Harpur Faculty Advancement Fund

Submission Deadline: October 9th.
Please submit proposals before the deadline, if possible.

Overview

Harpur College is happy to support research, scholarship, and creative activity through an endowment from the Harpur College Alumni Dean’s Council and through a new source of funds provided by the Provost. Applications for these funds from both sources will use a single application. There will be two calls each year, one in the fall and one in the spring.

Applications are invited from:

Tenured and tenure-track faculty in Harpur College.
Lecturers and other contract faculty in Harpur College holding multi-year contracts.

Priority is given to faculty without startup funds, retention funds, F&A returns, departmental funds, etc. Note, however, that if current funds are committed to other lines of work, please apply and explain the gap.

Proposals must indicate how the work is tied to your professional development. A short statement is sufficient. For example, describe how the work contributes to your program of research or creative practice; does it support a tenure or promotion case; is it part of a current body of work, or does it constitute a new direction?

Four types of funding:

Smaller Research Grants. Up to $10,000
Larger Research Grants. $10,000 to $50,000.
Conference and Professional Travel. Up to $2,500 toward travel costs, with priority for travel associated with leadership roles in professional organizations. Departmental travel funds are prioritized.
Publication and Dissemination. Up to $2,000 in subvention costs. Up to $500 in open access fees.

All three areas share one application form and one set of deadlines. Proposals are accepted in two calls each year, one in the fall and one in the spring.

Research and Creative Activities Grants

This area supports research, scholarship and creative practice across every discipline in the College. There are two options distinguished by the scale of the request and by what the proposal has to demonstrate.

Smaller Research Grants	Larger Research Grants
Amount: Up to $10,000	Amount: Above $10,000, up to $50,000
Choose it when: The work can be completed with $10,000 or less	Choose it when: The scope of the work exceeds what $10,000 can fund
Typically: One investigator	Typically: Collaborative or interdisciplinary, though single investigators are eligible where the cost structure of the work requires it
Reporting: A report on the outcomes of the award at the end of the award period	Reporting: A fuller report at the end of the award period, including any external funding pursued as a result

What both options are judged on

Budgets must be realistic and must capture what the work actually needs. A budget assembled to reach the maximum rather than to cost the project will count against a proposal. Reviewers read a great many budgets and can tell the difference between a figure that has been worked out and one that has been rounded up to the ceiling.

We are looking for carefully constructed, well-considered projects that are achievable within the time frame the funding allows. A smaller pilot project that establishes the basis for a larger project later is a good use of these funds, and a well-scoped small project is a stronger application than an over-reaching one.

Smaller Research Grants. Up to $10,000

Examples:

Support for work currently under way or a new line of inquiry.
A project aimed at promotion from associate to full professor.
A project after a period without funding.
A change of research direction.
Pilot work that establishes the basis for a larger project.

Examples of eligible costs:

Archival or field work
Laboratory supplies and consumables.
Participant, subject or informant costs, including incentives and compensation where the protocol provides for them.
Data purchase, software licenses or computing time.
Studio materials.
Recording, production, rehearsal or exhibition costs.
Short-term research assistance.

This list is illustrative, not exhaustive. If a cost is necessary to the work, allowable under the rules in Section 7, and explained in the budget justification, you can propose it.

Larger Research Grants. $10,000 to $50,000

Single investigators are eligible where the cost of the work requires a larger grant. Collaborative projects are also supported. The distinction between the Smaller and Larger Research Grants is the scale of the work rather than the number of faculty involved. Please justify why the project needs the larger amount of funds requested.

Examples:

A pilot study run by two or more investigators.
A group forming around a question none can answer alone.
Preliminary data or proof of concept for an external proposal, where the sponsor expects evidence before it will fund the full study.
A collaborative exhibition, scholarly edition, performance or field season.
A single-investigator project in a cost-intensive field.

Note: Applicants for the Larger Research Grants are encouraged to work with the research development group in the Harpur Dean’s office before submitting the proposal.

Conference and Professional Travel Awards

Up to $2,500 per award.

Travel costs above what departmental sources cover. Include on the application what is available to you from SUTRA, OTPS, F&A or departmental funds, as well as the nature of the shortfall. The award is intended to close a gap rather than to substitute for departmental support.

Demand for travel support is expected to exceed available funds. Requests are ranked in the following order.

Leadership role in a professional organization: officer, board or council member, program chair, committee chair, editor. This kind of service carries costs outside the usual conference budget and brings standing to the individual and visibility to the College.

International travel, where departmental funds fall short.
Presenting, chairing, or serving as a discussant at a professional meeting.
Attendance without presenting, chairing, or a leadership role is the lowest priority.

For faculty represented by UUP, the application asks whether the Individual Development Award has been used for the same activity. This is to share information, not to reduce the award.

Publication and Dissemination Support

Subvention, up to $2,000.

Costs that stand between finished work and its publication or presentation: color plates, image rights, permissions and reproduction fees, indexing, press subventions, and production costs for a performance, exhibition or recording.

Open access fees, up to $500.

Article processing charges for open access publication. Note that funds are limited for open access fees.

Period of performance

Projects must be completed, and funds spent, within 18 months of the award date. Nothing rolls over past the end date.

If your project requires longer than 18 months, contact the Dean’s office before you apply. Some kinds of work, particularly those depending on a field season, an archival opening, a production calendar, or an external collaborator’s schedule, cannot be compressed into that window. We would rather discuss the timing in advance than receive a proposal that cannot be completed on the terms offered.

Student support

Student funding under these awards is limited to project-focused hourly work. Funds may pay an undergraduate or graduate student an hourly wage for work performed on the funded project, budgeted at a stated rate for a stated number of hours.

These awards do not fund academic-year graduate student stipends or tuition, and they do not fund a graduate student’s own research project. A student’s dissertation research is not an eligible use of these funds, however closely it relates to the awardee’s work. Where a student is being paid, the budget justification should say what the student will do and why that work is necessary to the project.

Additional Conditions

The following apply across all four areas of support.

Projects must be completed, and funds spent, within 18 months of the award date. Funds do not roll over past the end date. If your project requires longer than 18 months, contact the Dean’s office before you apply.
A report on the outcomes of the award is due at the end of the award period. Reporting for Large Research Grants is more substantial and includes any external funding pursued as a result of the award. Failure to submit a report on time will prevent consideration of future funding under this program.
Student support is limited to project-focused hourly work.
All spending follows New York State and University rules for eligible expenditures and for documentation of expenditures. Awardees must retain receipts and supporting documentation in whatever form the rules require.
There are two calls for proposals each year, fall and spring.
Recipients are asked to cite the funding in publications and presentations arising from the work. Details of the citations format will be included in the letter of acceptance.

What these funds do not support

Course buyouts or release from teaching.
Academic-year graduate student stipends or tuition.
Graduate students’ own research projects.
Costs already covered by startup, retention, F&A, departmental or other available funds.
Expenditures not allowable under New York State and University rules.