Campus Correspondence

2008 REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

The Council on Research (CoR) Summer Stipend Program provides financial support to junior researchers at the rank of assistant professor seeking to contribute to scholarly knowledge in their discipline. Each proposal is evaluated for the impact the project will have on the indicated discipline, broader impacts, and the effect on the researcher’s career. This program has provided support for researchers in the beginning stages of their research careers for over 45 years.

The CoR Summer Stipend Program enables junior faculty recipients to spend a portion of the summer term in research activity without the disruption of other employment obligations. The research activity should be carried out at the location most appropriate and need not be restricted to the campus. The $5,000 stipend provides for a one-month appointment beginning on July 1, 2008 and ending on July 31, 2008. Specifically, if you plan to teach class during the month of July 2008, you are ineligible for this program and should not apply.

Application Procedures

Applications must be submitted electronically by 4:30 p.m., Wednesday, October 31, 2007 to the Office of Research and Economic Development (ORED) at research@lsu.edu. Submission of the proposal must be via attachment to an e-mail message (please do not include the proposal in the body of the e-mail message). The body of the e-mail message should include your name, department, and college, division or school. Please put CoRSSP in the subject line of the email. The department/unit head must be copied on the e-mail submission. Paper submissions will not be accepted.

The application forms can be downloaded above. The attached file must be saved as a Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) document. Name the file with your last name followed by an underscore, your first name followed by an underscore, and your home department name. Use lower case letters only with no spaces in between (example: pourciau_todd_research.doc).

Please use a common system font (i.e. Times, Times New Roman, Arial) of 12-point size. The right and left margins must be no smaller than 0.75". Top and bottom margins must be no smaller than 1". Please number the pages consecutively beginning with the Cover Sheet.

Submission deadline to the current call is October 31, 2007. The file must arrive at the ORED server (research@lsu.edu) by 4:30 p.m. on the date given above.

A complete document must contain the application cover sheet, vita cover sheet along with a complete vita, and full proposal. The file can be continuous, i.e., a new page is not needed for each item. Be sure that each new section is clearly labeled. No budget is required as the complete stipend is provided as salary.

Eligibility Restrictions

Each faculty is only eligible to receive one Summer Stipend during their term as an assistant professor. Those whose proposals are not selected for funding, may re-apply while at the rank of assistant professor. Applicants may be considered a total of three times for this grant. We expect to notify applicants about the grants in January 2008. Unsuccessful applicants will be provided with comments and suggestions intended to be used to improve the proposal for resubmission in subsequent years. Receipt of a CoR Summer Stipend should not supplant support from a dean, director or department head.

Proposals are to be written in language understandable to the typical academic and should not include excessive use of discipline specific jargon. Each faculty member may submit only one individual proposal. Proposals from interdisciplinary teams (at least two faculty) are also welcome. In the case of an interdisciplinary proposal, each faculty researcher will receive a $5,000 award. Each proposal is limited to no more than three double-spaced, typewritten pages. Applicants should use the format indicated in PS-36 (page 31, section B1) for their vita.

There will be an informational workshop on Wednesday, October 3, 2007 at Hill Memorial Library from 1:30 until 3:00 p.m. Proposers will be able to speak with reviewers in their disciplinary area about their project ideas. While not required, proposers are strongly encouraged to attend.

Chair’s Ranking

It is important to emphasize that the ranking sheet submitted by the department chair/unit head is a part of the overall evaluation utilized by the Council on Research peer-review teams. The department chair/unit head should use this sheet to rank all proposals from the department/unit based on her/his department's research priorities. All proposals must be ranked. Because we have transitioned to an electronic submission process this year, each department chair/unit head should send their ranking sheet (saved in MS Word) as an attachment to an email to research@lsu.edu by October 31, 2007. The subject line should indicate the following: CoRSSP XXXX Department Chair Ranking (insert your department name in place of the XXXX). The evaluation sheet used by the CoR review teams can be viewed on the website as well. It is critically important that each proposal address the five major categories on the review sheet.

Program Director
Todd A. Pourciau, PhD
Senior Assistant Vice Chancellor

Summer Stipend Proposal Review Sheet