Junior Faculty Fellowship Program

Eligible: Tenure-track assistant professors in their first four years at the university.

Ineligible: Faculty who are ABD, tenured (associate and full professors), ranked renewable term faculty, instructors, lecturers, adjunct faculty, and visiting faculty.

JFF applicants may request up to $7,000 and awards are announced annually, in April. Matching funds from other sources are not required. Eligible individuals may receive up to two awards during their eligibility period. Recipients must commit at least one month to the proposed research or creative activity. The funds may be used for any legitimate purpose associated with the project, provided it is justified in the proposal. An individual may not hold awards from both the JFF Program and the Faculty Investment Program for research that is the same or similar in scope.

This is a reimbursement program: if funded, the OVPRP will reimburse the principal investigator’s department for expenditures up to the award amount, after the PI’s Final Report has been submitted and approved by the OVPRP. 

Formatting Requirements

Your application must include the eight components listed below, in the order shown and each in its own clearly labeled section. Observe the page limit indicated for each component.

Format narrative components with line spacing of at least 1.5 lines, a font size no smaller than 11 points, and one-inch margins.  Line spacing must not be smaller than 1.5 lines, font size must be at least 11 points, and 1” margins must be used.

Required components

1.  Application Cover Sheet: Download and complete the separate, fillable PDF cover sheet (see Resources section for cover sheet), obtain all required signatures, and include the signed copy in your application.

2.  Project Description (maximum 5 pages): Describe the overall research plan. Because the Research Council is a multidisciplinary panel, write so that a non-expert can understand your work: use plain language and avoid jargon, acronyms, and technical minutiae that obscure your meaning. Your narrative should:

• explain the project’s intellectual significance, stating the problem or issue clearly, providing enough background literature to establish context, and identifying the specific knowledge gap your work will fill;
• state the project’s goal(s);
• define your methodology or activities, how they related to your goal(s), and how you will carry them out;
• provide a timeline for the activities and relate it to your funding request;
• list and describe the goal(s) of the project.
• describe the anticipated outcome(s), emphasizing indicators of quality (e.g., a book contract, peer-reviewed publications, an invited talk) and the potential for future external sponsorship of the research (e.g., planned proposals, sponsor engagement, increased visibility).

3.  Career Impact Statement (maximum 1 page): Describe how the proposed research or creative activity will advance your scholarship and strengthen your case for tenure.

4.  References (no page limit): List references on a separate page(s); they do not count against the five-page Project Description limit.

5.  Use of Research Council Funds (maximum 1 page): Complete this section only if you have previously received a JFF or Faculty Investment Program (FIP) award. Briefly describe that project and its outcomes, and explain any connection to your current request.

6.  Funding Request, Budget Justification, and Startup Status (maximum 2 pages): Using the JFF budget template (under “Resources” in left navigation panel) provide an itemized budget and a budget justification explaining how the funds will be spent and why they are needed.  Link each budget item (e.g., funding for a student) to specific elements of the project description (e.g., the collection and analysis of data by the student). Where appropriate, include supporting documentation such as vendor quotes for equipment purchases and estimates for travel. If you request funding for a specific individual, describe that person’s duties and why they are essential to the project. Describe how your start-up funds have been or will be used; if you have none, or have already spent them, explicitly state this.

7.  CV: Provide a current copy of the CV that you have submitted or will submit to your department as part of your annual evaluation. Include a section summarizing your internal and external funding since your OU appointment, covering both successful and unsuccessful applications for support. For any award from the Office of the Vice President for Research and Partnerships or Research Council in the past three years, especially any prior JFF awards received, add a short paragraph noting the amount and how it advanced your research or scholarly activity. If any funding you have received (internal or external) overlaps in scope with this application, explain the overlap.

8.  Letter of Endorsement: Provide a letter of endorsement from your department chair/director. Where appropriate, the letter should specify any additional support the department will provide (e.g., clerical assistance, research assistant, laboratory equipment, supplies, etc.).  The Research Council weights this endorsement equally with the other review criteria, so a thoughtful specific letter strengthens your application.

Supplementary Documentation:  These items are project-specific; not all proposals will include them. There is no page limit, but content is limited to:

Regulatory approvals. If the project will involve human subjects, laboratory animals, rDNA, radioactive materials, or biohazards, describe your plans to obtain necessary approvals or related documents by the time a Research Council award is expected to be made and include it in your proposal. The relevant units are:

·         Human Subjects — Institutional Review Board (IRB)

·         Laboratory Animals — Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC)

·         Radioactive Materials — Radiation Safety Committee

·         rDNA and biohazards — Biosafety Committee.

Teaching release. If the proposal requests funding for teaching release, include a completed and signed Teaching Release Form (see Resources section for Teaching Release Form) in your application.

Assembling Your Application

Combine all components into a single PDF file, in the order listed above. Applications received without all required materials, or that do not follow the required formatting, will be returned without review.

READY TO SUBMIT?

Click here to access the JFF Online Submission Portal.  

Criteria

In making funding decisions, the Research Council weights the following criteria equally:

• Quality of the project goal(s)
• Credibility and clarity of the methods describing the proposed work
• Preparedness of the investigator to do the proposed work
• Potential for impact on the investigator's scholarly program
• Appropriateness of budget and justification of resources requested
• Quality of the written narrative
• Quality of endorsement letter.

Review Process

The Council reviews all applications to the highest standards of ethical integrity, following Council policy on conflicts of interest. Each application moves through the following stages:

1.  Completeness Check. Applications that are incomplete or incorrectly formatted are returned without review.

2.  Conflict-of-interest screening. Complete applications that meet the guidelines go to the Council Administrator who identifies and confirms any conflicts of interest between the applicants and Council members. Conflicted members recuse themselves and leave the meeting while the application is discussed and voted on.

3.  Reviewer Assignment. Depending on the number of applications received, Research Council chair will designate up to five subcommittees with each subcommittee evaluating a subset of applications against the review criteria. The subcommittees do this work in January and February; and the Council makes its final recommendations at its February meeting.

4.  Decision and notification. The Council forwards its funding recommendations to the Office of the Vice President for Research and Partnerships, who makes the final funding decision. Award notifications are emailed in March.

JFF award recipients are responsible for the following:

Reporting

The principal investigator is required to submit a final report — a written narrative plus a final budget (see the template in the Resources section) — by the deadline specified in the award letter. The narrative should describe the project’s outcomes; any deviations from the work originally proposed; and any in-progress activities that relate directly to the project.

Once the report has been received and approved, funds are reimbursed to the PI’s department.

To request an extension, email RC_VPRfunding@ou.edu. The extension must be requested prior to the deadline and should include a justification.

Acknowledging Research Council Support

All publications (print or digital) that benefit from Research Council funding must include the following acknowledgment: "This research was supported (in part, if appropriate) by a grant from the Research Council of the University of Oklahoma Norman Campus."

READY TO SUBMIT YOUR FINAL REPORT?

Click here to access the JFF Online Final Report Submission Portal.