CRCW CALL FOR PROPOSALS
TO:
UCCS full-time Tenured and Tenure-Track Faculty
FROM:
Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and Faculty Development (AVCRFD)
SUBJECT:
Call for Proposals for Research and Creative Work
DATE:
December 2, 2015
We at UCCS use part of the money obtained each year from the collection of Facilities and
Administrative costs (F&A), often referred to as Indirect Cost Recovery (ICR), from current externally
funded grants and contracts as investments to encourage and promote further externally sponsored
research and creative work on campus. These annual investments are made on a competitive basis
which is open to any of our tenured and tenure-track faculty in every program area. The objectives of this
investment program are to promote research excellence, to help junior tenure-track faculty members
establish research programs, and to assist faculty members in becoming nationally competitive when
seeking funding from sources external to UCCS.
The proposals submitted under this funding program are evaluated by our Committee on Research and
Creative Works (CRCW) composed of faculty from across campus. The CRCW selects awardees in
accordance with the eligibility and evaluation criteria specified below. The funds will be made available
to awardees in May of 2016, once the award recipient’s home department has completed the
speedtype setup.
This program is just one way we foster scholarship and creativity on our campus. Since the money is
limited it cannot address all of the valuable activities in which our faculty members engage. In addition
to the various workshops, seminars and grant initiatives sponsored by the Office of Research and
Innovation, 40% of the total F&A received each year is distributed to our colleges, centers and institutes.
That money is directed to support our research environment in a variety of ways and is in addition to the
CRCW funds. Each school, college, center, and institute has a policy guiding the distribution of those
funds. The distribution of the other 60% of the funds includes: 30% to Administration and Finance to
support the infrastructure needed to conduct research; 10% to the library; and 20% to Academic Affairs,
which includes the research offices.
ELIGIBILITY
To be eligible to receive a CRCW award, applicants must meet the following eligibility requirements:
1. Applicants must be full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty members resident at UCCS.
Newly hired faculty members who have not yet begun employment are not eligible. Faculty
serving on the CRCW are not eligible for grants nor can they serve as paid consultants on CRCW
grants.
2. Faculty may submit only one CRCW proposal per year, either as principal investigator or coprincipal investigator.
3. Awards will be limited to a maximum of $7,500. The Committee may alter the budget, (e.g.,
reduce the amount requested); in that event, the award will be subject to the proposer’s
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acceptance of the modified budget.
4. The committee wishes to encourage new projects across a broad range of faculty. Faculty will not
be funded for more than two years within a five year period. Also, those two years may not be
consecutive. Recipients of any previous CRCW awards must enclose a brief status report that
addresses the outcomes of those efforts (see section VI of the proposal format requirements
specified below).
CONDITIONS
CRCW proposals and awards must meet the following conditions:
1. Off-loads can be supported and will be at the current honorarium rate for each applicant’s
college. The funds used for offloads cannot exceed a total of $4000.
2. Proposals with summer stipends will be considered, but applicants should be aware that normal
reductions in pay, e.g., income tax and FICA, will be withheld. As with all expenditures
connected with the award, summer stipends cannot be used before July 1 in the year the grant is
awarded. Stipend money may not be carried over past the following June 30.
3. Unused funds will not normally be carried forward into the next fiscal year, but will be recovered
and put back into the fund for the next year’s CRCW awards. In exceptional circumstances
awardees may petition the Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and Faculty Development
(AVCRFD) for approval to roll forward funds for no more than one year.
4. Proposal contents must be clear to the intelligent lay person. This is absolutely essential for
thorough consideration of proposals by the Committee.
5. Travel requests must be justified in terms of achieving the goals of the proposed project.
Attendance at conferences typically will not qualify, whereas travel to collect data would qualify.
6. Requests for computer equipment, software, or peripherals must include a justification as to why
these cannot be accessed through services on campus or elsewhere.
7. Projects fully-funded from another source will not be funded. With suitable justification, projects
which are partially-funded from another source may qualify for supplemental funding with
CRCW money.
8. Successful applicants must submit a proposal for external funding through our Office of
Sponsored Projects within two years from the CRCW award date.
9. Successful applicants must submit an outcomes summary to the Office of Research within two
years of the receipt of their award. The summary should include the title, paragraph description,
and outcomes, i.e., publications, displays of creative works, submissions of follow-up grant
proposals for external funding (include the status of those proposals, particularly as to whether
funding was awarded), etc. A progress update will be due one year before the final summary is
due.
CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION
The awards will be based on the merits of the proposals, according to the following:
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1. Primary Criteria
 Clarity and comprehensibility of the proposal.
 Scholarly and/or applied significance of the project. Funding is for research and/or creative
work—standard curricular materials will not be funded.
 Feasibility of achieving project goals, including appropriate and clearly defined methods.
 Likelihood that the project outcomes will be appropriately disseminated, e.g., through
publication or public display.
 Evidence that the award will help the proposer become more competitive when seeking
extramural funding.
 Identification of a potential source of funds for supporting continued research or creative
work. The proposal must identify a candidate funding source, e.g., private foundation or
government agency, with details on proposal submission, including deadlines for applying.
2. Secondary Criteria
 If the qualities of research grants are equal, proposals for summer stipends alone will receive
lower priority.
 Research that involves students (especially funding for students) will receive higher priority
than those which do not.
 Pre-tenured faculty on the tenure track will receive higher priority than tenured faculty.
 Faculty starting new research directions, especially those with demonstrated success in
leveraging previous CRCW grants to obtain external funding, will also receive priority.
Reminder: The proposal must be understandable to an intelligent lay person.
DEADLINE FOR APPLICATION
Electronic submissions of the complete proposal must be received by midnight on March 6, 2016.
Awards will be announced by April 30, 2016. Funds awarded are to be used from account set up in
May/June 2016 through August 30, 2017.
PROCEDURE FOR SUBMITTING THE APPLICATION VIA EMAIL
1. Save your proposal as a single pdf file, using your last name as the filename
2. Email your proposal, including the cover sheet, to the Office of Research <OOR@uccs.edu>
BUDGET REQUEST
All budget requests should be detailed and itemized as precisely as possible in terms of the following
types of categories: travel expenses, equipment, supplies, principal researcher’s stipend, student assistant
salaries, fees, phone expenses, and mailing expenses. All budget requests are examined carefully by the
committee and the committee reserves the right to determine the final budget.
ADMINISTRATION OF GRANT FUNDS
1. Awardees will be responsible for the accounting of grant expenditures. Each awardee will have
signature authority on his/her grant account. Each awardee will be responsible for her/his own
purchasing and for any over-expenditure on the account. Awardees must spend their funds in the
manner proposed. The office of the AVCRFD retains the right to freeze or close an account in
case of over-expenditure or other fiscal irregularity.
2.
Awardees must reimburse the university if research funded by the committee is later funded from
other sources (e.g., the President's Fund for the Humanities).
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PROPOSAL FORMAT
The proposal should contain the following sections, with the specified length restrictions. Project
descriptions exceeding three (3) pages will be INELIGIBLE.
I. COVER PAGE (one page)
The cover page is provided in a standard format and is included as the last page here. (Substituting your
own that contains the same information, if that is more convenient, is acceptable.)
II. DESCRIPTION OF PROPOSED RESEARCH OR CREATIVE WORK (three pages)
The description of the work to be accomplished must be intelligible to readers in other disciplines. The
text shouldn’t include undefined jargon. Please double-space the text and use a font size large enough
for most full professors to read easily. The three single-sided page limit, including all text, tables,
and figures (but exclusive of a sections III – VIII) will be enforced.
III. BIBLIOGRAPHY (one page)
Include a bibliography for the description in section II, if appropriate.
IV. BUDGET REQUEST (one page)
V. POTENTIAL SOURCES OF EXTERNAL FUNDING FOR CONTINUEDWORK (one page)
Include information about at least one grant or contract opportunity through which the proposer can seek
future funding for either a follow-on to the project described in this proposal, or for similar work. The
information should include the funding entity’s name (can be a private or governmental body), a single
paragraph summary of the funding program or opportunity (cutting-and-pasting from a solicitation is
sufficient), and deadlines for submission. If a proposer needs assistance in identifying a potential source
for external funding, he or she is encouraged to contact the Office of Sponsored Projects
<osp@uccs.edu>.
VI. CONDENSED CURRICULUM VITA (one page)
VII. SUMMARY OF PREVIOUSLY FUNDED CRCW/AHA PROJECTS (one page for each)
The summaries should include the title, paragraph description, and outcomes, i.e., publications, displays
of creative works, submissions of follow-up grant proposals for external funding (include the status of
those proposals, particularly as to whether funding was awarded), etc.
VIII. LIST OF EXTERNAL SUPPORT RECEIVED IN THE PAST TWO YEARS (one page)
Include the funding agency, amount, and title for each project.
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UCCS COMMITTEE ON RESEARCH AND CREATIVE WORKS
APPLICATION FOR RESEARCH FUNDS 2016-2017
Name
Rank
School/College
Choose one:
Tenured
Department or Discipline
Tenure-track
Title of Project
Project Abstract: (200 words or less)
IMPORTANT: Submit the proposal, including this cover, sheet to <OOR@uccs.edu> by midnight on March 6, 2016.
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