AA/13/AS/RSCA-PC - Policy and Procedures for the Award of Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity Grants

Effective Spring 2020

 1. Recommendations for the awards shall be sent to the President or his/her designee by a reviewing committee comprised of the Leaves and Awards Committee. A representative appointed by the Provost/Vice President for Academic Affairs shall serve as the non-voting Executive Secretary of the reviewing committee. The President or his/her designee may approve or not approve the reviewing committee’s recommendation. No award shall be made without the reviewing committee’s positive recommendation. 

2. Purpose and Types of Awards 

RSCA grant funding supports faculty research, scholarship, and creative activity which contributes to one or more of the following: the individual’s professional development; the academic discipline; the university; the community. 

Each year, the reviewing committee, in consultation with the President or his/her designee, shall determine (consistent with system wide guidelines) how the funds shall be allocated. The level of funding for any year shall not preclude the University administration from augmenting the resources provided to the program. 

3. Applicant criteria: 

Applicant shall: 

1. be a Unit 3 employee; and 

2. be willing to complete the appropriate reporting documentation; and 

3. write a proposal in a style that makes the project comprehensible to a broad university audience. 

4. Criteria for the granting of awards: 

A. In deciding which proposals to recommend for funding, the Leaves and Awards Committee will apply the following criteria: 

1) adherence to the preparation guidelines (proposals not following the guidelines will not be recommended); and 

2) rank of proposal applicants will not be a determining factor in awarding of RSCA grants; and 

3) proposals for creative and scholarly activities will receive the same consideration as research proposals; and 

4) requests for reassigned time or for travel will receive the same consideration as other funding requests (e.g., for equipment, supplies) ; and 

5) proposals without student participation will receive the same consideration as proposals having student participation; and 

6) weighted rating of the proposal’s clarity, significance and feasibility in each of the following areas and as reflected on the Rating Criteria Sheet for Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity Grants document: 

A. Introduction and background assumptions; 

B. Objectives and rationale; 

C. Contribution to the applicant’s professional development; 

D. Contribution(s) to the academic discipline, instructional or curricular enhancements, the university, and/or the community; 

E. Process (creative, scholarly) OR methodological (research) considerations; 

F. Anticipated outcome(s) (creative, scholarly) OR data analyses/results (research); 

G. Project timeline; 

H. Budget justification; and, 

I. Cost estimates. 

7) A composite RSCA Rating Criteria score reflecting the average of all committee members’ individual scores will be generated for each proposal. 

B. The Leaves and Awards Committee will apply the following criteria to allocate available funding to each of the proposals recommended for funding: 

1) Using the composite RSCA Rating Criteria score, LAC will recommend that the top 40% of recommended proposals receive 100% of the requested amount. Remaining recommended proposals will be funded according to their composite RSCA Rating Criteria scores and available funds. 

5. The awards are conferred on a university-wide basis. Since applications will come from a wide range of disciplines, applicants are encouraged to include letters of support from those who are familiar with the applicant’s research, scholarly, or creative activities (e.g. School or College Dean, Department Chair, department or disciplinary colleagues). 

6. The reviewing committee, with the administrative assistance of the Executive Secretary, shall provide each applicant with application forms and procedural information. For the purpose of program planning, the applicant shall inform the Department Chair of his/her application. 

7. With the administrative assistance of the Executive Secretary, the LAC will provide the composite RSCA Rating Criteria document to each applicant. 

Related Policies and Procedures: See attachment for rating sheet. 

Review History: N/A

Academic Affairs Division has the primary responsibility for this policy.

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