Northeastern State University Faculty Research Committee
FRC Mission		FRC Committee Members
Grant Applications		Previous Grant Recipients
Information for Current Grant Recipients		Institutional Review Board

The Faculty Research Committee Mission

Part of the mission of Northeastern State University as stated in the University Catalog is: ...to encourage research and to maintain an educational and cultural environment that will prepare students for a complex and rapidly changing society.

The Faculty Research Committee (FRC) seeks to contribute by:

• encouraging faculty research activity
• encouraging student involvement in research through participation with faculty in research projects to more fully challenge the student's intellectual capacities
• encouraging faculty research or scholarly activity that contributes to or expands knowledge in the faculty member's discipline
• acting in an advocacy role for the faculty's research interest to the administration for purposes of increased funding, acquisition of research tools and resources and recognition of scholarly efforts
• cooperating with the Office of Grants and Contracts in promoting research and seeking external funding
• disseminating information on the research conducted by NSU faculty.

Composition

The committee shall be composed of thirteen members including the committee chair. The Chair of the FRC is appointed by the President of NSU with the advice of the Vice-President of Academic Affairs on a yearly basis. Members shall be appointed by the President of NSU with the advice of the Vice-President of Academic Affairs and the FRC chair. Members are appointed to a three year term and one third of the membership is appointed each year. Each College (Business and Technology, Education, Liberal Arts, Optometry, and Science & Health Professions) and the Library shall be represented by at least one member. For the four remaining positions, two shall be filled with representatives from the Library or the Colleges and two shall be selected by the Faculty Council each year. One ex-officio member will serve on the committee from the office of Grants and Contracts.

FRC Grant Policies

The basic philosophy of the FRC grant program is:

• to encourage use of internal funds as seed money to generate a start toward having principal investigators initiate proposals for external funding
• to support meritorious research and scholarly activities that contribute to the faculty member's discipline even when no external funding is available.

A primary function of the FRC is to operate a faculty research grant funding program based on merit review of proposals submitted by faculty. FRC grant funds will support research defined as: scientific investigations or other scholarly activities leading to original contributions to understanding in any of the disciplines supported by NSU. Those research activities may include systematic investigations of teaching methods, tools, and/or instructional strategies.

FRC Grant Procedures

1. FRC grant funding is on a fiscal year (July 1 to June 30) basis. Funding allocation for a specific fiscal year must be expended within that year. Funding allocations for grants cannot cross the fiscal year boundary
2. To apply for FRC grant funding, the Principal Investigator (PI) must have full-time (non-temporary) faculty status and the rank of instructor or above
3. The FRC will solicit grant proposals in January. Proposals will be solicited by sending a letter and proposal application form with instructions to each full-time faculty member. In order to receive consideration, the proposal must be returned by the specified deadline
4. The deadline for receipt of proposals will be the first Friday of March. Evaluation of the proposals will be conducted and recipients notified on the first Friday of April to allow the researcher time to make plans and begin spending funds by July 1st
5. The maximum grant shall be $8,000 for a one-year grant or $12,000 for a two-year grant. The total amount that could be used for salary support/release time shall not exceed $7,000 per year
6. Release time for the PI (normally a maximum of 3 semester hours) may be requested during the fall and spring semesters. Requests for funding of released time must be approved by the Dean/Department Head of the PI’s college or department and verification of approval must accompany the application. The cost for covering the PI’s released time should be equal to the cost to hire an adjunct faculty person to cover the researcher's teaching duties. In the case of optometry, salary support in the fall and spring semesters may be equal to the cost to hire an adjunct faculty person to cover 8 hours of clinic per week. In the case of the library, salary support in the fall and spring semesters may be equal to the cost to hire an adjunct faculty person to cover twenty-five percent (25%) their weekly load
7. The amount of salary support for the summer may be equivalent to what the researcher would earn by teaching six credit hours (customarily by teaching three hours and receiving three hours research support). In no case may the total work load of the researcher exceed what would be equivalent to teaching seven credit hours. For example, if the researcher received summer salary support from FRC equivalent to 3 credit hours of teaching, he/she could not teach more than 4 credit hours that summer and would be expected to spend the remainder of the time doing research. In the case of Optometry, salary support for the summer may be equal to the cost of hiring an adjunct faculty person to cover 20 hrs of clinic teaching each week for 10 weeks. In the case of the Library, a person is eligible to apply up to $7,000
8. The FRC grants may be used for various aspects of dissertation research such as data collection, experimental design, consultant fees, etc. However, FRC funding is not intended to provide funding for tuition or dissertation printing cost
9. Funds for travel directly related to the conduct of the research (original data collection, use of archives or special library collections, collaboration and consultation, or use of lab facilities not available at NSU) may be requested. Travel to professional meetings should not be included as a part of the FRC grant proposal
10. Proposals for FRC grants normally should not include requests for computer hardware. Certain specialized software that would have no use other than the specific research involved in the proposal may be considered.

APPROVED: March 1,1990
REVISED: April 18 & September 27, 1996
REVISED: July, 2001
REVISED: January, 2009