Faculty Research Awards

Overview & Program Goals

The Vice President for Research and Innovation (VPRI) invites faculty members from all academic disciplines to apply for the 2025 Faculty Research Awards (FRA). FRAs provide funds (up to $10,000) in support of scholarship, creative activity, and quantitative or qualitative research for eligible applicants across the University of Oregon, fostering both productivity and career advancement.   

Examples of eligible projects include:

  • Book projects intended for publication
  • Performances in venues
  • Creative work for exhibition
  • Projects that obtain pilot data, demonstrate the feasibility of an approach or method, or contribute to the development of a prototype
  • Travel to conduct fieldwork or conduct research  

Individuals are limited to submitting one application per funding cycle, though applicants may serve as unpaid collaborators or team members on additional projects. The aim is to provide funding to faculty who do not currently have a significant active externally funded research award (i.e., a major independent, investigator-initiated award for their discipline, such as NIH R01, NEH Fellowship, IES research grant, etc.). Priority will be given to projects where funding is significant to project launch or continuation. 

Note that proposed projects must be meaningfully distinct from prior FRA-funded work. In particular, proposals for research and writing of a book should describe how prior funding met the goals of the prior project and clearly describe how the new work being proposed differs. As with all seed programs, this award is designed to be a springboard to encourage and enable future support of faculty research through extramural funding.   

Reach out to Research Development Services if you have questions about this program.

Timeline

  • November 15, 2024 - January 14, 2025: Research Development Staff can review drafts before submission
  • January 21, 2025, by 11:59 p.m.: Application deadline
  • Mid-February 2025: Proposal review
  • Early March 2025: Faculty applicants notified of the funding decision
  • July 1, 2025 - June 30, 2026:  Project period; projects cannot begin until after July 1

Request for Proposals (RFP) and Template Document

Unit Head Approval Form (Fillable PDF)

Guidelines

Eligibility

Eligible Principal Investigators (PIs): Eligible PIs include all tenure-track faculty. Career research faculty with the classification of research associate, research professor, research scientist, research engineer, principal research scientist, librarian, or professor of practice (with primary duties in research) are welcome to apply, given they have at least 0.50+ FTE appointments during the academic year of the research award.   

Ineligible PIs:  

  • Faculty who received a Faculty Research Award within the past three award cycles
  • Emeritus, retired, courtesy, visiting, instructor, and pro-tem faculty and postdoctoral scholars
  • Recipients of any competitive award from the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation who have not submitted a final report for their prior award(s)  

Faculty are only permitted to serve as the PI or Co-PI on one application per cycle. Applicants may serve as collaborators or team members on additional proposals.

Budget & Use of Funds

Amount: The Faculty Research Award provides up to $10,000 in support.

Length of Project: The project period begins July 1 and may not exceed 12 months.

Allowable Costs: Funds may be used for costs necessary to plan the research project (consistent with university and state rules) including:

  • Personnel
  • Travel
  • Equipment
  • Supplies
  • Contractual services
  • Core/shared user facility fees: Note that OVPRI funds will be transferred directly to the core facility, while funds for all other costs will be transferred to a faculty-managed departmental index for the award.
  • Salary for non-tenure track faculty, graduate students, undergraduates, and/or technical personnel conducting proposed research
  • PI stipend during the summer months: The FRA provides $7,000 for two consecutive summer months of research and writing. Please note that stipends are processed through payroll and are subject to Other Payroll Expenses (OPE). The recipient’s unit must calculate the expected OPE and reduce the stipend award accordingly. The maximum request for a summer stipend is $7,000.
    • If you would like funds in addition to the full summer stipend, you may request up to an additional $3,000, with preference given to applicants who use this to support opportunities for student engagement in research. 

Unallowable Costs:

  • Replacing or funding tenure-line faculty salary during the academic year
  • Instructional release/course buyouts
  • Construction or facility renovation
  • Curriculum development or career development
  • Dissertation research costs

Application Components

Application: Applications must be submitted using the online submission form.

Application Form (online): Basic information is to be provided in the form’s text boxes. Note that the form cannot be saved part way through.

Proposal Documents: Single-spaced text, Times New Roman font in 11-point or larger, and 1” margins, use templates in RFP. 

  1. Proposal Narrative (3-page limit)
  2. References Cited (no page limit)
  3. Curriculum Vitae (2-page limit)
  4. Budget Justification (no page limit)
  5. Unit Head Approval Form: Provide a scanned copy or e-signature confirming your unit head approves of the proposed application, including the budget. 

Submission Instructions: Complete all components of the application and combine them into a single PDF in the order listed above, with each component on its own page. Save with the naming convention [Contact PI Last Name]_FY 25 Faculty Research Award.

  1. Fill out the basic information in the online application form.
  2. Upload the complete PDF. NOTE: If the Unit Head Approval Form has a digital/ e-signature, the PDF cannot be combined with the rest of the application, but rather must be uploaded separately (combining erases the digital signature).
  3. Submit the form.
  4. Each PI may complete the demographic survey described below (optional).

Optional Demographic Survey (online): The OVPRI is committed to creating an environment that fosters sensitivity to and understanding of the diverse academic, socioeconomic, cultural, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, and racial and ethnic backgrounds present in our community. The application form includes a section to disclose demographic information aimed at assessing the success of our activities towards this goal. Response to these questions is entirely optional and is not considered in award decisions. This information will not be seen by the review committee, but rather used by OVPRI leadership to ensure our internal granting programs are inclusive and equitable and serve diverse populations at UO. We welcome the submission of this information from all PIs on the project.

Review Process & Criteria

RDS will conduct an initial review to ensure that proposals comply with all guidelines. The UO Faculty Senate-appointed Faculty Research Awards Committee will conduct a peer review to evaluate the grant proposals and recommend proposals for funding to the Vice President for Research and Innovation, who makes the final funding decisions. Applicants are informed of whether they are selected or not for the award. Reviewer feedback will be provided to all applicants.

Criteria: See the review sheet as used by the review committee when scoring proposals.

  • Significance and Contribution (weighted at 30%): Is the project intellectually significant? What value does it offer to the faculty member’s disciplinary field and/or general audiences? If it is interdisciplinary, how does it contribute across fields?
  • Concepts and Methods (weighted at 30%): Is the conception, definition, organization, and description of the project clearly articulated? Will the proposed methods answer the questions driving the research or enable the successful completion of creative work?
  • Work Plan/Budget Justification (weighted at 10%): Is the work plan and timeline feasible, appropriate, and supported by a well-justified budget?
  • Competencies, Skills, Access, and Support/CV (weighted at 15%): Is the applicant well-qualified to carry out the proposed work and have the means to do so if funded?
  • Final Product(s) and Dissemination (weighted at 15%): What is the likelihood of achieving the project's final product(s)? How strong is the dissemination plan for its intended audience(s)?

Reporting

A final report is required and due to Research Development Services no later than one month (30 days) after the conclusion of funding. RDS will supply awardees with a link to the final report form in the last quarter of their project.

Previous Award Recipients

 

2025 Awards:

  • Nina Amstutz, Department of History of Art and Architecture
  • Marjorie Celona,  Creative Writing Program
  • Maria Fernanda Escallon, Department of Anthropology
  • Alisa Freedman, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures
  • Stephen Frost, Professor, Department of Anthropology
  • Patrick Hunnicut, School of Planning, Public Policy and Management
  • Vera Keller, Professor, Department of History
  • Yvette Saavedra, Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
  • Yizhao Yang, School of Planning, Public Policy and Management

2024 Awards:

  • Carlos Aguirre, Department of History
  • Nancy Cheng, Department of Architecture
  • Diego Mauricio Cortes, School of Communication and Journalism
  • Anca Cristea, Department of Economics
  • Lance Gabrielsen, Department of Management
  • Brian Hsu, Department of Music Performance
  • Leigh Johnson, Departments of Geography and Environmental Studies
  • Abigail Lee, Department of Indigenous, Race and Ethnic Studies
  • David Liebowitz, Department of Education Studies
  • Susanna Lim, Department of Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies
  • Michelle McKinley, School of Law
  • Danielle Mericle, UO Libraries’ Special Collections & University Archives
  • Judith Raiskin, Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies
  • Eleonora Redaelli, School of Planning, Public Policy and Management
  • Stephen Shoemaker, Department of Religious Studies

2023 Awards:

  • Erin Beck,  Department of Pollical Science
  • Lauren Cycyck, Department of Special Education and Clinical Sciences
  • Stephen Dueppen, Department of Anthropology
  • Jean Kjellstrand, aDepartment of Counseling Psychology and Human Services
  • Torsten Kjellstrand, School of Journalism and Communication
  • Colin Koopman,  Department of Philosophy
  • Ernesto Javier Martínez, Department Indigenous, Race and Ethnic Studies
  • Katelyn McDonough, Department of Anthropology
  • Isabel Millán, Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies
  • Lanie Millar, Department of Romance Studies
  • Laura Pulido, Department Indigenous, Race and Ethnic Studies
  • James Schombert,  Department of Physics
  • Daniel Gómez Steinhart, Department of Cinema Studies
  • David Sutherland, Department of Earth Sciences
  • Julie Weise,  Department of History