Faculty Research and Creative Activity Support Grants
Purpose
The Faculty Research and Creative Activity Support Grants are intended to enable the acquisition of pilot data for research or creative activities to facilitate applications to extramural sponsors. The intent of this grant program is to invest into efforts that seed funding of extramural sponsored programs or that bridges a gap in extramural support in order to increase the competitiveness of the PI for further external funding.
Eligibility
- The support grant program is open to faculty across all NAU colleges.
- Faculty members working under active start-up packages are not eligible to apply (as PIs or co-PIs).
- No more than one support grant may be awarded to a faculty member in a 12-month period (as PI or co-PI).
- Faculty members who are both (1) NAU regular employees (i.e., benefit eligible) and (2) eligible to serve as Principal Investigators/Project Directors on extramural grants (as per the NAU PI Eligibility policy) may serve as PI or co-PIs on Faculty Research and Creative Activity Grant proposals.
- Research Track faculty are also eligible to be PIs on proposals to this program if they can demonstrate available, non-committed effort in the proposal.
Funding detail Accordion Closed
Award information
Faculty Research and Creative Activity Support Grant applicants may request up to $20,000.
Award period
Funds are awarded for a 12-month period.
Examples of allowable* uses of Support Grant funds include:
- Compensation for student assistants (hired as Student Workers) paid hourly wages
- Purchase of specific project supplies
- Travel costs associated with fieldwork or data collection
- Costs associated with collecting or analyzing data, including outside consultants
- Faculty summer salary is allowable, but the total requested amount is limited to $5,000 per application
*All expenditures must be in accordance with NAU financial and purchasing policies and guidelines.
The Support Grant mechanism does not fund:
- Buy-out of teaching
- Professional memberships or journal subscriptions
- General-purpose computers, tablets, or other electronic devices
- Efforts that are undertaken during the course of a sabbatical
- Travel to professional conferences
- Student tuition, fees, or health insurance
Mechanism of award Accordion Closed
Purchases of goods and services (including payroll expenses) in support of Support Grant projects will be made through the awardee’s department business office. The department business officer will subsequently submit a transfer request to the Support Grant Program Coordinator, who will arrange to reimburse the department for the expense.
Regulatory assurances and compliance Accordion Closed
Projects involving the use of human subjects, vertebrate animals, biohazardous materials/recombinant DNA, or radioactive materials/X-rays must be reviewed by the appropriate review committee or board to ensure compliance with federal regulations and with guidelines established in the NAU Faculty Handbook.
Projects involving the use of export controlled material/technology, hazardous chemicals or field work may also require training and/or review. For forms or more information, see Environmental Health and Safety.
If you need assistance with any assurance and compliance issues, contact the Office of the Vice President for Research at ovpr@nau.edu. Awards cannot be activated until all necessary regulatory compliance approvals have been received.
When to apply Accordion Closed
Applications for Faculty Research and Creative Activity Support grants will be considered once per year. Submissions are due January 23 at 5 p.m. with the award beginning March 1. (New deadline)
How to apply Accordion Closed
Faculty Research and Creative Activity Support Grant
Applications for funding must be submitted electronically. The Face Pages (Sections I-IV), Narrative (Section V), and Additional Documentation (Section VI) should be combined into one PDF document and emailed to ovpr@nau.edu.
The PDF document must be saved as follows: FSGYEAR_Last name of applicant_First name of applicant, e.g., FSG2017_Smith_John
The Subject of the e-mail must read as follows: FSGYEAR Last name of applicant, First name of applicant, e.g., FSG2017 Smith, John
Selection criteria Accordion Closed
Priority will be given to meritorious proposals that articulate the most clear and strong plan to position the applicant favorably for follow-on funding from an external source. Preference may also be given to proposals involving interdisciplinary research, those led by early-stage investigators, or those from mid-career researchers developing a new area of scholarly pursuit.
It is essential that all proposals contain a specific plan for work, a description of student engagement in the work and a detailed plan for publications, presentations and efforts to obtain follow-on external funding. Proposals should summarize results from any previous NAU intramural grant support.
It is expected that a proposal for external support will be submitted within one year of completion of the Support Grant award, evidence of the potential for which must be described in the proposal.