Frequently Asked Questions - University Facilitating Fund

Eligibility | Application | Submission | Review & Notification

Eligibility

Who is eligible to apply to the UFF?

To be eligible, faculty must be:

Full-time, regular active status faculty who are continuing in service at GW the following academic year.
PI must be in a school other than the Law School, SMHS or GWSPH. (Faculty members in the Law School, SMHS and GWSPH cannot serve as the PI, but may be listed as an investigator.)
PIs who have fulfilled reporting requirements from all previous intramural competitions. Those who have not submitted all reports may be rejected or will be asked to complete reporting requirements prior to receiving funds.

Each application must list only one principal investigator (PI), who will be the sole contact for the application and/or award. A faculty member may submit only one proposal as the PI and may not designate another faculty member to serve as PI. An award for consecutive years for the same project is permissible if sufficient progress and justification for continued funding is demonstrated.

Are research faculty eligible to apply?

Yes, research faculty are eligible to apply. UFF will support salary for research faculty serving as PI, but is capped at 25% of project funding.

Are faculty who are or will be on sabbatical eligible to apply?

Yes, faculty who are or will be on sabbatical are eligible to submit an application.

Application

When are proposals due?

Tuesday, January 14, 2025, at 1:00 PM ET.

What signatures are required for my application?

The Department Chair approves through the letter of support form or via an email indicating they agree to protect the level of effort indicated in the proposal. PI’s must submit the Department Chair Support Form or email with their proposal via InfoReady. It is the PI’s responsibility to obtain documentation of the support in advance of the application deadline. If the submitting faculty member is a department chair, then the dean or appropriate associate dean should complete this statement. This form or email will also serve as the departmental approval for the proposal.

For any PI whose project will be managed through CCAS, the UFF requires they provide the name and email address for both their department chair and their departmental finance director as part of the application (InfoReady form section – Proposal Information).

Are letters of support required?

No. Letters of support are not required from co-investigators or others.

Is there a page limit?

Certain sections have page limits. More information on what should be included in each component can be found in the University Facilitating Fund FY25 Call for Proposals linked under the InfoReady Support Documents column.

May I request more than the funding limitation?

No, budgets should not exceed the program funding limit. The funding range is $5,000-$20,000 and awards are typically less than $15,000 each.

Can UFF funds be used for course release?

No. Direct course release is not an allowable expense on UFF awards.

May I repackage an unfunded project formerly proposed to an extramural sponsor?

Yes, but consider the following: The intent of these intramural funds is to spur research that could not otherwise be funded by extramural funding, but is critical to obtain external funding. For example, a sponsor may not fund very risky pilot projects or new laboratory techniques. Therefore, a PI may submit a UFF application to develop measures or techniques, or to analyze data, the results of which would be used to apply for the external funding.

What if the IRB process prevents my project from being completed within one year?

In planning the timeline for your project, it is essential that the IRB process be considered as the funds will be available only during FY25, i.e. July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026.

Are appendices or references allowed to be attached in the application?

Supporting information may be provided with a maximum of one (1) page; however, this optional information may or may not be taken into consideration by reviewers evaluating your applications.

Should I include indirect costs in my budget?

No. This is not an external project, overhead/indirect costs are not allowed.

Do members of the OVPR Sponsored Projects team need to review my application?

No. This is not an external project and does require approval by the Pod or the Office of Sponsored Projects.

Submission

How do we submit applications to the UFF?

PI’s are required to submit their UFF applications through InfoReady.

Who submits the proposal through InfoReady?

The person listed as PI must submit the proposal through InfoReady.

What is the best file format for application documents?

It is encouraged that application documents are uploaded as PDF (portable document format) files.

To convert documents such as .doc, .docx, or other file types, open the file and select "Save as Abode PDF" from the File menu. Using this method will preserve active hyperlinks, formatting and page layouts. "Printing" to a PDF may remove important formatting. For more information click the link Adobe PDF.

Review & Notification

How will proposals be reviewed?: Awards will be based on the merits and design of the project and on the clarity of the written proposal. Reviewers are active GW researchers who are assigned to proposals at random. Upon submission of reviewers' scorecards, proposals will be ranked and assessed by specialty panel reviews in scholarly and research categories. If the application is missing major components by the proposal deadline, the proposal will not be reviewed.
When will the decisions be sent to the PIs?: The Office of the Vice Provost for Research will finalize awardees and notifications of winning proposals will be sent to PIs in Spring 2025.