Research Leadership in Action 2007

Deadline for Proposals: Nov. 1, 2007

The Research Leadership in Action program is an internal grant competition sponsored by the Vice Provost for Research for full-time UMass Amherst tenure-track and research faculty. The program supports faculty interested in showcasing leadership in their field of research and scholarly activity. 2005 was the program's inaugural year.

Grants will support highly visible, results-focused campus events, such as conferences, professional meetings, and performances. These events, intended to be annual, should be designed to bring together researchers and scholars from other academic institutions, industry, government and the public with goals of:

Enhancing the faculty's ability to develop sponsored activities;
Building tangible, working ties with external funding sources that expand collaborative opportunities and expand the knowledge base of the discipline;
Raising the campus' profile as an institution that drives the directions of research and scholarly activity on a national and international level.

Grants of up to $25,000 will be awarded. These grants are awarded to faculty for use in growing their research programs and enhancing their scholarly activities. These funds are not intended for general school/college or departmental use. A mandatory 1:1 match must be secured in order to qualify for a grant. It's preferable for the match to come from external sources as an objective of the program is to build relationships with external funders. However, the match can be made from the recipients' School/College and/or Department with the approval of the dean/department head and the Vice Provost for Research.

Qualifying Activities and Expected Outcomes include but are not limited to:

Conferences which bring in external collaborators and funders with the purpose identifying, diversifying and/or securing new research based funding;
Congresses and symposia which leverage the campus' leadership position and focus on influencing the flow of information and direction in the faculty's field of expertise;
Workshops that may result in white papers and bring together potential funding groups in support of new or on-going activities that would lead to multi-institutional projects;
Performances that highlight our talent but have expected outcomes regarding expanding programs;
Other professional gatherings including plays, art showings, readings, cultural gatherings;
Formation of external advisory boards that lead to the development of such things as mini-conferences or industry/university programs;
Technology days designed to increase awareness of the campus' applied research and to find markets for the transfer of UMass Amherst technologies.

Completion Report [doc]