Support Information
Eligibility
Full-time UIUC
faculty, academic professionals and
Research Scholars are eligible to apply for Research Board
awards as principal investigator(PI). Visiting, zero time,adjunct,
partial, non-UIUC, postdoctoral, etc. appointments are specifically
not eligible to be listed as the PI.
PLEASE NOTE - the Research Board no longer provides financial
support for emeritus faculty, effective Fall 2005.
Type
of Support
Research Board
awards are mainly in the form of:
- Research assistantships
- Equipment
- Extraordinary
supplies and other research expenses
- Publication
subventions
- Travel to research
sites
Any equipment
request to upgrade existing research capabilities must be
accompanied by a complete description of at least one planned
project utilizing the new equipment. Requests for other
types of support will be considered if the request represents
a critical research need or an important opportunity. For
example, a special library acquisition might have important
implications for a particular faculty research effort; a
workshop or conference might be needed to discuss an important
new technology, or to consolidate a substantial faculty
group effort; or, expenses associated with special performances
and exhibitions may be needed in the fine and applied arts.
(These examples are intended to be illustrative, not all-inclusive.)
Applicants are encouraged to present and justify their most
critical needs for consideration, recognizing that the Research
Board's resources are limited in relationship to the needs
of the campus for research support.
The board has identified certain types of support which
it does NOT fund except in extraordinary circumstances.
These include:
- Faculty salaries
- Full-time appointments
of any kind
- Post-doctoral
research associates
- Research technicians
- Computer programmers,
except where the primary focus of the research is programming
and the programmer is integrally involved in research
- Graduate research
assistantship appointments for greater than 50% time, more
than two months in the summer session, or persons not currently
enrolled as graduate students at UIUC during the academic
year
- Ordinary research
supplies and materials of the kind usually available in
departmental laboratories, storerooms, and libraries
- Travel to meetings
and symposia, or principal sabbatical leave destinations
- Travel for graduate
students
- Book publication
subventions for non-refereed or commercial press
- Page charges
for publication of research articles
- Preparation
of an index for a publication
- Funds for computer
time on UIUC computers
- Database creation
from existing data
- Dissertation
project research costs which are not clearly also faculty
research costs
- Construction
and remodeling of facilities
- Equipment maintenance
costs
- Non-research
cost
- Clerical duties
- Retroactive
funding
Applicants are
encouraged to consult with the Executive Secretary of the
Campus Research Board at 333-0030 or by E-mail: reschbd@uiuc.edu
regarding requests for unusual purposes or for categories
of expense normally not funded by the board.
[TOP]
Application
Process
An application form (Revised July 2003 or later) must be
completed and submitted to the Research Board Office, with
the appropriate number of copies, prior to one of the designated
deadline dates. Application forms may be obtained from your
departmental office, by calling the Research Board Office
(333-0030), or the Research Board website at http://www.research.uiuc.edu/crb/application.asp.
Requests for publication subventions and Research Scholars'
status require additional information. Separate instructional
sheets for publication subventions, Humanities Release Time,
and the Research Scholars' Program are available at the
Research Board website at http://www.research.uiuc.edu/crb.
Applicants may
apply directly to the Research Board. The Research Board
imposes no requirement for prior review and approval by
department heads or deans except in the case of applications
for Humanities Release Time where Department Heads must
approve the request so there will be no conflict with other
departmental responsibilities if the leave is awarded. Applicants
should, of course, consult with their department heads if
the activity proposed to the Research Board will require
departmental resources not already available to them.
[TOP]
Application
Deadlines
Deadlines are announced each year prior to the fall semester.A
list of the deadlines for the current year appears on the
Research Board website at http://www.research.uiuc.edu/
crb/deadlines.asp. Applications are due in the Research
Board Office no later than 5:00 P.M. on the deadline dates.
Late submissions will be held for the next deadline. It
should be noted that the Research Board does not meet during
the summer.
[TOP]
Review
Process
The Research Board consists of twelve members, chosen for
their scholarship, expertise, and administrative ability.
The Research Board members are full-time faculty and active
in their field. They review about 400 applications a year--consequently,
the workload is heavy.
The board is
divided into subcommittees according to disciplinary areas.
There are five subcommittees: life sciences and agriculture,
physical sciences and engineering, social and psychological
sciences, humanities, and fine and applied arts. Each subcommittee
is composed of at least two Research Board members.
The subcommittee
members determine which peer reviewers are used. Reviewers
are chosen from the Research Board's database of potential
reviewers, recommendations given on the application form,
and faculty members the subcommittee members know to have
expertise in the subject. Three peer reviews are sought.
Reviewers are provided access to a copy of the complete
proposal and a copy of the Research Board's criteria for
evaluation of projects. Reviewers then return their confidential
recommendations to the subcommittee.
Key factors considered
in the decision making process are:
- Quality
and importance of the proposed research
- Probable impact
the proposed work would have on the field
- Value for development
of the applicant's research potential and progress
- Quality and
productivity of the applicant
- Budget appropriateness,
both in terms of the project proposed and of the Research
Board's resources, including consideration of need and availability
of external support. An internal limit of $25,000 per application
has been observed the past few years, and funding in excess
of this amount is rarely granted.
The subcommittee
makes a recommendation to the full board based on the peer
reviewers' comments and their own judgment. After consideration
of the recommendation and discussion by the board, a final
decision is made. The board's decisions are communicated
by letter to the applicant within a few days after the allocation
session. When funding is granted, a copy of the award letter
is sent to the relevant department head and business manager.
Normally, the
board does not provide a written critique of an applicant's
proposal, although it may forward relevant portions of the
reviewers' comments if they are particularly helpful or
informative. In the event an applicant whose award has been
declined or granted in part would like to discuss the reasons
that determination was made, the applicant may call the
Executive Secretary of the Research Board.
[TOP]
Administration
of Awards
Recipients of
Research Board awards are expected to work with their departmental
or unit business officer, or other designated person, to
manage the funds awarded to them.
The amount and type of support awarded by the Board is
outlined in the award letter. Accounts are requested by
the Vice Chancellor for Research Business Office (VCRBO)
with the recipient as the responsible person and the recipient’s
department as the cost center. University guidelines for
the administration of accounts as outlined in the Business
and Financial Policies and Procedures Manual are to
be followed. Besides the University guidelines, the Research
Board has some additional guidelines to be followed; you
may refer to these by clicking Research
Board Award Guidelines.
For questions
on post-award administration contact the VCRBO at 244-4033.
[TOP]
Beckman
Awards
In 1980, Dr.
and Mrs. Arnold O. Beckman initiated the Beckman Research
Endowment with a major gift to the Research Board and a
challenge to the University to develop matching private
support. The gift program was a major step in restoring
the board's strength after several years of strained resources.
In the course of the regular review process the board selects
projects of special distinction or unusual promise for designation
as Arnold O. Beckman Awards. No special application is required.
[TOP]
|
