Program Description

The Faculty Fellow Awards (FFA) provide awarded faculty members one semester of full release time (from teaching and administrative tasks) at full salary for scholarly and creative projects. Scholarly activity is defined as a work of scholarship that is peer reviewed and publicly disseminated. Examples of scholarly activity should demonstrate discovery and/or integration of new knowledge, technologies, methods, or materials. Creative research activity is defined as original contributions to an investigator’s field of study that are produced through writing, creating, composing, designing, recording, performing, curating, etc.* Departments of awarded faculty will receive up to $15,000 to defer the cost of the awardee’s release time.

The semester of leave must take place in the next academic year. Individuals applying to the 2022-2023 cycle would apply for Fall 2023 or Spring 2024 as their reqeusted semester of leave.

*Listed definitions of scholarly and creative research work are not meant to be comprehensive. Questions about whether your research/creative work would qualify for the FFA Program should be directed to vprgrants@utah.edu.

Eligibility Criteria

Career and tenure-line faculty members who hold at least a .50 FTE appointment are eligible to apply. Adjunct faculty are not eligible for the FFA program. Applicants must not have any outstanding final reports on past VPR funded projects and must be prepared to dedicate enough time to complete the proposed project during the requested semester of leave.

Important Deadlines

The FFA program accepts applications once per year. The FFA application process is two steps:

1. Faculty submit their applications via Infoready in early-October. FY23 Applications from are due by 11:59pm (MST) on Wednesday, October 12th, 2022.
2. Then, Colleges submit their top 10 applications (with a ranking letter) by mid-November. For FY23, the top 10 and ranking letter are due by 11:59pm (MST) on Thursday, November 10th, 2022.

Required Application Materials

1. Executive Abstract (up to 1.0 page max)
   The ExecutiveAbstract should include project goals or research questions, plan of action or research methods, planned outcomes, and plan for dissemination. Abstract should also include up to 10 keywords that help identify the key objectives, disciplines, research/creative work types, and associated departments of the FFA proposal. Example: DEI, global, air quality, interview research, and junior faculty.
2. Project Narrative (up to 3.0 pages max)
   The Project Narrative must include:
   1. Precise description of scholarly/creative work intended to be completed during release time
   2. Full action plan and/or research/creative approach
   3. Plan for project dissemination
   4. Estimated project timeline
   5. Impact of release time on the applicant
3. Abbreviated CV or Biosketch  (up to 5.0 pages max)
   Applicant must provide most up-to-date abbreviated CV or biographical sketch.

Application Process

This is a two-step process. First, faculty submit their applications via Infoready in early-October (applications due: October 5^th, 2022). Second, Colleges submit their top 10 applications, with a ranking letter, by mid-November (top 10 and ranking letter due: November 10^th, 2022).

1. Application Submission: Applicants will submit their full application via InfoReady (HERE).
   Note: Faculty from the College of Humanities interested in applying for the FFA program should contact Kristina Bailey for information specific to the COH application process prior to applying to the InfoReady competition. FFA applications in the College of Humanities are processed differently due to a high volume of applications.
2. College Review: The VPR Office will provide College Deans and/or Associate Deans for Research all applications from their College. College leadership is expected to review and approve up to 10 applications (no more than 5 from a single department) to receive URC review. The top 10 applications should be ranked in priority order by College Leadership in the form of a letter. The process for reviewing the applications will differ by College. Some Colleges have all applications reviewed and ranked by an internal College committee whereas others seek evaluations from Department/Unit heads. Colleges are free to select the process that is appropriate to their decision making. The result of this internal process informs the College Leadership ranking and can be used as a rationale in the accompanying letter. Note: only the applications and the College leadership ranking/letter are forwarded to the URC.
3. URC Review: The University Research Committee (URC) will review all applications approved by Colleges and make funding recommendations to the VPR. Members of the URC will not vote on applications from their own departments.
4. Awardee Notification: Awardees and their Department Chairs will be notified of award status. Both will be asked to finalize the award.

Review Process and Evaluation Criteria

FFA applications are reviewed by the University Research Committee (URC). The URC is a campus-wide faculty committee tasked with reviewing creative and scholarly research proposals and making funding recommendations to the VPR.

FFA Proposals are evaluated on:

• The significance and soundness of the proposed research/creative work
• The impact of the proposed research/creative work on advancing the applicant's career
• The impact of the release-time on advancing the applicant's career and/or personal research/creative mission
• The impact of the proposed research/creative work on the Department's, College's, and University's research/creative missions
• The likelihood that the project will bolster the University’s profile of research/creative excellence
• The equity and inclusivity of the final awardee pool including individuals from underrepresented groups (including gender, race/ethnicity, disability, LGBTQIAAP+, disadvantaged backgrounds) and diverse academic profiles (e.g., research fields, faculty status)

Final Report Information

The recipient of a Faculty Fellows Award must submit Final Report within 3 months of the award end date. The FFA final report guidelines and requirements can be found HERE. The awardee will not be eligible for additional VPR funding until a final report from the previously awarded grant is submitted and approved. Please submit your final reports to vprgrants@utah.edu.

Acknowledgement Information

The recipient of any URC award is required to acknowledge the URC grant in any published results, catalogs, videos, or other products using the following URC Acknowledgment Statement: “This project was supported by the University Research Committee (URC) at the University of Utah. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors, and do not necessarily represent the official views of the URC, the Vice President for Research Office, or the University of Utah.”

Submit an Application

Applications are due by 11:59pm (MST) on October 12^th, 2022. Applications must be submitted using the InfoReady portal (linked below). Late applications will not be accepted.

APPLY HERE!