Associate Vice President for Research and Federal Relations

Research Enhancement Program Guidelines

 

I. General Guidelines

A. All full-time Texas State faculty members with continuing nine-month academic appointments are eligible to apply. Tenured or tenure-track faculty may apply as principal investigators (PIs) or co-investigators, (CIs). Non-tenure track faculty must hold the rank of Senior Lecturers and may only apply as co-investigators with tenured or tenure track faculty. Department Chairs, Program Directors and Deans are not eligible to apply.

B. Faculty may submit only one proposal, whether working alone or as part of a group.

C. Faculty who have received Research Enhancement Grants in three of the past five years, and prior REP grantees with delinquent final reports are not eligible to apply.

D. The maximum award level for individuals applying for grants is $8,000. Collaborative projects involving two or more eligible faculty may be awarded a maximum of $16,000.

E. Salary stipends may not exceed $8,000 and may be requested only for summer months. The combined summer teaching salary (if any) and REP salary stipend may not exceed one-third of the applicant’s nine-month salary. Faculty on developmental leave may be funded, but again, a salary stipend can only be paid during the summer months. Lump-sum payments are allowed as long as they do not constitute pay-above-base.

F. The total available REP funds will be divided proportionately among the seven academic colleges so that each College Research Enhancement Committee (CREC) will have a specific amount allocated to it for distribution to its faculty as a single pool of funds. There will not be separate pools of funds for tenure track and tenured faculty. The amount of funds allocated to each college for distribution to its successful applicants in a given fiscal year is defined as the funding rate multiplied by the maximum allotment to each college. The maximum allotment to each college is based on $8000 for each single-investigator proposal and $16,000 for each multi-investigator proposal submitted. The funding rate will be determined by dividing the total available REP funds by the summation of the maximum allotment amounts for all colleges.

G. The following activities are not fundable:
• any research associated with the completion of the applicant's master's thesis or doctoral dissertation
• any faculty education or training not directly relevant to the research project
• course or curriculum development projects
• travel to conferences

H. Recipients of REP awards must submit a written final report by June 1 following the grant termination date (see section IV). The report is a summary of the project’s accomplishments highlighting any publications, presentations, and external grant proposals that result from the REP. Faculty may not submit new REP proposals while reports from past grants are overdue.

II. The Application

The REP application consists of the following items arranged in order. You may direct questions to: OSPinfo@txstate.edu.
A. Proposal Application
Use the online application process provided on the Research Enhancement Program (REP) web page, and submit electronically. Click on the link on the menu bar called "Research Enhancement Program Application" to begin the process. Complete the section for each tab at the top of the page (PI information, Previous REP Grants, Docs/Travel, Wages/Salaries and Expenses/Purchase)

B. Provide a 150-200 word abstract on the application page that summarizes the project.

C. A narrative description of the proposed study
Submit as a Word document, maximum five pages (including references) double-spaced in 12 point Times font with one inch margins. The narrative must include:

• An introduction including literature citations (if appropriate) and statement of hypothesis or purpose.
• A specific explanation of the project's methodology detailing project design, data collection/analysis procedures (if appropriate), etc.
• A description of the project, with an emphasis on the creativity, organization and presentation of ideas. Statements detailing the importance of the project to the applicant's field and personal scholarly/creative development, and the applicant’s access to necessary resources (i.e. library archives, instrumentation, etc.) should be included.
• A detailed budget justification (separate from the budget page), especially important for equipment and travel.
• An explanation of the explicit roles of each applicant if there are multiple investigators.

The narrative/vita should be uploaded via the online application process by clicking the "Narrative/Vita Upload" link on the menu bar.

D. A two page maximum vita (single spaced in 12 pt. Times) for each applicant that summarizes the applicant’s research, and scholarly/creative activities. The vita should detail past, current and pending grant support including project titles, award amounts and outcomes with particular emphasis on previously funded REP grants. The vita(s) must be added to the end of the narrative so that both comprise a single Word document. For individual applications, the maximum number of pages in the narrative/vita is seven. For collaborative projects, up to two additional vita pages per applicant are added to this total.

E. The complete application may be viewed by clicking on the View Application tab at the top of the screen at the far right. The cache on the web browser should be cleared in order to see the most recent document.

F. The application must be completed using the online application system by 5:00 p.m., Wednesday October 10, 2007.

III. Review Process

Proposals are peer-reviewed by each College’s Research Enhancement Committee, made up of elected departmental representatives. In instances where the department does not provide an elected representative, the chair of the URC, in consultation with the department’s senator or senate liaison and CREC chair, will recruit a suitable representative. The CREC’s evaluations guide the URC, consisting of a tenured representative appointed by the Faculty Senate from each College, in recommending grants to be approved by the Faculty Senate.

A. Five bonus points will be added to the evaluation scores for all first-year tenure track applicants who serve as Principal Investigator. A maximum of five points may be awarded to a single proposal.

B. Each CREC will examine proposals to determine whether or not the guidelines have been observed. Incomplete applications or applications that do not conform to these guidelines will not be reviewed.

C. Collaborative proposals from faculty in different colleges will be reviewed by the CREC for the Principal Investigator.

D. Four essential aspects of all proposals will be evaluated and given a numerical score.
The evaluation areas and their maximum point values are as follows:

1. Introduction (statement of objectives and/or research questions) (10 pts.)
2. Methodology (overall project design) (25 pts)
3. Quality of proposed project (creativity, organization and presentation of ideas, importance to field, access to resources) (55 pts.)
4. Budget request detail and justification (10 pts.)

E. After all proposals from a college are discussed and scored numerically, the CREC will rank the proposals in descending numerical order and fund individual proposals until the college allocation of funds is depleted. In general, the highest rated proposals within a college should be fully funded. At the discretion of the CREC, budgets may be adjusted in the lower-ranked proposals that are deemed worthy of funding resulting in partial funding of those projects. The CREC will resolve any tied scores at the funding cut-off point.

After decisions are made at the college level, each CREC chair will submit the numerical evaluations forms, proposal rankings within the college, and recommendations for funding to the URC chair and Program Director. The URC will oversee each college’s funding process and will resolve any conflicts.

F. The URC may examine proposal budgets and amend them according to the recommendations of the CREC. After the URC has approved each CREC’s funding recommendations, it will submit its recommendations to the Faculty Senate for final approval.

G. All participants will be notified by OSP whether or not their proposals were funded. Unsuccessful applicants are encouraged to contact their CREC chair to obtain copies of their proposal reviews and to discuss ways to improve their proposals for future submission.

IV. Post Award Guidelines

A. Where appropriate, applicants are expected to consult their college dean to ensure that proposed projects will conform to university intellectual property policies. [Refer to the Faculty Handbook, General University Policies, "Faculty Earned Royalties" and to Regents' Rules and Regulations, Chapter III, Section 10 (3).]

B. Any research involving human or animal subjects must be approved by the Internal Review Board (IRB) and the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees (IACUC), respectively, before a grant account can be set up.

C. If Faculty PI’s or Co-PI’s wish to monitor grant activity (viewing budget to actual reports or approving requisitions) then they must submit a SAP Financial Security Authorization form and will be contacted by the SAP Training Team and may be subject to attend specific training sessions.

The departmental chairs will be issued purchase/requisition approver role on awards from their departments so that they can assist the faculty in administering the grants.

The departmental administrative assistants will perform other functions such as payroll approval, budget transfers and purchase requests. Therefore, they will require a Security Authorization form signed by the Faculty PI delegating those duties to the administrative assistant.

All of the funds will be initially posted into M&O, but may be transferred to other budgetary lines such as faculty salaries, graduate student stipends, etc.

All Personnel Change Requests forms (PCR’s) for designating summer salary for faculty, graduate student stipends and hourly wages must be forwarded to the REP Program Director in JCK 489 for approval. Requests for payments to human subjects must be approved by the REP Program Director in OSP. Travel reimbursement requests do not need approval from the Program Director.

Faculty members will provide typed and signed memos to the chairs/Admin. Assistants that indicate specific purchase requisitions, budget transfers, or performance of other types of allowable transactions.

D. The budget period for Research Enhancement Program grants is 12 months from the date that the grant account becomes active. If exceptional circumstances arise, an extension may be requested from the Program Director and approved by the Associate Vice President for Research.

E. All equipment purchased with REP funds is the property of the university.
Equipment is not to be considered for the grantee's exclusive use once the grant
research is completed.

F. Should the grant recipient voluntarily resign his/her position before the end of the grant period, the faculty member must repay all expended funds, except student wages and equipment purchases.

G. Recipients of awards must submit a written terminal report to the REP Program Director by June 1 following the termination date. The final report is a summary of the project accomplishments highlighting any publications, presentations and external grant proposals that result from the REP. Faculty may not submit new REP proposals while reports from past grants are overdue. The terminal report template can be found on line at: http://www.txstate.edu/research/rep2/rep_terminalreport_form.html.