January 6, 2014
Dear Colleagues,
More than two decades ago the UConn Internal Grants Program (i.e., the Faculty Large and Small Grants) was designed and initiated with the intent of providing support to our faculty to aid them in advancing their research and scholarship. This program, funded by indirect cost returns generated by faculty grants, has remained substantially unchanged during this period of time despite substantial changes in the national funding landscape, institutional priorities, and the emergence of UConn as a nationally prominent public research university.
With the arrival of Next Generation Connecticut funding and the associated development of a new academic master plan, the Research Advisory Council (RAC) unanimously recommended that we delay the Spring 2014 Faculty Large Grant competition so that the institution might take a fresh look at the internal grants program and make recommendations for how it might better advance the research capacities of UConn, help make UConn faculty singly and collectively even more successful in their research and scholarship, and ensure that the goals of this program are well aligned with all our other institutional plans and resources for research growth. The RAC further recommended that the funds allocated for the spring Large Grant competition be rolled over and incorporated into the new program(s) and launched in Fall 2014. We have accepted these recommendations and will be working with the RAC during the Spring 2014 semester to develop a set of recommendations about the future of UConn’s internal faculty grants.
Please note that the Faculty Small Grant competition, Interdisciplinary Colloquia Series, and Faculty Travel will continue as scheduled during the spring 2014 semester.
As many of you know, the RAC was reconstituted during the fall semester of 2013. For the first time, the RAC is now a faculty-only body with representation from every school and college at UConn. Members are now appointed by the deans of their respective schools and colleges. We have asked the RAC to take a fresh look at the internal faculty grants program by first considering what outcomes for research at UConn we want from the investment of limited indirect cost funds into this program, and then to draft a set of recommendations for an Internal Grants Program that will yield those outcomes. Please feel free to contact the RAC representative from your school or college (please see the attached list) to share your thoughts and ideas about the future priorities of the internal faculty grants program. Also feel free to contact either of us.
We look forward to a productive discussion over the next few months and to sharing the recommendations of the RAC with the University Senate.
Sincerely,
Jeff Seemann, Vice President for Research
Mark A. Boyer, RAC Chair
Research Advisory Council 2013-2014
Chair: Mark A. Boyer, Political Science |
Agriculture & Natural Resources | Ji-Young Lee |
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