CLA Dean’s Research Fund for Faculty Development

The CLA Dean’s Research Fund is available to all tenured and tenure-track faculty in the College of Liberal Arts to provide support for your research in order to facilitate progress towards seeking external funding. 

Applications (with Chair approval) are due by 9:00am Monday May 3, 2021. Awards will commence July 1, 2021, and funds must be spent within fiscal year 2022 (FY22), which runs from July 1, 2021 through June 30, 2022, and the following fiscal year (FY23), which runs from July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023. As part of the application, applicants should estimate which expenses they expect to incur in each  year. Applicants will be informed about the disposition of their application by the end of May 2021.

GUIDELINES:

• In addition to funding, a limited number of course-load releases are available; course-load releases, if awarded, must be used in the first academic year of the award period (21-22);
• Faculty may apply for:
  • Funds only
  • Course-load release only
  • A combination funds and course-load release
• Funding for research expenses can include travel to archives and libraries, acquisition of data sets, fees for access to databases or libraries, payments for human subjects, research equipment maintenance and repair, research assistance, etc. Because of frequently shifting rules about spending from state accounts, all expenses must be approved in advance. Kim Ho and Eddie Sze can work with awardees to determine the best method of paying for various expenses (e.g., direct payment from the university vs. reimbursement to the faculty member);
• In addition, all personnel expenses must be approved by Fiona O'Brien (and, by extension, Human Resources) in advance of any paid work commencing. Applicants should outline carefully desired personnel expenses in the application;
• Out-of-state, overnight travel cannot be reimbursed without a TerraDotta ID #, which should be acquired at least 3 weeks prior to the date of the travel. Travel plans must conform to University regulations which may shift as the pandemic evolves. Please act accordingly.

ELIGIBILITY:

• All tenured and tenure-track faculty in CLA;
• If junior faculty have not spent all their startup funds, they must provide a spending plan for any remaining start-up funds and document the need for additional funds after those are expended;
• If an applicant has unspent Dean’s Research Funds from a prior award, a plan to fully expend those fund prior to using any new funds must be included;
• Faculty receiving funding must provide a report to the Dean (through louise.putnam@umb.edu) on their use of the monies by December 1st of the year in which the funds were exhausted; faculty who have not submitted such reports are ineligible to make further applications to any Dean’s fund, research or travel.

APPLICATION MATERIALS:

 A ​Completed application consists of:

• The Application Form, which includes descriptions of expenses that are detailed and realistic,with clear separation of expenses for 2021-22 and 2022-23;
• A current curriculum vita;
• A project narrative (maximum length: 3 single-spaced pages) that explains clearly and succinctly to an audience of interested, educated, non-specialists:
  • The project's importance, methodology, and expected outcome
  • The project’s potential contribution to the applicant's research, scholarly, or artistic profile.

FUNDING RANGE:

• Funding range: $350 - $4,000
• No faculty member may be funded from the Dean’s Research Fund more than two cycles in a row.

Selections may be made by a faculty committee appointed by the Dean.

If you have trouble completing the form, please email Louise.Putnam@umb.edu.