CAM Faculty Development Innovation Grants

INNOVATION GRANT GOALS

The CAM FDG Innovation Grant provides funding up to $5,000 to support innovation and discovery within faculty research, teaching & learning, and creative activity. When successful, CAM Innovation Grantees will be competitive for external support. All expected costs should be listed in the Budget & Budget Justification sections of the application.

ELIGIBILITY

CAM invites all full-time CAM faculty to apply. The Faculty Development Innovation Grant is open to all full-time faculty, tenured, clinical, and instructor tracks. All CAM faculty will be held to the same standards of review regardless of rank. Faculty may apply for multiple Innovation Grants, not to exceed $5,000 total per faculty, per academic year.

USE OF FUNDS

Funds may be applied to a variety of activities, to include, but are not limited to:

• Final-stage research/creative work for which outcomes have been determined.
• Conversely, it can provide resources for prototyping and growing bold, innovative, nascent ideas into mature research and creative propositions.
• Hosting a single event or series of events that facilitates dialogue between disciplines.
• Developing a physical installation that leads research in a new direction.
• Forging relations with a community contributing to the larger research portfolio of CAM.
• Exploratory activities to include: workshops, travel for scholarly activity, scholarly visits, extramural proposals, etc.
• You can hire a student for your project, but the role of the student must be clearly explained and must serve to advance the research/creative activity.

INELIGIBLE EXPENSES AND EXCEPTIONS

• If you did not submit an outcome report for FY2018-19 grants/awards, you are not eligible to receive funds in 2019-20.

• These grants should not be used as an alternative to department funding. If this is a direct requirement of your position or for student use, please contact your department for departmental funding.
• Per CAM policy, internally awarded funds (including all CAM, ORS, YUMPS, and CFD funds) cannot be used for the purpose of course buy-outs. 
• Faculty must request in writing approval for any changes to the budget or deviations from the scope of work supported by the award. 
• All equipment purchases are property of CAM and must be cataloged with CAM and kept in an accessible location on campus.
• CAM will not support the purchase of individual dues or memberships to professional organizations. You must pay for professional individual memberships out-of-pocket.
• Faculty may apply for more than one grant per academic year, with priority given to first-time applicants in the current AY.
• There is no guarantee that a conference or project that was funded in a previous year will be funded in the current AY. All applications will be reviewed against current criteria.

 

NOTE: For equipment, national conference travel, or funding requests below $1000, apply for the CAM Seed Grant.

 

 

 

SUBMISSION DEADLINES, APPROVAL & FUNDING TIMELINE

 

 

 

 

Innovation grant applications are competitive and will be evaluated alongside the other applications submitted for that deadline. Submit no more than one Innovation Grant application per deadline.

· August 15^th (awarded period: August 2019-June 2020)

· December 1st (award period: January 1st to June 2020)

 

All funds must be fully expended by current fiscal year end deadlines, or in exceptional circumstances, a carry forward request must be submitted. Any unused grant monies will be forfeited at the end of the fiscal year (June 30).

 

 

APPLICATION PROCESS

 

Every attempt will be made to evenly distribute the funds over the course of the year. All CAM Faculty Development funds (either Innovation, Seed, or Matching Grants) must be requested by submitting an online corresponding grant proposal form. A separate form is required for each project. If you are applying for ORS/YUMPS funds, that application will serve as your CAM FDG application, and uploaded to the CAM Formstack online app. Do not complete two applications.

 

BUDGET and TIMELINE

 

Present a budget and timeline that aligns with the activities of your project. The term “project” encompasses all activities related to a particular grant.

 

MATCHING PROCESS: When a match is required, CAM’s contribution shall not exceed the minimum match amount. When requesting a match for an ORS/YUMPS grant, that application will serve as your CAM FDG application. Do not complete two applications. All matches must be preapproved internally by CAM before you apply through ORS. If ORS does not approve the grant proposal, CAM will not contribute the matching funds. If ORS awards less than what was requested, CAM’s match shall not exceed the minimum required. Faculty are responsible for submitting their ORS proposals to ORS/YUMPS, along with confirmation in advance of your ORS/YUMPS submission of CAM’s willingness to provide a match.

 

CRITERIA & REVIEW: the review committee, consisting of the Department Chairs, Associate Deans, and selected faculty, will consider both the quality and justification of the proposal while also taking into consideration the allocation of funds across all of the departments and faculty types in CAM. All efforts will be made to distribute the awards equitably across the College.

 

EVALUATION CRITERIA

Creativity of Idea/Approach.

• Is the proposed research supporting a bold idea? Is it original? Is it risky?
• Does the Innovation Grant seem the best funding source to support the research?

Clarity of Plan.

• Is the proposed research question clearly stated? Are outcomes articulated?
• Does the plan include necessary steps to achieve the intended outcomes?

 

Potential Benefit to CAM & UCD.

• Does the proposed research relate to wider CAM & university initiatives (e.g., CAM’s Strategic Initiatives, and/or CU Denver’s Strategic Priorities?)
• Does the proposed research contribute new and/or meaningful activity to the research portfolio of the University and/or CAM?
• Does the proposed project include or impact students and/or your teaching goals?
• Does the proposed activity engage other universities or entities (e.g., industry, government) outside of UCD?
• How will the funding enable maturation of the project toward potential external research proposals or next-step personal research and/or creative activity?

 

Scope, Viability, and Sustainability of Project.

• How will the project be carried out?
• Does the plan allocate sufficient resources (e.g. personnel, time, budget) for necessary steps to achieve intended outcomes?
• Does the plan include ideas for next steps, beyond the initial outcomes?
• What are the plans for growing the research project into an external research proposal or, if final-stage funding requested, how does this culminating event forward the researcher’s portfolio and broader impacts?