Summer Fellowship

The submitted application will be reviewed and evaluated by the Committee on University Research, ten faculty representing all academic colleges.  Applicants will be notified in writing of the Committee decision as soon as possible.

NOTE:  A Human Participant Review Form must be filed and must receive approval from the UNI Institutional Review Board before the Summer Fellowship begins if the project involves human subjects, e.g., questionnaires, surveys, interviews, secondary data analysis.  Allow at least fourteen days for the review process to be completed. Information and application forms are available on the RSP Website or by calling 273-6148.  A copy of the IRB approval letter must either accompany the application or be submitted to the Division of Graduate Studies before the Summer Fellowship period.

Summer Fellowship projects may be: 1) research, 2) creative activity, or 3) grant application.  All three categories are required to provide an electronic Summer Fellowship application, which includes previous UNI awards, a project abstract, and a current vita.

 All submissions must adhere to the following format:

• Limit to 1000 words, including selected references.
• Font size 12 (Times New Roman)
• One inch margin on all sides.
• Narrative must include three sections: 1. Context, Significance and objectives, 2. Methods and Timetable, 3. Dissemination and Long-Range Importance.
• Proposals that do not conform to format guidelines will be automatically disqualified.

As you write your proposal, please address the questions below in each section. Make sure you write in a language understandable to readers from diverse academic fields who may not be familiar with the scholarly literature and terminology of your field. Letters of support are not appropriate and will be disregarded by the Committee, except for letters confirming acceptance of a manuscript or exhibition or confirming an arrangement for collaborating elsewhere.

• Context, Significance and objectives.  What is the overall nature of the project?  Specifically, what do you wish to accomplish? How does this project contribute to the scholarly discipline, your past research activity, and your career goals? How does your project fit within the established scholarly literature? Must mention how the project contributes to the improvement of the University and benefits the citizens of Iowa.
• Methods and timetable.  How will you accomplish the established objectives?  What means will be used to evaluate completion of the objectives?  Draw up a timetable that estimates your schedule during the assignment period. Indicate the status of Human Participant Review if needed for the project.
• Dissemination and long-range importance.  Describe specific plans for sharing the results of your research through scholarly presentations and/or publication.  How will you build upon the results of your Fellowship work?  Are there sources of external funding to expand the project?

Art, creative writing, music, theater, film and multimedia.

• Context, Significance and objectives.  What is the overall nature of the project?  Specifically, what do you wish to accomplish? How does this project contribute to the scholarly discipline, your past research activity, and your career goals? How does your project fit within the established scholarly literature? Must mention how the project contributes to the improvement of the University and benefits the citizens of Iowa.
• Methods and timetable.  How will you accomplish the established objectives?  What means will be used to evaluate completion of the objectives?  Draw up a timetable that estimates your schedule during the assignment period. Indicate the status of Human Participant Review if needed for the project.
• Dissemination and long-range importance.  Describe specific plans for sharing the results of your research through scholarly presentations and/or publication.  How will you build upon the results of your Fellowship work?  Are there sources of external funding to expand the project?

Four week Fellowship ONLY.

• Nature of the research or creative activity. Describe the scholarly activities you will pursue leading to submission of a grant application to a major federal or private funding agency (National Science Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Institutes of Health, US Department of Education, etc.). Describe the interrelationship between a Summer Fellowship, the grant application, and your long range plans to publish, exhibit, or perform the results of your research or creative activity.
• External funding source. Describe the specific grant(s) you will pursue during the Fellowship period, the funding agency, timetable for preparing and submitting the application. Submission of a grant application within six months of the Fellowship period is mandatory.
• Professional training experiences, such as returning to graduate school or attending seminars, symposia, or professional meetings unless tied directly to the project.
• Curriculum development that is judged to be of a routine nature and thus an expected part of teaching responsibilities; eligible curriculum projects must be publishable and have a demonstrated impact beyond the University of Northern Iowa.
• Travel whose primary purpose is to broaden an individual perspective or to enhance classroom presentations. 

Summer Fellowship recipients must prepare a written report describing the research, creative, or grant activities undertaken during the Fellowship period. The report will be submitted electronically as a Qualtrics survey by the end of September of the academic year following the Fellowship. Recipients will receive an email with a link to the Qualtrics survey in the first week of the fall semester.  The report will include two components:

1.  250 word (maximum) abstract that summarizes the completed project and its specific results, including two statements:
   • one that describes how your work is of value to UNI
   • one that addresses how your work benefits the citizens of Iowa.
   • narrative in third person, past tense, and do not re-submit a copy of the original proposal abstract.
2. A (minimum of 1500 words) narrative description of the project, major objectives accomplished, activities pursued, and the results, including publications, presentations, exhibits, grants applied for or received or future arrangements for any of these. Include a statement that all objectives, activities, or phases proposed in the original application have been completed.

If a Summer Fellowship recipient fails to accomplish any of the objectives, phases, or activities proposed in the original application, then the recipient must attach an additional page to the report detailing what was not accomplished and why. The Department Head is responsible for monitoring unfinished projects until they are completed. Failure to complete the project and/or submit the report will play a significant role in decisions on future awards, and the faculty member may be required to pay back the awarded amount. The Head of the recipient's department may use the narrative report as part of the annual evaluation of faculty performance. Recipients are strongly encouraged to submit their findings for publication, to present them at a professional meeting, to exhibit the results of their creative activity, or to submit a grant application. All published reports or exhibits aided by this program should include an acknowledgment that the project was supported, in whole or in part, by a Summer Fellowship from the University of Northern Iowa.