Dear faculty colleagues,
Among the different responsibilities I have in serving you as an Associate Dean for Research, facilitating the advancement of your own research, scholarly works, and creative endeavors is among the most important of my goals. Since my start in the role, it has been exciting meeting and talking with the chairs and learning more about your amazing work as faculty, which elevates our reputation and contributions to society, and that also enhances the education of our students. I am humbled and excited for the opportunity to serve all of you in this new role and I am looking ahead to the opportunity to meet each one of you personally.
Today, I am delighted to announce the second year of the Expanding Horizons Initiative (EHI) with a new call for proposals (FY22-23). If you recall, last year this initiative was supported by start-up funds from the central administration. Thanks to our generous donors, endowed funds have now been secured by the dean and the College and university’s development team to continue supporting this program in perpetuity – such that it will have impact year after year to support your research and scholarly endeavors. Like in the previous round of funding opportunities, this is a competitive grant process designed to support your research, scholarly works, and creative endeavors and to advance social and racial justice research. This initiative also includes funds for other supports such as grant reviews and a finish line fund to complete a research project or creative work. I am thrilled for the opportunity to administer this program on your behalf.
Each year, the EHI will pursue its main goals by announcing funding opportunities in a variety of categories. The categories for this year include the support of both disciplinary-specific projects with one researcher or a small team (Disciplinary Grants) and interdisciplinary research teams (Interdisciplinary Grants) to conduct research, scholarly and/or creative projects that are highly innovative in nature. For these funding opportunities, an application for external funding is required as an outcome, along with student participation in the scholarly work. CWRU has committed to having a positive social impact on our community as we strive to create a culture of inclusive excellence on our campus through the Pathway 3 of the Think Big strategic plan. Social and Racial Justice Grants support scholarly work focused on the goals of Pathway 3 at the local, national, and international levels to support our diversity and equity efforts through scholarship.
Finally, I would like to remind you that two additional grants are available to the College on a rolling deadline. The Grant, Manuscript or Performance Pre-Review Fund is designed to support faculty to seek an expert reviewer in the field to provide timely, constructive, and comprehensive feedback on a soon-to-be submitted grant/fellowship application, manuscript/book, creative work, or performance. Because we know that the last step in bringing scholarly books and peer-reviewed manuscripts to completion can be costly and time intensive, the Finish Line Fund is designed to help faculty bring these important projects to a timely completion. I am pleased that many of you used these funds last year and I hope these funds are utilized even more this year as we have availability.
The grant materials (linked here), include the RFP document and application instructions. I also encourage you to visit our dedicated webpage for additional details. These funding opportunities have been provided to you by our most generous donors. I am looking forward to receiving your proposals and learning more about the amazing work you do.
You may contact Amanda Ross, Assistant Dean for Research Administration and Grant Development or myself, with any questions about these opportunities.
Warm regards,
Carlos E. Crespo-Hernández
Associate Dean for Research