University Scholars Grant

The University Scholars Grant is available to tenured faculty at St. Thomas who have a distinguished record of ongoing scholarly achievement. This record must have been attained while at St. Thomas, doing full time teaching or its equivalent. Faculty whose appointments at St. Thomas include regular release time for scholarly work and endowed Chairs are not eligible for this grant. Faculty will be eligible for a University Scholars Grant no more than once every 10 years.  One award is available per year.

Applicants should show evidence of national or international reputation by providing information on external funding of peer-reviewed work, publications by an internationally recognized publisher, invitation to present at prestigious national or international conferences, or national or international awards from professional societies.

The essence of the grant is to provide the recipient with significant time for scholarly work over a significant period. Recipients are otherwise expected to continue with their regular faculty duties during the time of the grant (teaching, administrative and service duties), and no more than two course releases may be taken during a semester. USGs may not be used for course or curriculum development, pursuit of a higher degree, revision of existing written work, or purchase of equipment.

Restrictions on other support for USG recipients: Teaching and/or administrative overloads are not allowed during the period of the grant. It is expected that the USG support will not be further supplemented with other internal grant support, especially from Faculty Development. During tenure of the USG award, recipients cannot apply for other FD grants or receive research course releases from other sources. After completion of the USG award, recipients may not apply for other FD grants for the same project that was supported by the USG.

Application Deadlines: A preliminary application is due by 4 p.m. on September 1 of the year preceding the request for support. Materials should be emailed as a Word document or PDF file to the Faculty Development Center (facdevctr@stthomas.edu.) The deadline for the complete application is 4 p.m. October 1. The Chair/Dean Letter of Approval is due by 4 p.m. October 8.

Annual/Final Report Deadlines:Participants need to file Annual Reports for each year of the USG, due on October 1. A Final Report will be required at the end of the grant period, also due on October 1.

Award: The award will provide the Scholar, for two or three consecutive years, with one of the following options: three course releases during the academic year or two course releases during the academic year and a summer stipend of $4300. The award maximum is $12,900 per year.

Application Process: Competition for these awards is significant, and because this is such a prestigious award, applicants must be able to demonstrate a significant past record of scholarly work as well as a carefully thought-out plan of scholarly activity for the next two to three years. Applicants are encouraged to contact the staff of the Center to discuss their projects prior to submitting an application. Preliminary application materials include a draft of the narrative of the proposal, three to five representative examples of recent scholarly work, a Curriculum Vitae, and a list of three to five potential external reviewers in your field, with whom you have no close personal or professional relationship. The scholarly work samples must be in digital form to allow for easier distribution of the work to internal and external reviewers. The FD committee, Director and Associate Director of the Center will try to provide timely feedback on the application before the complete application is submitted on October 1. Refer to the application instructions for full description of the requirements of the application itself. The applicant must fill out the top portion of the Chair/Dean Letter of Approval document and send it to the Chair/Dean for completion and submission to the Faculty Development Center.

Selection Criteria: The Faculty Development committee reviews and makes recommendations to the Executive Vice President/Chief Academic Officer on all applications. The final decision on the award, however, rests with the EVP/CAO, who communicates that decision to the applicant. Applications should be written in jargon-free language for a non-technical reviewer. They must provided all requested information, as stipulated in the "Instructions to Applicants" document.