Academic Excellence Fund - Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate and Professional Education

Academic Excellence Fund (AEF)

5/7/09 - Notification to Lead Project Directors, who were awarded funding this year, will be distributed on or before May 8, 2009. Lead Project Directors, who did not receive funding, will be notified within the next few weeks. Please see below for a list of awarded projects for 2008-09. -- Dr. Pazzani.

Overview

President McCormick announced the creation of the Academic Excellence Fund during his "Address to the University Community" Sept. 19, 2003. The AEF provides seed money to support innovative, interdisciplinary proposals that enhance the university's primary missions of teaching, research and service. The AEF program is administered through the Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate and Professional Education.

Proposal Criteria

In AY 2008-09, in selecting proposals to be funded, emphasis will be placed on projects that significantly enhance interdisciplinary activities between several schools, departments or centers, establish core resources or facilities that serve multiple groups, or provide seed funding to create or expand academic programs that will be self sustaining.. Key considerations will be whether the project could be leveraged to lead to new academic programs and research projects, whether the activity will be sustained after AEF funding, and the extent to which the project could not be otherwise funded through regular department or school resources or external funding mechanisms.

We are inviting Deans and Directors to collaborate on submitting proposals for Academic Excellence Fund awards. The AEF will provide support for initiatives that fall outside the categories typically considered in an annual budget, including but not limited to:

initiatives that improve or expand Rutgers academic and research programs
initiatives that cut across the boundaries of schools, colleges, and disciplines and that advance novel multidisciplinary interactions and ways of thinking
initiatives that leverage other resources committed to furthering academic excellence at Rutgers, and
initiatives that allow revenue-generation for academic programs by growth to accommodate additional students

Proposals should be no more than three (3) pages in length, not including the proposal cover sheet and budget form. Proposals should include a plan for sustaining the project after AEF funding. The maximum that may be requested from the Academic Excellence Fund for any one project is $125,000, and the median project is anticipated to be below $60,000.

Restrictions

The AEF program is not intended to restore activities that were reduced due to budget cuts or to provide seed funding for single PI projects. In this year, the following restrictions apply:

A faculty member may participate in no more than one AEF proposal.
A faculty member may not apply as PI if s/he is PI of an existing AEF award with unexpended funds.
Funds may not be used to buy out of courses. If projects require this, it should be a form of "match" from the school as a sign of its commitment.

Please Note: Those receiving an AEF award in a prior year, are required to include with their proposals a brief accounting of the use of AEF funds and a summary of project accomplishments in order to be eligible for consideration for a 2008-09 AEF award.

Submission Process

All proposals must be submitted through the appropriate Dean. In the case of those Centers, Bureaus and Institutes that report directly to the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs or the Camden or Newark Chancellors, they should be submitted through the Director. Proposals from Centers that are within schools and colleges should be submitted through the appropriate Dean. Deans and Directors may submit multiple proposals from their units, and should provide a relative ranking of the proposals submitted. Proposals from more than one campus should be submitted to each of the relevant offices.

Proposals are due by 5 P.M. on March 25, 2009.

All proposals should be submitted to the Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate and Professional Education to vpr-admin@orsp.rutgers.edu.

New Brunswick proposals should be sent to the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs to leslie@oldqueens.rutgers.edu.

Newark proposals should be submitted to their respective Chancellor's office to chancellor-newark@newark.rutgers.edu.

Camden proposals should be submitted to their respective Chancellor's office to irisr@camden.rutgers.edu.

Submissions should be sent as a single pdf file, including the cover sheet, proposal, and budget forms. For identification purposes, please save files using the following format: Principal Investigator's last name, first name, school or center and department.
EXAMPLE: Smith_John_SAS_Psychology

Program Announcement (PDF)
Guidelines for Proposal and Budget Preparation (PDF)

Forms for Proposal Submission

AEF Cover Sheet (fillable PDF)
Budget Form for Proposal (Excel)

Please save all the forms to your computer before you start working on them.

Once complete, convert all the forms to PDF format including the cover sheet. Convert the cover sheet to PDF by clicking on the print button on the upper right corner of the form or from the menu bar under File, Print and selecting "Adobe PDF" as your printer.

Once you have all the files in PDF format, you can open the PDF of your Cover Sheet and from the menu bar under Document. Click on Insert Pages. Check to make sure location is "After" and the radio button for "last" under page are selected. Repeat insert pages for each PDF you have and afterward use Save As to complete the process. You can also scan all the pages into one PDF. Send this PDF file to your Dean or Director for consideration.

If you have any problems or questions please contact Mary Feldenkreiss.

Fund Allocation

Decisions regarding allocation of funds will be made by the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, Vice President for Research and Graduate and Professional Education and the Newark and Camden Chancellors by April 16, 2009. Proposers will receive notification shortly thereafter.

Set Up of Award Accounts

Award account set up will be handled by the Office of the Vice President for Research. Revised budget forms must be received and approved before accounts will be set up. Please use one of the Budget Forms below to submit revised budgets for awarded projects. Funds may be expended as soon as notification of account set up is received. For further information, see Guidelines for Budget Preparation above.

Revised Budget Forms for Awards ONLY

Note: It's highly recommended to Save these Excel spreadsheets to your computer before working on them.

Budget Form — Single–Year (Excel)
Budget Form — Multi–Year (Excel)

Previously Funded Projects

Below are lists of awards from previous years to demonstrate the types of proposals that have been funded.

Questions

General Procedures and Creation of pdf Files: Mary Feldenkreiss; 732-932-0150 x3015; felden@orsp.rutgers.edu
Acceptable Projects & Proposal Content: Michael Pazzani; pazzani@rutgers.edu
Newark Campus: Professor Sherri-Ann Butterfield (Sociology Department); sbutter@andromeda.rutgers.edu
Camden Campus: Contact your Dean
Budget: Charles Mathews; 732-932-0150 x2103; mathews@orsp.rutgers.edu

Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate and Professional Education