The Office of Research, Innovation, and Economic Development manages a portfolio of internal investment funds to support research, scholarship, and creative activities at the University of Tennessee.
Cost Share for Proposals
Cost share requests for proposals submitted by the Knoxville campus are reviewed by the Division of Research Administration. Requests should be sent to David Smelser, Director of Pre-Award Operations (dsmelser@utk.edu). The guidance below does not apply to proposals submitted by the UT Institute of Agriculture; please contact the UTIA Office of Sponsored Programs for campus-specific information.
For any cost share required by the sponsor, ORIED proposes 50% cost share from ORIED, and 50% from any other internal contributors (any combination of college, department, and/or faculty). Any cost share provided by external contributors reduces the mandatory cost share provided by all UT contributors.
Exception: When mandatory cost share is required on proposals that do not generate full indirect costs, or when the principal investigator is in a non-STEM department that may have resource constraints, additional negotiation is possible when needed to facilitate proposal submission.
Exception: Soft money-funded units are exempt from requests to commit their indirect cost returns for voluntary cost share.
Voluntary cost share should demonstrate institutional support for the team and the idea; resource core center operations when the project exceeds the sponsor budget, as large efforts often should; and/or pay for critical project needs that are either not allowed in the sponsor budget or not advisable to include for strategic reasons. Requests must be accompanied by a line-item budget for the cost share request (equivalent to up to 60% of indirect costs) that clearly supports the goals above and the competitiveness of the entire effort. Voluntary cost share requests must meet the same fiscal standards as sponsor budgets.
Opportunities for Faculty
The following internal funding opportunities should be submitted via the InfoReady portal, which also provides detailed instructions on how to apply for each fund. Some funds accept applications at any time, while others have an annual deadline. Funds that are not visible in InfoReady are not currently accepting applications. Please contact avcrd@utk.edu with any questions about the application or review process.
Umbrella Eligibility Criteria: Although each fund’s eligibility criteria may vary, internal funding opportunities are generally open to support tenured or tenure-track researchers with a primary appointment at UT Knoxville, the UT Institute of Agriculture, or the UT Space Institute.
Award Management: Financial oversight of internal awards is provided in collaboration with Research Finance and Administration (orefinance@utk.edu). Programmatic oversight is provided by the ORIED associate vice chancellor of each fund’s awarding division.
Book Subvention: Defrays expenses related to publication of books and monographs, including publishing costs and related costs that need funding beyond the publisher’s support, such as indices, diagrams, artwork, estate permissions, etc. Subvention requests are managed by the UT Humanities Center.
Art: Covers expenses including (but not limited to) matting, mounting, framing, packing, and shipping artworks or rental of exhibit space.
Other: Covers other costs associated with preparation of programs or other page charges, subscription fees, articles published in a journal, and other materials needed for exhibit. Click here to apply for Subvention: One-Source Funding. Click here to apply for Subvention: Three-Source Funding. Click here to apply for Art and Other Funding.
Additional UT Funding Opportunities
The funding opportunities below are funded and managed by other units, and ORIED advertises them as a service to the campus community. If your unit offers an internal funding opportunity that you would like to list here, please contact Jennifer Webster (jwebster@utk.edu).
- Center for Global Engagement: Global Catalyst Grants Program
- Diversity and Engagement: Sponsorship and Funding
- Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment: Seed Grants
- Libraries: Open Publishing Support Fund
- UT-Oak Ridge Innovation Institute: Program for Advancing Collaborative Teams (PACT)
- UT-Oak Ridge Innovation Institute: Seed Program
- UT-Oak Ridge Innovation Institute: Support for Affiliated Research Teams (StART)
- UT Research Foundation: Technology Maturation Fund