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Office of the Vice Provost for Research

 

University Facilitating Fund

Purpose

The goal of the University Facilitating Fund is to foster the creation of new research projects and scholarly activities that encourage application to externally funded opportunities, bring external recognition to the PI and university and/or demonstrate significant impact to the field of which it belongs.

  • In disciplines where external funding is available, (e.g., science and engineering), the potential for UFF activities to lead to external funding will be the primary factor in review.
  • In disciplines where external funding sources are limited (e.g., arts and humanities), the scholarly merits of the program or project will be weighted heavily.

Emphasis will be placed on junior investigators, first-time applicants, and investigators who are proposing work in a new area of research and scholarship. Proposals to continue or extend previous work will be considered but prioritized accordingly.

Furthermore, applicants are encouraged to articulate how the proposed research and scholarship supports one or more of the university's academic priorities which include:

  • Equity and Social Justice
  • Academic Medicine
  • Sustainability and Climate Change
  • Data Science, Computing, and Society
  • Penn West Equity and Innovation District

Start FY24 UFF Application

Eligibility

To be eligible, faculty must be:

  1. Regular full-time university faculty who are continuing in service at the university the following academic year
  2. PI must be in a school other than 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.)
  3. PIs who have not fulfilled reporting requirements from previous intramural competitions are ineligible

Each application must have only one principal investigator (PI) listed 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 and outlined in the application.

Important Documents

Deadlines

Deadlines for the upcoming competition have been scheduled:

  • Full Proposal Due: Tuesday, January 31, 2023 by 12:00 PM via InfoReady

All required documents for the UFF competition can also be found in the InfoReady portal. Please contact [email protected] if you have any questions about the submission process or supporting documentation. Please include "UFF" in the subject line of your email.

View the Frequently Asked Questions page for more information.

View the FY24 UFF Recipients