CURATE (Celebrating University Research Across the Enterprise)

Purpose

The UK Research Strategic Plan specifies in Strategic Initiative 1, Action Step 3, to provide recurring funds to support grant programs for research, scholarship, and creative works in areas of excellence that are not traditionally amenable to external funding. To implement this action, the Office of the Vice President for Research will provide, on an annual basis, formulaically derived funds to eligible units (nine-month colleges having Research and Development Expenditures <$10 million and faculty in humanities departments in the College of Arts and Sciences) for the following purposes:

1. Support of summer salary for research by eligible faculty (criteria define below)
2. Support for a broad range of research/creative activities.

As decisions on awarding of these research fellowships should align appropriately with unit research goals, the revised program shifts the responsibility for award decisions from central administration to eligible units.

Formula for Funding

Using the criteria for eligibility for each program outlined below, the Office of the Vice President for Research will determine annually the number of full-time faculty within each unit that are eligible for these programs, and then express this as a percentage of the total number of faculty across all units that are eligible.  Funds are derived from facilities and administrative costs from grants and contracts as part of the annual UKRF fiscal year budget.  For each eligible unit the annual allocation will be transmitted to College leadership, and it is the responsibility of this leadership in making decisions on fund use that are consistent with guidelines for the program.  The amount allocated to the annual pool for this program is contingent upon the approved UKRF fiscal year budget. Funds will be available to spend on a May 1 - April 30 funding cycle.

• Support of Summer Salary for Research Eligibility:  Full-time faculty members with 9-month appointments and who have an academic year research distribution of effort between 20% and 33% as negotiated with unit leadership.
• Support for CURATE Research Support Eligibility:  Full-time faculty members with a minimum of 10% effort in research within the annual distribution of effort. These funds are intended to support research/creative activities that do not include faculty salaries, travel that is unrelated to the research project, routine office equipment or laptop computers.

Process

By April 1, unit leadership (College Dean and/or ADR) will submit a list of eligible faculty for use of these funds to the Office of the Vice President for Research. The list should specify allocation/faculty member, a project title and a brief general description of how the award will be used. 

Post-Award Reporting Requirements

Future allocations to individual units will be contingent upon submission and approval of an annual report that briefly describes outputs from support through this program for each faculty receiving an award. This report is due October 1 of each year and should be submitted to vprgrants@uky.edu.

Calendar and Timeline for this Program

Faculty should contact their Associate Dean for Research for details on how to apply for these grants.