Welcome

The Illinois Campus Research Board was established in June of 1932 to serve the campus as a conduit for the distribution of funding to faculty members in support of individual or group research projects. The Board expects to:

• Help new faculty initiate their research on this campus
• Help pre-tenure faculty complete critical scholarship
• Provide seed money for research in new and/or interdisciplinary directions
• Provide support for preliminary studies to improve the potential for attracting external research support
• Supplement the resources available from campus units and external sponsors
• Provide support for important research in fields for which external support is either quite limited or unavailable

Please note the maximum request allowed is $30,000.00

The Research Board is above all committed to fostering excellence in research, scholarship, and creative activities.

Please note that Board funds are not intended to be a source of continuing support for research activities or research facilities.

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Support Not Normally Provided

The Campus Research Board does not fund:

• Faculty salaries
• Full-time appointments of any kind
• Post-doctoral research associates
• Research technicians
• Computer programmers, except where the primary focus of the research is programming and the programmer is integrally involved in research
• RA appointments for greater than 50% time
• RA appointments for more than two months during summer session
• RAs not currently enrolled as graduate students at Illinois during the academic year
• Ordinary research supplies and materials of the kind usually available in departmental laboratories, storerooms and libraries
• Travel to meetings and symposia
• Travel to principal sabbatical leave destinations
• Travel for graduate students
• Book publication subventions for non-refereed or commercial presses
• Page charges for publication of research articles
• Preparation of an index for a publication
• Funds for computer time on Illinois computers
• Database creation from existing data
• Dissertation project research costs which are not clearly also faculty research costs
• Construction and remodeling of facilities
• Equipment maintenance costs
• Non-research costs
• Clerical duties
• Retroactive funding

Applicants are encouraged to consult with the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research Representative to the Campus Research Board at 333-6771 or via e-mail at ovcr-researchboard@illinois.edu regarding requests for unusual purposes or for categories of expense normally not funded by the Board.

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Campus Research Board Programs

The Campus Research Board supports faculty research needs through six distinct programs:

• Research Support Awards (i.e., standard award)
• Seed Funding Award
• Performing Arts & Design Program
• Humanities Released Time Program
• Scholars' Travel Fund Program
• Funding Initiative on Multiracial Democracy

Research Support Awards

The largest program of the Campus Research Board is the Research Support Awards program. There are four application deadlines each year.

Seed Funding Award

The Research Board appreciates that some scholars or groups of scholars are just getting started on a project. This designation allows for scholars to request funds ($10,000) to begin something new and/or prepare for application for external funding.

Performing Arts & Design Program

The Performing Arts & Design Program provides support for released time to performing and visual arts and design faculty to conduct specific creative projects for which it is their own concentrated effort that is needed. The support allows for the recipient to be released from a portion of his or her teaching duties for an appropriate period, usually from two weeks to one semester. The PAD Award includes a stipend for research-related expenditures ($2000 for the entire semester and prorated for shorter periods). Application for this program requires a letter of approval from the relevant executive officer.

Humanities Released Time Program

The Campus Research Board offers released time from teaching to humanities faculty to conduct specific research projects at critical junctures in their careers or in the development/culmination of a project. Please note this support is not analogous to a traditional sabbatical leave and there are specific limitations to the release terms. In particular, individual faculty who receive a released time award are released from teaching only, and are expected to continue their other university responsibilities, including the mentoring of students as well as participation in departmental and campus service activities. Travel during a HRT period is acceptable with prior approval by the department head. The HRT Award includes a $2000 stipend for research-related expenditures. (Departments receive $12,000 for replacement teaching). The HRT cannot be combined in a single academic year with CAS or IPRH funding. Application for this program requires a letter of approval from the relevant executive officer.

Scholars' Travel Fund Program

The Scholars' Travel Fund (STF) is a UIUC Campus Research Board program designed to support the dissemination of faculty members' professional work and expertise: e.g., travel support to Illinois faculty members in specific areas to present original papers or posters at scholarly events. Please note that participation as a discussant, invited lecturer at individual campuses, and research related travel are not supported. Support for other types of travel will be looked at on a case by case basis.

Funding Initiative on Multiracial Democracy

This Campus Research Board program supports research and scholarly programming related to the critical examination of multiracial democracy. Funds for this initiative came to the Research Board in the aftermath of the decision to close the Center for Democracy in a Multiracial Society (CDMS) in fall 2011, an outcome of the Stewarding Excellence evaluation. Piloted in spring 2012, The Board will now annually award half of the annual CDMS appropriation ($150,000) to support proposals that continue the spirit of that program. The program is interested in proposals that examine these issues in any world area. This program seeks to support research that critically engages scholarly and public debates on multiracial democracy; a lower priority is efforts that merely describe, measure, or analyze marginalized populations or social groups.

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Proposal Preparation

Application Submission

Applicants apply directly to the Campus Research Board. Research Support Awards do not need prior review or approval by department heads or deans. Humanities Released Time Program and the Performing Arts & Design Program require a written letter of approval of the relevant executive officer. More generally applicants should consult with their department heads if the activity proposed to the Campus Research Board will require departmental resources not already available to them. Applications must be made at the Research Board Online application.

Unfortunately many investigators wait until the deadline date to submit their proposals. This causes an enormous strain on our servers and often results if long delays when uploading documents. To avoid system delays we highly encourage you to submit proposals prior to the deadline date.

Please limit your supplemental documents to required material. The board is not interested in receiving article reprints.

Application Deadlines

The cutoff for the electronic submission of applications is 3:00 p.m. of the deadline date listed below. Applications submitted any later will be automatically held for the next deadline.

The deadline dates for all Research Support Awards including the Humanities Released Time Program, the Performing Arts & Design Program and Campus Research Board Research Scholars' participants can be found here: http://crb.research.illinois.edu/content/ApplicationDeadlines.aspx

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Application Instructions

Online Applications

Date Submitted
Enter the date the application is being submitted to the Research Board.

PI/CoPI Information
Only full-time University of Illinois tenured/tenure-track faculty and academic professionals are eligible to apply for Campus Research Board awards as the principle investigator (PI) or co-PI. Visiting, zero time, adjunct, partial, non-UIUC, postdoctoral, etc. appointments are not eligible to be listed as the PI or co-PI. Enter the name of the applicant with first name first. For multiple applicants, put the name of the primary investigator first and then list the other investigators. In the case of multiple investigators, the primary investigator is the one responsible for the administration of any funding. All investigator(s) names and pertinent information should appear on the front page of the application.

UIN Number(s)
Enter the applicant's UIN. The UIN is used to retrieve data on prior Campus Research Board support and external funding. The 9-digit number appears on the I-Card.

E-mail Address(s)
Enter the e-mail address of the applicant(s).

Project Information
Project Title
Enter the project title. Do not use "Request for research assistant support" or "equipment" etc. as the project title.

Key Words

Enter five key words or phrases that can be used to identify the focus of the proposed research. This information will be used to search for potential reviewers.

Qualified Peer Reviewers

Enter the name(s) of up to three campus faculty or staff qualified to give an objective peer review of this proposal. Any current faculty, emeritus faculty or staff member named may be used as a reviewer if the Board Member so chooses. Listing an individual does not assure that person will be used as a reviewer.

Initial Request
If this is your first request for this activity from the Campus Research Board, please click "Yes." If you have requested prior support from the Campus Research Board for this activity (whether or not the application was successful), please click "No."

Project Starting Date
Enter the date this project is scheduled to start, or for an on-going project, enter the date the requested funding will be needed.

Special Programs
Click the check box on the line only if this application is for the Seed Funding, the Humanities Released Time Program, the Performing Arts & Design Program, or for the Funding Initiative on Multiracial Democracy.

Project Will Involve
Some types of research require campus compliance oversight. If this proposal will involve any of the types of research listed in this section, check the appropriate lines.

Current Funding, Funding History, and Funding Plans for this Project
All applicants must complete this section
Please provide a history of funding for this project and outline future funding plans (i.e., plans for external grants submission). Within the context of this history and plans, please explain why the Research Board is being asked for support of this project at this time (e.g., is external support unavailable, insufficient, delayed, interrupted, etc.). If external support has been declined for this project, please include copies of all available reviewer comments and priority scores (use the Supplemental Information area to upload).

The following can help you identify funding sources:

• The Office of Foundation Relations can assist faculty in exploring foundation support for their research.
• The OVCR maintains an External Support Resources web site which includes information on recent Limited Submission programs.
• For faculty in the arts, humanities and social sciences, see also http://www.iprh.illinois.edu/resources/opportunities/.
• Also, for faculty in the arts, see: http://faa.illinois.edu/Administration

Proposal Summary
Each application must include a proposal summary. Restrict the summary to the space provided. Beginning August 16, 2010 the Research Board has posted the abstracts of all funded Research Board proposals. The Board hopes that this database will serve as one means of communicating the riches of University of Illinois faculty and research.

Proposal Narrative
A narrative proposal sufficient for peer review must be submitted with the application. No application will be processed without an appropriate narrative proposal. The narrative should be no longer than 5 single-spaced pages (12 pt. font). Items to be included in the narrative proposal are:

• A statement of the objectives and significance of the proposed research/creative activity.
• A summary of relevant previous work by the applicant and/or others and the proposed contributions of this research/creative activity
• A description of the plan for accomplishing the objectives - include methodology, the roles of all personnel involved, and plans for access to any special resources.
• Although budget details for personnel and non-personnel costs are required in the budget section of the application, the narrative should refer to requested funding.

Current Support Information
Complete this section if the applicant has received external support within the last five years that was awarded directly to the applicant and was not administered by the University. The Research Board does take the extent of applicants' external funding into consideration when making hard decisions.

• Recently hired applicants--please explain your Research Board request in relation to your remaining start-up funds (and indicate the current extent of those funds).
• Humanities Released Time Program applicants--please use this section to list all released time and sabbatical or other leaves granted within the last five years, as well as all released time applications pending.
• Faculty in the College of Fine and Applied Arts--please indicate if you have received or have funding pending for this project from the FAA Creative Research Awards and Special Grants.

Budget Summary
The budget summary is to include only amounts being requested from the Campus Research Board and must match the information in "Budget Request" and "Budget Justification."

Research Assistant Support
Complete the applicable cells of the chart if Research Assistant support is being requested. Research Assistants must be current graduate students at the University of Illinois. Please note that the amounts will be automatically entered and may not be the exact cost for the RA. The Research Board will provide funds to cover the complete, exact cost for the research assistantship based on the rates determined by the home department of the student.

Time Periods
There are three time period categories: Fall, Spring, and Summer. You may only ask for research assistantship for a year from the date of application (e.g., if you apply in fall 2010, you may request research assistant support for Spring 2011, Summer 2011, and Fall 2011).

Number of Months
The number of months for each eligible period is pre-filled because of the standardization by the University.

Number of Research Assistants
Enter the number of Research Assistants being requested for each relevant time period. Usually a request is for one Research Assistant; however, more may be requested.

Percent Appointment
Applicants are restricted to requests for appointments of 50%, 33%, 25% or 17% only. The "(if additional RA % needed)" line allows you to indicate RAs at a different rate.

Dollar Amount Needed for Appointment
Please note this part is newly revised for Academic Year '13. The dollar amount which may be requested by percent and time period can be found here: http://crb.research.illinois.edu/content/programs/RSASupport.aspx.

Please note that the amounts will be automatically entered and may not be the exact cost for the RA. The Research Board will provide funds to cover the complete, exact cost for the research assistantship based on the rates determined by the home department of the student.

Total Amount Requested for Research Assistant Support
Enter the total of the dollar amount needed for each requested time period. This figure must match the figure entered in the "Budget Request" and the "Budget Justification."

Research Support (non-RA) Requested
Complete the applicable lines of the charge if non-RA research support is being requested.

Equipment
The equipment category includes all inventoried equipment items valued at $500 or more. Charges for freight and/or shipping may be included, if applicable. Cost-sharing for equipment is encouraged. Please make clear the use of the equipment in relation to the proposed project. Any equipment request to upgrade existing research capabilities must be accompanied by a complete description of at least one planned project utilizing the new equipment.

Supplies
This category includes all items normally considered to be materials, supplies, and any devices (or equipment) not inventoried.

Other Salaries/Wages
Salaries and/or wages for personnel other than Research Assistants get entered here. Salaries for faculty, post-doctoral research associates, research technicians, or computer programmers are not supported by the Campus Research Board.

Travel
Enter the total amount being requested for research-related travel purposes, including per diem figures. An itemized travel budget is to be included in the "Budget Justification" section of the application. (Please note: travel to scholarly conferences/venues is handled through the Scholars Travel Fund. See http://www.research.illinois.edu/stf/index.asp.

Other, including Software
Enter any miscellaneous expenses here, describing what is included. Typical examples of this category would be software, participant or subject fees, photocopying, film processing, mailings, fees, publication subventions, or any other miscellaneous research expense not accounted for in other categories.

Total Amount Requested for Research Support
Enter the total of all Research Support dollars being requested. This figure must match the figure in the "Budget Request" and the "Budget Justification." The figure must not exceed $30,000.

Budget Justification
A detailed budget justification is required; applications will not be processed without a detailed budget justification included. The detailed budget justification must agree with the figures provided earlier on the application form. The justification is to include information such as: duties of research assistants, a breakdown of research-related travel expenses (travel, lodging, per diem, etc.), a listing of specific materials and supplies being requested, software programs, specific items of equipment (justify the need for each items), specific miscellaneous expenses (animal costs, photocopying, participant fees, film processing, etc.). A Price Quote is to be included for major equipment requests.

Summary of Current Research
Provide a brief summary of the applicant's current research/creative activities whether or not they are related to the work proposed in this application. Restrict the summary to the space provided.

Publications List
List publications/performances of the applicant(s) for the last two - four years only.

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Administration of Awards

Recipients of Campus Research Board awards are expected to work with their departmental or unit business officer, or other designated person, to manage the funds awarded to them. The amount and type of support awarded by the Board is outlined in the award letter. Questions on CRB awards should be directed to 244-4033 or via email to vcrbo@sab.illinois.edu.

Guidelines for Post-Award Administration

General Guidelines for All Awards

• All Illinois Campus Research Board (CRB) expenditures must comply with University and State regulations for account administration as outlined in the Business and Financial Policies and Procedures Manual.
• CRB awards are made to faculty members in response to applications for support on a particular project. The awards are made to fund specific expense items, as outlined in the budget justification section of the application for the project funded. An Award Number will be assigned to each CRB award and identified on the Award Summary attached to the award letter.
• Awardees need to contact their departmental or unit business officer to obtain the CFOP to be used for their award and to provide him/her with all the information needed to administer the award. CFOPs will normally be available within two weeks from the date of the award letter - sooner, if possible.

Funding Information

• CFOPs for CRB awards will be requested by the Vice Chancellor for Research Business Office from the CFOAPAL Maintenance Team. The Team will forward the new CFOP to the VCRBO and it will be entered into the database. Immediately following the entry to the database, an e-mail will be generated advising the departmental or unit business officer of the new CFOP.
• Departmental units will be responsible for managing the CFOPs, assuring funds are used in compliance with the award letter and summary, and returning any unused funds to the CRB.
• An expiration date will be assigned for each award. Awarded funding will be available to the awardee through the expiration date only. No extensions of time will be granted. After the expiration date no transactions are to be charged to the award CFOP.
• Departmental or unit business officers will be responsible for advising the VCRBO when the award has been completed if it is completed prior to the assigned expiration date. The VCRBO will deactivate the assigned program or fund code assigned once the award period ends and the CFOP has been cleared to a zero balance.

Research Support Information

• Funds awarded for non-RA items will be transferred to the assigned CFOP as soon as possible after the CFOP is established by the CFOAPAL Maintenance Team.
• VCRBO will transfer all research support funds in one lump sum to the CFOP.

Research Assistantship Information

• The award amount shown for RA support is the maximum amount available and includes Graduate Health Insurance costs and Workers' Compensation premiums where applicable; in some cases for summer session appointments Social Security and/or Medicare expenses may also be included.
• The stipend paid to an RA is required to equal the departmental/unit standard stipend rates.
• Funds for awarded RAs will be transferred to the assigned CFOP following completion of the semester teh RA was employed
• Only the exact amount paid out for the covered RA appointment (including reimbursement for Graduate Health Insurance and Workers' Compensation, where applicable) will be transferred to the assigned CFOP. Should the cost of the RA appointment awarded exceed the maximum award amount available, the awardee may choose to reduce the percent appointment or cover the excess costs from another source of funding.

Humanities Released Time Information

• Beginning with HRT awarded in FY10 awardees will receive $2,000 to be used as needed during the year in which their released time occurs. Funds will be transferred to a CFOP established for the award. Funding remaining at the end of the year will be recovered by the CRB.
• The funds to buyout the course(s) are transferred to a departmental CFOP designated by the departmental or unit business officer the semester the released time is taken. The budget transfer will be made to the requested CFOP upon request.

Performing Arts and Design Program

• PAD awards are for the awarded period of time. The amount awarded by the Board will be transferred to a departmental CFOP designed by the departmental or unit business officer the semester the released time is taken. The budget transfer will be made to the requested CFOP upon request. To request the transfer email mailto:vcrbo@sab.illinois.edu..

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Contact Information

• Questions on CRB awards should be directed to 244-4033 or via e-mail to vcrbo@sab.illinois.edu.

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