Six awards have been distributed under a new program from the Office of Research and Engagement, with the goal toward increasing the percentage of faculty applying for and receiving external funding.
The Strengthening a Culture of Research Within Academic Units program targets colleges or departments with fewer than 60 percent of full-time, tenure, or tenure-track faculty members currently receiving funding. As part of this program, associate deans for research or department heads from these areas will work with ORE to establish a formal internal review process to improve the quality of their external grant submissions in coordination with ORE.
In a recent survey from ORE’s Research Development Team, more than 70 percent of faculty respondents indicated that they did not have access to departmental internal peer review of grant proposals and more than 55 percent indicated that they did not have access to college internal peer review panels. This program seeks to encourage more quality proposals by enabling access to internal peer review and ORE research development support.
The awardees are:
- Bill Nugent, associate dean for research, College of Social Work
- Hollie Raynor, associate dean for research, College of Education, Health and Human Sciences
- Tami Wyatt, associate dean for research, College of Nursing
- Katherine Ambroziak, associate dean for research, College of Architecture and Design
- Jon Shefner, department head, sociology
- Deborah Welsh, department head, psychology
Academic units that have a high percentage of faculty applying for funding typically have a high percentage of funded faculty. Currently, 42 percent of tenure and tenure-track faculty are externally funded, and that number varies greatly between academic units.