New Faculty Start-Up Opportunities for FY07

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
Issued: August 15, 2005
Deadlines: ABSTRACTS: 12 Noon, August 29, 2005
PROPOSALS: 12 Noon, October 5, 2005

Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research

TO: Deans and Chairs in the Sciences, Engineering, and Mathematics (SEM)
FROM: Gary Johnson, Co-Project Director, ND EPSCoR, UND Office
David R. Givers, Interim Co- Project Director, ND EPSCoR, NDSU Office

RE: New Faculty Start-Up Opportunities

Department Chairs, Deans recruiting Department Chair positions, and Directors of the two ND EPSCoR-designated State Research Initiatives (SRIs) are invited to submit proposals requesting start-up funds for tenure-track research faculty to be hired during FY2007. The major goal of this program is to attract highly qualified tenure-track faculty to our research-intensive universities who will be nationally competitive for grants from federal agency research programs in science, engineering, and mathematics.

Electronic abstracts are due by no later than 12:00 Noon on Monday, August 29, 2005, to the campus Co-Project Director. Include submitter’s name, department, phone number, number of positions requested, amount of the request, and a brief description of the desired qualifications of a successful candidate. Abstracts will aid in the selection of the external review panel, but are not required and will not be part of the evaluation process.
Proposals are due in the ND EPSCoR campus office by no later than 12:00 Noon on Wednesday, October 5, 2005. Proposals will be reviewed by an external panel who will interview only the Dean, Department Chair, or one State Research Initiative (SRI) Director submitting the proposal. The interviewee is welcome to bring six copies of supplemental hard copy handouts to this session, but no audio/visual aids will be allowed. Awards will be announced on or about November 2, 2005. ND EPSCoR anticipates making 10-15 awards for up to two years of support. Awards are contingent on continued funding from the National Science Foundation and the State of North Dakota. Funds should be available July 1, 2006, to hire a new Department Chair and August 16, 2006, for new faculty.

Key Points Relevant to this Award Program:
1. ND EPSCoR is focused on building research capabilities that are aligned with the research-intensive universities’ institutional long-term research objectives; the research commitments of the higher education roundtable; and research that builds the economic base of North Dakota as expressed by the Governor and the State Legislature. Applicants should consider these points in devising an appropriate Research Infrastructure Development Plan.
2. Department hiring processes will be at various stages during proposal review. Thus, it is not necessary that individual recruits be named in the proposal. Rather, the evaluation will be based on the Primary Evaluation Criteria listed below.
3. Proposals will be reviewed externally, and this committee makes recommendations for funding. Each Co-Project Director, in collaboration with the campus Vice President for Research and with the input of the campus Provost, negotiates award levels with the successful departments.
4. These funds should be allocated for faculty summer salary (two months maximum), graduate research stipends (academic year and summer), research-related travel, critical permanent equipment, supplies, and other resources deemed essential for a promising investigator to launch a nationally-competitive research program. No academic year faculty salary is allowed.
5. These funds must supplement and not replace resources that would be used to recruit a new professor.
6. These funds are targeted for the new faculty member’s exclusive use.

Primary Evaluation Criteria:
1. The quality and sustainability of the Research Infrastructure Development Plan for recruiting and hiring high-quality faculty with exemplary academic/professional qualifications.
2. The extent to which the applicant department can ensure/provide the environment; i.e., research space, reasonable teaching load, access to equipment and support staff, and the support of her/his colleagues necessary for building a nationally-competitive and sustainable research program in an area normally supported by the National Science Foundation.
3. Matching funds/support available to the new faculty member provided by the applicant department. These funds may be from sources within the university or from extramural (non-federal) funds. Each university has typically provided a 1:1 match for academic department new faculty hires, although this level of support is not required.
4. The relevance of the Research Infrastructure Development Plan to long-term North Dakota research initiatives expressed by the Governor, the State Legislature, and the federal congressional delegation.

DISCUSSIONS WITH THE CAMPUS CO-PROJECT DIRECTOR ABOUT THE PROGRAM AND EXPECTATIONS REGARDING INSTITUTIONAL COMMITMENTS ARE STRONGLY ENCOURAGED.

Checklist Requirements:
Proposal Hard Copies: Original + 10
No more than 11 double-spaced, one-sided pages, margins ≥ 1”, with no less than a 10-point font. Staple all copies in the following order:
1. Signed cover page stating submitter’s name, title, office address, phone number, e-mail address, number of positions requested.
2. Abstract (one page) which must describe the long term plan for the department.
3. Proposal description (no more than eight pages).
4. Budget request (one page), in NSF format, showing amount of ND EPSCoR funds, amount of matching funds and total budget.
5. Appendices (20-page maximum) limited to and in the following order:
a) One-page fact sheet describing the state-of-the-department, including current faculty and their research expertise, active and recently expired grants and contracts, and average teaching loads.
b) Letters of commitment for match.
c) Interdepartmental support letters if specific collaboration is proposed.
d) CVs of candidates who have received invitations for interviews from the applicant department (if appropriate, and if particularly strong candidates have been identified).
Proposal Electronic Copy: Complete proposal to the campus Co-Project Director via e-mail attachment, in order to expedite the external review process.

NDSU: Please direct your questions to Mr. David R. Givers at 701-231-7516 or David.Givers@ndsu.edu.
UND: Please direct your questions to Dr. Gary Johnson at 701-777-2492
or GaryEJohnson@mail.und.nodak.edu.
For information about ND EPSCoR and other funding opportunities, please visit the Web site at www.ndepscor.nodak.edu