Penn State College of Arts and Architecture

College of Arts and Architecture 2004-05 Competition for Faculty Research Grants

Memorandum from Edward V. Williams, Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies:

Following is the announcement for the annual fall competition for Faculty Research Grants (deadline on Monday, October 18, 2004 for receipt of proposals with budgets in 114 Arts Building).

Members of the College Committee on Creative Accomplishment and Research will be pleased to read a draft of your proposal for a College Faculty Research Grant and to offer suggestions for strengthening it.

The Committee as a whole will meet to discuss draft copies of proposals with their authors one evening in early October, the date, time and place to be announced. To take advantage of this opportunity to receive feedback, please submit 8 copies of your proposal draft to 114 Arts Building by noon on Monday, September 27, 2004.

Faculty are urged to consult the committee member in their unit (see end of announcement), faculty within and outside their field, and the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies for feedback on proposals before final versions are submitted.

For a printer-friendly copy of the following announcement, please click here.

The College Committee on Creative Accomplishment and Research announces one competition for the 2004-05 academic year with a deadline for receipt of proposals in 114 Arts Building on Monday, October 18, 2004. The Committee operates within a mandate to distribute the limited resources at its disposal to projects that promise a high degree of national and international visibility and recognition for the applicant and that hold the greatest possible significance to the applicant, the discipline, and the University. The Committee therefore will give preference to those projects that:

are refereed, juried, invited, or that are otherwise meritorious. Projects should demonstrate the likelihood of substantial critical review of the kind associated with creative and scholarly
endeavors across the university;
are directed to topics in areas that show promise of significant external funding and are accompanied by descriptions of targeted funding programs and agencies;
are submitted by faculty in the early stages of their careers, especially untenured faculty and/or those who have not received generous support from this Committee in previous years;
are likely to contribute significantly to the artistic or scholarly enhancement of individual faculty members, to the art or discipline, and to the University.

Proposals should indicate that the faculty member has undertaken an initial exploration of the topic or has established it as an area of investigation in his or her creative or scholarly work. In the proposal faculty need to demonstrate the differences between the present project and previous projects that have been funded.

Because of the large and increasing number of meritorious submissions to this competition in recent years, full funding of a proposal is the exception, rather than the rule. Please keep in mind that this is a competition for limited funds, and that the Committee must make judgments about the relative merit of proposals. Submission of a proposal does not guarantee that funds will be awarded.

Eligibility. Eligibility to apply for funding in this College competition is open to all tenured, tenure-track, multi-year fixed-term faculty, groups of faculty, and professional staff with graduate degrees in the College of Arts and Architecture, including College faculty on the Commonwealth campuses. In accordance with a decision by the Dean’s Executive Council on September 12, 1994, applicants, including each member in a group proposal, must present evidence (through copies of letters, applications forms, etc.) of having applied to at least one appropriate external source for funding for their work since July 1, 2003. (Previous applications for external funding, however, do not have to be for the project submitted to this College competition.) The requirement for prior application for external funding, however, does not apply to new faculty in their first year in the College.

Review. All proposals will be evaluated and recommendations for funding made by the College Committee on Creative Accomplishment and Research. Upon request, members of the committee and the Associate Dean will review drafts of proposals before submission. Deadline for receipt of 8 copies of proposal drafts in 114 Arts is Monday, September 27, 2004. Final copies of proposals must be accompanied by a cover letter from the applicant’s department head, school director, or campus executive officer. In its allocation of funds, the College Committee will take into consideration any funding allocated to the applicant in the October competition by the Institute for the Arts and Humanities.

Calendar. Funding from this competition can be expected to be allocated before the end of the Fall Semester 2004. All grant money must be spent or encumbered by the end of the third full semester following the award of a Faculty Research Grant. Grant money will be carried over only once into the next fiscal year.

Funding. Budgets of up to $7,500 may include funding for items and costs that will remove obstacles to the creation of projects and the dissemination of their results. Examples of such requests include but are not limited to: publication costs; release time to pursue project; funding for organizing national or international conferences at Penn State; travel, lodging, and meals in conducting research; photographs and other visual material; research assistants, supplies and materials; consumable and nonconsumable equipment directly related to the project; and expenses for delivering work. Not eligible for College funding are fees to private, profit-making companies for the promotion, marketing, and sale of a faculty member’s work.

Format for Applications. Proposals must be concise and written in a manner that can be easily understood by committee members from disciplines other than the applicant’s own. Two to five pages will suffice for the proposal, and one set of supplementary materials such as slides or publications may also accompany the proposal. The proposal must include the following headings and attachments:

Abstract of the research or creative project
Objectives (what the applicant intends to accomplish)
Background
National or international significance of the project (for the applicant, the discipline, and Penn State)
Relationship of the project to prior research (by the applicant and/or others)
Plan of work (specific procedures, methodology, schedule, resources)
Anticipated outcome (product, research findings, creative work)
Dissemination of results (e.g., publication, exhibition, performance; documentation of specific commitments and guarantees in writing strengthen the proposal)
Identification of external sources of funding that can support the project to completion
Documented evidence of application to external sources of funding since July 2003 for this project or others
Attachments: Detailed budget (items rounded off to the nearest ten dollars); Curriculum vitae (must be up-to-date); Supplementary materials (one set of slides, publications, musical compositions, or original works of art, manuscripts, etc.)

Cover letter from department head or school director (a draft of the proposal must be delivered to the unit head not less than 10 days before final deadline).

Criteria for Proposals for College Faculty Research Grants

Proposal should demonstrate that the completed project will be a significant contribution, nationally and/or internationally, to the applicant’s field.
Completed project should represent a measurable and timely advance in the applicant’s professional career and should contribute to the positive image and reputation of the University as a whole, nationally and/or internationally.
Proposal itself should be a model application for funding: well organized, well written, complete, concise, and comprehensible to evaluators outside the participant’s field.
Proposed timetable and plan of action should be realistic and the budget clearly articulated and itemized.
Budget items must be annotated with explanations of line items’ relation to the proposal activities.

Number of Copies. Eight copies of the proposal with the department head or school director’s letter attached to each copy must be submitted to the Office of the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies in 114 Arts Building by Monday, October 18, 2004. One set or copy of any supplementary materials is sufficient.

Final Report. A report must be filed with the Office of Research and Graduate Studies within 60 days after the completion of the project or within 60 days after the end of the three-semester grant period, whichever comes first. The report should provide details concerning the use of the funds awarded, the outcomes of the creative work or research, its impact on the discipline, its national or international visibility, and any future outcomes anticipated or initiatives planned.

College Committee for Creative Accomplishment and Research, 2004-05: