Faculty Support and Reassignment Awards for Research and Creative Activity – Call for Proposals

Announcement Date: November 25, 2024

Application Due Date : January 10, 2025 (before11.59 PM)

Award Period: August 25, 2025 – May 11, 2026 (Award can be used in Fall 2025 or Spring 2026)

This program provides funds to allow faculty dedicated time in the academic year for creative and scholarly activity and to prepare and submit a competitive application for extramural support. We encourage applications in the Arts and Humanities. Activities may include preparing grants for research, scholarship, creative and artistic activities, fellowships and residencies, art, and music commissions, exhibits and performances, book publishing contracts, museum and library fellowships, artist-in-residence, and scholar-in-residence programs. Requests for time to work on creative or scholarly endeavors such as a book are allowed, if the project can be completed during the semester of the reassignment. Extramural sponsor types may include federal, state or foundation.

This support may be accomplished through a course buyout of the faculty member’s teaching and service assignments (one three-credit-hour course) in either Fall 2025 or Spring 2026. Alternatively, funds may be used for undergraduate or graduate student support (to conduct research or assist with teaching) to provide the faculty member with additional time to work on projects. Funds will be paid directly to the department to hire replacement faculty to cover teaching assignments or for student compensation. Faculty will not receive any direct compensation and summer stipends will not be provided.

Applicants must present a well-defined creative or scholarly product (such as a book or a written opera) OR a project that will form the basis of a subsequent proposal to an extramural sponsor. Products or projects that clearly identify and address an ECU Mission or Vision as stated in the 2023-2028 Strategic Plan will receive higher priority. If your product or project does not directly address ECU mission or vision, you may still find ways of connecting it with it by adding relevant activities.

If the applicant conducts a project for a subsequent proposal, they must specify a specific funding opportunity, sponsor, and submission deadline which must be within a year of award completion. If the awardee receives the grant for Fall 2025, they should submit their application to a funding opportunity by December 31, 2026 (or for those preparing a work, it must be completed by then). If the awardee receives the grant for Spring 2026, they should submit application to a funding opportunity by May 15, 2027 (or for those preparing a work, it must be completed by then).

We encourage all applicants to identify an internal mentor/advisory group (1-3 individuals) to advise the faculty member on development of the project and critique the proposal prior to extramural submission. Suggested members include senior colleagues (either in or outside the department or school) that have previously received related extramural support, chairs, directors, and/or associate deans.

The number of awards will be determined by the quality of the proposals, number of requests, and the budget for the fiscal year, however $50,000 (up to 10 awards) will be designated for the program.

Eligibility:

• Faculty with either a 9- or 12-month appointment
• If submitting a collaborative project/topic, support may be requested for only one award to support one faculty member
• Faculty without a current start-up package.
• Faculty who have not received internal grant support in the last two years
• If faculty are currently applying to other intramural award programs, they may only receive funds from one program; they will be asked to choose between them if selected for funding from both.

Application Process

The complete call for proposals is provided on the Research & Creative Activities Committee website’s committee resources section. Please make sure to address the elements of the Evaluation Rubric provided in the call for proposals in your application.

Applications are submitted via the Smartsheet Link before 11.59 pm on Jan 10, 2025. After submission, completed applications will be routed to the faculty member’s department chair or director and their College/School’s Associate Dean for Research for approval. Only approved applications will be considered. Applications will be evaluated by the Faculty Senate Research & Creative Activity Committee.

In the form, applicants will be asked to provide:

• Name of applicant and collaborators, if any
• Department(s) and email address(es)
• Email addresses for chair (or director) and their associate dean for research
• Check a box stating that the applicant informed their department chair via email.
• Project title
• Support type requested (course buyout; undergraduate student support; graduate student support). Funding for a student (up to $5,000) or the cost of one course buyout is paid directly to the department.
• Support semester requested (Fall 2025, or Spring 2026)

Documents to be uploaded as pdfs:

• Project/topic description of no more than 800 words
  • For research proposals, the 800-word project/topic description must include:
    • Description of the problem, overall goal, hypothesis/objectives/specific aims, significance
    • Brief description of the external funding opportunity, mentor(s)/advisory group, and planned submission date
    • Please address the evaluation rubric provided at the end of the call as much as possible
  • For creative activity proposals, the 800-word project/topic description must include:
    • Description of how the project/topic advances the field/discipline and/or addresses a gap in the field/discipline
    • Overall goal of the project/topic
    • Medium, methods, materials as appropriate to the project/topic
    • Brief description of the external funding opportunity (e.g., sponsor, publisher, commission), mentor(s)/advisory panel, and planned submission date
    • Please address the evaluation rubric provided at the end of the call as much as possible
• A 2-3-page CV for Faculty Applicant and any collaborators with the information below (existing federal bio sketches are acceptable but must add item F information)
  • Name:
  • Rank & Department:
  • Room & Phone #:

1. 1. Institutions/Degrees received:
   2. Professional work experience:
   3. Scholarship: publications and/or past projects
   4. Awards and achievements (list awards and honors, editorial boards, etc.):
   5. Current and pending external grants and awards: Please include any positive reviews that include items that can be remedied in pending external grants.
   6. Current and past internal research/creative activity awards (startup funds, Faculty Senate awards, HCAS awards, Brody Brothers awards, research cluster seed grants, etc.)

Applicants are encouraged to review the Evaluation Rubric:

Also considered if applicable: