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The University of Tennessee

UT Knoxville Office of Research

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Internal Funding Opportunities

The UTK Office of Research promotes the University of Tennessee agenda with a number of incentives for research, scholarly, and creative activities, as well as services supporting faculty in their search for funding sponsors.

Scholarly and Research Incentive Funds (SARIF)

The UTK Office of Research administers over $1.1 million to support research and creative activities through its Scholarly Activity and Research Incentive Funds (SARIF). These five programs are available to faculty and principal investigators whose departments fall under the jurisdiction of the Chancellor of UT's Knoxville campus. Researchers not under the Chancellor in Knoxville may be co-PIs on proposals or may pursue institutional funding opportunities available through the Institute of Agriculture. The SARIF programs below are described in terms of types of cost that a program covers, type of proposal match, eligibility, and review process.

Equipment and Infrastructure Fund

  • Major equipment purchases, upgrades, renovations (typically only two to three awards per year)
  • Requires significant matching funds
  • Tenured and tenure-track faculty and researchers eligible
  • Proposals reviewed once a year by a subcommittee of the Research Council

Exhibit, Performance and Publication Expense Fund (EPPE)

  • Publications, performances, and exhibits of scholarly activity (Costs for typing manuscripts or reprint charges are excluded.)
  • No match required but matches are desirable
  • All faculty
  • Requests reviewed when received by a subcommittee of the Research Council

Foreign Travel Fund

  • Presentations of research/scholarly activity at professional conferences outside USA
  • Requires a one-third match from the department and a one-third match from the college
  • All faculty
  • Requests reviewed weekly by a committee in the Office of Research

Summer Graduate Research Assistantship (GRA) Fund

  • Summer support for a graduate student
  • Requires endorsement by department head but no financial match
  • Tenured and tenure-track faculty are nominators
  • Applications reviewed once a year by a subcommittee of the Research Council
  • Department required to have an open IRIS GRA position number

Opportunities Fund

  • Pilot studies, start-up funds, travel to granting agencies, organization of workshops/conferences at UT, bridge funds, seed funds
  • Requires departmental/college matching
  • Tenured and tenure-track faculty
  • Requests reviewed weekly by a committee in the Office of Research

Additional Funding Support

Joint Directed Research and Development (JDRD) Funds

  • Support to build partnerships with PIs at ORNL
  • Must match proposed project to a similar project at ORNL
  • Funds administered by Science Alliance

Microbiology across Campuses Educational and Research Venture (M-CERV) Seminars and Seed Grants

  • Funding for seminars that promote multidisciplinary interactions among Knoxville’s microbiologists and related scientists.
  • Seed grants for facilitating inter-campus and inter-disciplinary microbiology-related research projects.

Grant Matching on External Proposals

  • Matching funds for external proposals (primarily for equipment).
  • Matches from other sources within the University are strongly encouraged.
  • Tenured and tenure-track faculty are eligible.
  • Requests reviewed at the time of submission of the proposal by a committee in the Office of Research (One week lead time required).

Bridge Funding

  • Applications should demonstrate a bridge between existing research effort and eventual external support.
  • Up to $50,000 available to maintain projects over a short duration.
  • At least an equal (1:1) amount of matching funds is REQUIRED from the PI's department/college.
  • Bridge Fund support will be paid back using the indirect costs generated by the newly funded grant.

Chancellor's Support

The Chancellor provides additional support to researchers through the following programs:

Chancellor's Grants for Faculty Research -- Highly competitive research fellowships that provide a one course release for tenured and tenure-track faculty in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and applied social sciences to pursue scholarly research or creative projects. Within two semesters of the conclusion of this fellowship, recipients must prepare and submit fellowship or grant proposals to external funding sources.

Chancellor's Professional Development Award (PDA) -- Highly competitive research grants that provide up to $5,000 for tenured and tenure-track faculty in all colleges to pursue scholarly research or creative projects.

Chancellor's Awards for Research and Creative Achievement - Established to honor faculty who have received recognition in their field, and to stimulate research and creative achievement integral to the UT mission.

Chancellor's Awards for Professional Promise in Research and Creative Achievement - Established to honor junior faculty who have received recognition in their field, and to stimulate research and creative achievement integral to the UT mission.