The university provides a number of fellowship awards for returning, full-time tenured, and tenure-track faculty for summer research. The awards are made available through the Office of the Vice President for Research, both for projects that are designed to ultimately attract outside funding and for those traditional scholarly endeavors and creative activities basic to the goals of the university.

           All proposals for the awards are reviewed, evaluated, and ranked by department and/or college committees, chairs, and deans. Recommendations are made by the Faculty Senate Scholarly Activity and Research Committee to the vice president for research, who awards the fellowships. The primary purpose of the awards is to provide support and encouragement for non-tenured, tenure track faculty members who are initiating programs or to nurture collaborative research programs amongst faculty across colleges. In special cases, a small proportion, up to 20%, may be awarded to tenured faculty members initiating research or scholarly activity in a new direction or discipline. All proposals are evaluated and ranked on the basis of merit. A faculty member can submit only one proposal to a program, and those faculty submitting proposals must not be a part of the review and evaluation process, either at the department, college, or university level. The awards, which carry a stipend and an allowance for justified expenses, are awarded for one term only. Although faculty may apply for them more than once, repeat or successive awards will rarely be given within four years.

           Successful applicants will enter into an agreement with the Office of Research to receive the fellowship and are expected to devote a minimum of eight consecutive weeks exclusively to the project during the summer following the award. Following completion of the project, recipient faculty will be expected to submit a Progress Report to the Office of Research and may be required to present their findings at an institutional event. Those making satisfactory progress towards publication and/or securing outside funding may apply for additional funds for travel to meet with an agent of an external funding agency. When results of the project are published, fellowship recipients are expected to acknowledge the support of the university.

           Any exceptions to this policy must be made by the vice president for research.