The Annual Faculty Awards support innovative research in the arts, design, and humanities. For the 2012-2013 academic year, a maximum of 150 awards, each for up to $5,000, will be awarded.

Annual Faculty Awards applications for the 2012-2013 academic year are now being accepted. The deadline for proposals is 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 25, 2011. Awards will be announced on January 17, 2012.

Eligibility for Annual Awards

Applicants for the Imagine Fund $5,000 awards must be tenured or tenure-track faculty in the University of Minnesota system. Applications also will be accepted from arts, humanities, and design faculty holding full-time (100%) salaried fixed term appointments who are annually evaluated like tenured and tenure-track faculty (in terms of their research accomplishments, independence and ability to secure external funding.).

Note that eligibility does not include: visiting faculty, students pursuing a Ph.D., non-salaried faculty appointment type W or employees with T appointments.

Beginning in the Fall 2012 round of Annual Award applications, faculty may receive up to 3 awards over 5 consecutive years. Awards made in the 2012 round are not included in the 5-year period.

Attention will be paid to ensure a representative proportion of junior, non-tenured faculty applicants receive these awards. Only one application per faculty member is permitted.

Use of Imagine Fund Annual Awards

• Proposed use for awarded funds must relate to the areas of the arts, humanities or design.
• The award may be used for research needs, teaching materials, books, materials for creative works, or travel.
• The award may not be used to supplement salary, nor may it be used for course buyouts.
• The awards must be spent within a three year period.
• Awards may be used to supplement external funding.
• Awards do not need to be, but certainly may be, used for new projects.

The Application Process

Complete the online application form. In addition to basic applicant information, the application form requires responses to the questions outlined below. For detailed information including tips on creating a strong proposal, how to create a user account (necessary for creating a proposal), and other helpful hints, visit our Applying for Annual Faculty Awards page.

Proposal questions requiring longer-form responses

Notable recent accomplishments

Without including any information that identifies you specifically, list your 5 most recent scholarly or creative accomplishments. If this project reflects a significant change in the direction of your research relative to these accomplishments, please describe the change. Limited to 250 words.

Proposal goals and context

A summary of your proposal's goals and context for a lay audience. Limited to 250 words.

Keywords

Up to five keywords applicable to the proposal.

Details on how any previously-awarded Imagine Fund awards have been used

Limited to 250 words.

Proposed budget

Budgets must list all funds (external and internal) available and all expenses. Limited to 500 words.

Details on any additional sources of funding that have been committed, such as grants-in-aid, start-up funds, faculty development or research funds, etc.

Limited to 250 words.

Project time frame

Is this a project that anticipates additional funding in future years? A proposal should include plans to use the current funds and further the project without relying on subsequent awards from the Imagine Fund. Limited to 250 words.

Note: If applicants have more than $5,000 in research funds available to them to cover these expenses, the Imagine Fund will give their applications a lower priority. Support for work to be supported by the annual $5,000 awards must not be similarly supported by University of Minnesota (not including Imagine Funds) or external funds.

How Proposals will be Evaluated

A committee of arts, humanities, and design faculty will review the applications, and will rate proposals based on the following criteria:

• Appropriateness for requested budget: How well does the proposed use of funds fit within the proposed budget? Is the budget adequate to address the stated goals of the proposal?
• Clarity of proposal: Does the proposal make a clear, articulate case for the proposed use of funds?
• Merit and impact: Will the proposed use of funds make a positive contribution to the field? Will awarding funds for this proposal be money well spent?

Applications will be reviewed without name or affiliation. They will be also sorted by staff in advance to ensure that no faculty committee member reviews an application from their home department, and in the case of the coordinate campuses no one reviews applications from their home campus. Each application will be reviewed by two faculty committee members and in the case of a significant variation in evaluation such applications will be reviewed by a third faculty committee member.