Research and Sponsored Programs

Research Awards and Fellowship Program

deadline: thursday, january 18, 2024

The Research Awards and Fellowships support full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty. Funds are awarded through a competitive, peer-reviewed process to support research, scholarly activities, and creative artistic projects, to advance a faculty member’s professional career, to position a faculty member for additional external support, or to promote assistance in developing a promising research program.

This award does not support the preparation of textbooks or other instructional materials.

The maximum award is $20,000 and may support summer salary and fringe benefits (to a maximum of six weeks), students, travel, equipment, and materials and supplies. Funding becomes available in May 2024, with all expenditures to be completed by 31 December 2024. UPDATE: Awardees may teach during the summer, but must have a minimum of six weeks without teaching to receive a summer fellowship under this program.

The Research Council will review proposals and may seek additional reviewers from on and off campus. The evaluation process will take into consideration the faculty member’s rank, discipline, level of student involvement, nature of the proposed project, and funding. For assistant professors in all disciplines, the most important consideration is the likelihood that a successful project will lead to a productive and meaningful research and scholarship program. Research Council members also will consider the extent to which the proposed project will lead to self-sustaining external support. Although preference will be given to untenured tenure-track professors, proposals from tenured faculty will be considered. For an associate or full professor, the proposal must explain how the project will take the individual to higher national stature through significant contribution to the discipline or move that faculty member into a promising new area of research or scholarship.

The Research Council broadly represents all disciplines on campus. Therefore, it is important that the proposal clearly communicates the goals of the project to the readership.

ELIGIBILITY

Tenured or tenure-track faculty who are on 9-, 11- and 12-month appointments and who will be at the University during the 2021-2022 academic year are eligible to apply. However, 12-month faculty cannot receive salary support.

See General Guidelines for additional eligibility criteria.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS for Infoed (required)

See General GuidelinesSubmissions must be made through InfoEd. See this simple guide on creating your URFO proposal in InfoEd

The page limits are included below for the attachments that must be uploaded in your InfoEd application. Attachments should have one-inch margins and use standard fonts, e.g.  Arial or Palatino Linotype 11-point.

  • 1 Page | Abstract, written for a general audience that summarizes the project and its expected outcomes. The abstract must not exceed 250 words and should be single spaced.
  • 6 Pages | Project description that includes sections on objectives, significance, methodology (or approach) and outcome. The outcome section should indicate the contribution a successful project will make to the individual’s professional growth. The project description must not exceed six double-spaced pages with one-inch margins, including all figures and diagrams. The description should provide the Research Council members with sufficient information to show the possible contribution of the project to the discipline.
  • 2 Pages | References (single-spaced pages)
  • 2 Pages | Budget and Budget Justification (Word Doc)
  • An Excel budget tool (not required for submission) is available to help with calculations. 
  • 2 Pages | Biosketch (required for PI, optional for co-investigators)
  • No Page Limit | Final reports for any URFO awards for the past five years.
  • No appendix material or support letters will be accepted

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION

Your proposal should be completed, routed, and endorsed in InfoEd by 11:59 PM on the deadline date.  Submission to routing and endorsement will cause your proposal to first be given an administrative review.  If you start early you increase your chances of being able to address any errors or omissions!   As in previous URFO rounds, proposals submitted through InfoEd that do not meet the formatting requirements will not be reviewed.

EVALUATION

Proposals that do not follow the above guidelines or do not meet eligibility criteria will not be reviewed. 

AWARD NOTIFICATION

See General Guidelines.

Reporting Requirements

Report Deadline: March 31, 2025 | Submission Document: Final Report Form

Award recipients must either submit a proposal to an external agency prior to the final report deadline or provide evidence of the regional and national contribution of the project in the final report.

Submit a written report to urfo@utoledo.edu summarizing the results of the project and including a list of presentations, publications, proposals and funding directly resulting from this project. For further information, please see the URFO Final Report webpage.

Last Updated: 12/19/23