Faculty Successes & Opportunities
The Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR), in collaboration with Academic Affairs and ADVANCE at UNM, has launched an institutional initiative to support main campus faculty in navigating the post-pandemic world. UNM data show that during the pandemic, many faculty members spent less time on research and scholarship and related professional development as they revised their teaching and dealt with new and different demands in their home lives. As we transition out of the pandemic, the WeR1 Faculty Success Program seeks to support UNM faculty in new and creative ways.
Goals of the WeR1 Faculty Success Program were created with the understanding that faculty retention and advancement depends upon increased transparency, supportive structures, and resources that allow faculty to transition, rebuild, recover, and/or refocus their research, scholarship, and creative work. Any investment must encompass both small steps and expansive interdisciplinary initiatives—faculty need support now, but they also need that support to remain in place and be accessible in the coming years. The OVPR has committed over $1 million in funding for this program over the next two years.
Eligibility
UNM Main Campus tenure track or research faculty are eligible to apply for the programs when available. Preference will be given to non-tenured early career, tenure-track faculty and faculty whose research progress/productivity has been demonstrably affected by the pandemic. Recipients must have submitted all reports and requirements from previous OVPR awards.
Request for Proposals
For a complete listing of all internal competitions and RFP's please visit the Office of the Vice President for Research Infoready
Faculty Scholarship Time (FaST)
The Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) is pleased to announce that the application window for the 2024 Fall Faculty Scholarship Time (FaST) competition is now open in InfoReady Review
The FaST program provides faculty with a reduced teaching load during the Fall 2024 semester to focus on the research, scholarship, and creative work interrupted by the pandemic. This program provides funding for faculty to receive either a one-semester, one-course reduction in their teaching load or support for a graduate project assistant (PA) to assist with course-related duties (grading, office hours, preparation of course materials, etc.). Main campus, tenured and tenure-track faculty in all disciplines are eligible to apply. Faculty are only eligible for one award through this program (overall, not per cycle).
The full RFP is attached.
Important Dates for Fall 2024 FaST:
- Beginning November 3, 2023: Application opens (UNM InfoReady)
- December 8, 2023: Proposals due
- Mid-January, 2024: Award decisions and notifications
To learn more about this and other initiatives under the WeR1 Program for Faculty Research Success, visit research.unm.edu/facultysuccess.
Contact frdo@unm.edu with any questions.
Fostering Research Expansion in the Social Sciences & Humanities (FRESSH)
The Fostering Research Expansion in Social Sciences and Humanities (FRESSH) Program establishes annual cohorts of faculty, staff, and postdocs with research projects in the Social Sciences, Arts, and Humanities. Each participant develops research concepts and proposals suitable for funding opportunities from federal agencies or major foundations. The FRESSH program focuses on awareness and use of internal resources, targeted training for opportunity scoping, concept and proposal development, and building community around Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts research. In addition to full-group meetings, participants attend sessions on research development topics more narrowly relevant to their fields. Participants are expected to submit a funding proposal as lead on a project within 18 months of the program’s start.
Cohort Members
Contact Info
For more information contact frdo@unm.edu
Program for Enhancing Research Capacity (PeRC)
The Program for Enhancing Research Capacity (PeRC) supports acquisition of shared instrumentation or enhancement of shared facilities that enable major endeavors to advance discovery, creativity and innovation across campus. This program seeks to add or augment research capacity through the acquisition or upgrading of instrumentation for use by multiple investigators. Thus, the proposed equipment must be housed within a space accessible to more than one PI/lab group and must have multiple committed users either within a single department/college, or preferably from multiple departments and colleges. PeRC currently has an annual cycle with applications due the last Friday of October.
Scholarly Advancement Via Enterprise Research Software (SAVERS)
The Scholarly Advancement Via Enterprise Research Software (SAVERS) program supports acquisition of shared enterprise software licenses that enable major endeavors to advance discovery, creativity, and innovation across campus. The program’s overall goal is to be responsive to the needs of UNM researchers by supporting software licenses for use by multiple researchers across multiple departments, colleges, or other academic units. As such, the acquired software or licenses must be provided and administered at an enterprise level, accessible to more than one PI/lab group, and must have multiple committed users either within a single department/college, or preferably from multiple departments and colleges.
Summer Research for Faculty (SuRF)
In the summer of 2021, more than $280,000 of allocated funds were distributed to faculty members for support of research graduate students, writing, travel, repair or replacement of equipment, and incentives for human subject research:
- 87 faculty participants
- Over 2/3 of the applicants were women
- 83% of the submissions were from assistant and associate professors