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Scope
The Internal Faculty Research Grant (IFRG) program is designed to support faculty scholarship at St. Mary’s University. This program provides annual funding for a project proposed to initiate or extend the scholarship efforts of full-time faculty members.
Exceptions
This policy does not apply to department, school, or other internal funding opportunities at St. Mary’s University.
Policy Outline
A. Description and Components
The IFRG program is designed to foster an intellectual environment where research and scholarship flourish at St. Mary’s University by supporting faculty scholarly initiatives. Scholarship is defined in accordance with the University Faculty Handbook. IFRGs are administered and managed through the collaboration of SPARC and the University Research Council. This annual program provides annual funding for a 1-year grant period.
For consideration, faculty are required to develop and submit a proposal. Grant proposals include a project narrative, budget, CV, and letters of support from collaborators (if applicable). Proposals are carefully reviewed and evaluated according to standardized criteria, which are indicated on the annual grant announcement.
If awarded, faculty are expected to present their work at Research Showcase during the IFRG award period. At the completion of the award period, the awardee must submit a written report of the outcome of the work.
B. Eligibility and Activities
All full-time faculty are eligible to apply for an IFRG. Preference will be given to faculty with research expectations as part of their workload. Part-time faculty are eligible to collaborate in a supporting role with full-time faculty on an IFRG.
Allowable activities and costs include but not limited to:
- development of a preliminary or prototype scholarly product;
- release time for writing a major grant proposal;
- participating in or promoting critical discourse among leading scholars in the field so as to be better prepared to achieve the scholarly goal;
- proposed student support is only allowable if used with St. Mary’s students.