decline your award, please notify the Grants Office at gpscgrants@email.arizona.edu immediately for instructions on how to return unused funds. If taxes were automatically withheld from your award, only the award amount released to you is to be returned to the GPSC. 

• If less than 90% of awarded GPSC funds are used, then that student will be required to reimburse the University of Arizona for the unspent funds. Please notify us of your unused funds at gpscfunding@arizona.edu.

• Any funds being returned to GPSC must be returned prior to June 1 of the fiscal year in which you were awarded.

• PPG Grant awardees are required to submit a Post-Award Report within 30 days of their credentialing or licensure exam but no later than June 30 of the fiscal year in which they received the award.

• The Post-Award Report will be assigned to awardees and completed entirely through the Submittable platform. Once assigned, the form is accessible to awardees via Submittable under the tab labeled "Post-Award Form." Required components include: 1) an experience narrative (500 word limit), 2) proof of attendance, and 3) verification that all other award conditions have been met. Paper submissions/walk-ins will not be accepted.

• PPG Grant awardees are required to keep receipts of all expenses incurred during travel, to be submitted if requested by the Grants Office.

• Each GPSC grant application is reviewed and evaluated by 2-3 volunteer UA students.

• Awardees may be asked to serve as judges for following GPSC PPG grant application rounds.  Serving as a judge is a requirement of receiving the PPG award. 

• Any graduate or professional student may volunteer to serve as a judge. Serving as a GPSC Grants Judge allows would-be applicants to obtain an insider's perspective on the evaluation process. Other reasons to be a judge include:

  • Formulating a more competitive application by reviewing actual applications

  • Additional service or volunteer experience for the relevant sections of your CV or resume

  • Obtaining an insider's perspective on an evaluation process 

  • Being involved in a central part of student governance

• If you are interested in serving as a GPSC Grants Judge, please contact the Funding Director gpscfunding@arizona.edu or sign-up here.

Confidentiality Requirement for GPSC Applicants and Reviewers-

Purpose:

The Graduate & Professional Student Council (GPSC) at the University of Arizona takes seriously our responsibility to maintain confidentiality throughout the review process. This policy serves to remind GPSC Officials, GPSC Directors, and Peer judges of their responsibility concerning confidentiality in the application review process.

Measures to Ensure Confidentiality:

• GPSC Grants & Funding policy directs applicants to not include any personal identifiers in their application documents.

• Applicants may need to identify in grant applications information that the applicant considers being trade secrets, information that is commercial or financial, or information that is privileged or confidential.

• When such information is included in the application it is with the understanding that the information will be used or disclosed only for the evaluation of the application.

• The information contained in applications shall not be used or disclosed except for evaluation purposes unless disclosure is mandated by University Policy or applicable law.

• An applicant may not contact student reviewers/judges or Council members who potentially may be involved in the evaluation of an application. Applicants may request information and clarifications only from the Grants Director or the Funding Administrator.

• Student reviewers/judges and Council members are instructed to direct all such inquiries to the attention of, and notify directly, the GPSC Grants Office.

GPSC is committed to protecting such information, including measures to ensure confidentiality in the review.

1) Before participating in the initial review for grant applications every individual involved in the process must certify a Confidentiality and Non – Disclosure Rules [Click Here for Confidential Agreement] before gaining access to information about the applications, proposals, or review. GPSC is not liable for the intentional breach of confidentiality by reviewers.

2) Data Security

• GPSC uses a third - party platform Submittable for Grants application, submission, and management.

• GPSC is not liable for any third-party security breach and hacking of our emails, computers, cloud, and servers.