Join us for ORG Office Hours on May 19th

Dear colleagues:

We hope this finds you well, taking a deep breath, and starting to organize your summer work routines.  The Office of Research and Grants (ORG) team is here to help you engage with your research and creative projects.  Below are some reminders of the important policies, resources, and tools that may guide and support your work:

1.      May 19^th – Faculty Research Resource Day

• 10:00 – 12:30: ORG will hold “Office Hours” for the Humanities and Social Sciences faculty. If you need resources to support a project you are working on, want to pursue a grant opportunity, or just want to meet with a foundation or government grants director, please sign up for a time here:  https://www.signupgenius.com/go/9040F4FA5A92DA2FC1-humanities. 

Consider sending a brief about your work to us in advance or have one ready to share.  You can also submit online anytime via www.fairfield.edu/findfundingsurvey

• 2:00 – 4:30: Inclusive STEM Education.  ORG will support a faculty development workshop organized by our HHMI team that is exploring ways to ensure that our STEM programs are inclusive.  This is an opportunity to learn about the specific challenges at Fairfield in this area, plans to address those challenges and ways to get involved.  If you are a faculty member in a STEM field and would like to join us, please RSVP to Kathy Nantz.

2.    Introducing – for Summer 2022 – Grant Writing Circles!  These small groups will share ideas for grant proposals, engage in peer sharing and review, and receive feedback from colleagues who have served as grant review panelists!  Interested?  Contact Kathy Nantz, Nantz@Fairfield.edu

3.    Supporting Proposals and Unique Research (SPUR) Program – These funds are designed to incentivize grant seeking and support external research grant activity, with support of up to $2,000 per grant application on a competitive basis.  Priority is given to projects that 1) involve student collaborators in research, 2) assemble teams or are interdisciplinary in scope, 3) are apt to lead to significant impact and/or larger future grant opportunities, and/or 4) are prepared for an identified donor opportunity. See https://wiki.fairfield.edu/display/ORG/Policies for full details.  If you are planning to submit a grant proposal that might meet these criteria and would like to be considered for these SPUR funds, submit your completed application form.  ORG will review these in September, January, and May of each year.

4.    Proposal submission and approval process – As a reminder, all grant interest should be communicated to ORG in order to systematically track grant applications and obtain critical information on Fairfield’s history of involvement, the donor and competition. Additionally, due to compliance requirements, particularly of government grant funding, internal review of all grant applications is required prior to submission to any funding agency.  The ORG team will facilitate the routing process with you. A sample of the approval routing form is available at https://wiki.fairfield.edu/display/ORG/Proposal+Routing+and+FCOI+form 

5.    Limited Submission policy – Occasionally, funding agencies restrict the number of applications an institution can submit for a specific opportunity.  In order to ensure a transparent process should we find ourselves in this situation, a new Limited Submission policy has been developed with input from the Faculty Research Committee.  Full policy is available https://wiki.fairfield.edu/display/ORG/Policies. 

6.    Human Subjects Research – If you are considering research that may involve human subjects, you can find valuable guidance on Fairfield’s IRB site http://faculty.fairfield.edu/IRB/submitting-your-research-protocol.html or reach out to irb@fairfield.edu for answers to specific questions.  

7.    CITI Program online modules for required training in human subjects research and other key topics like responsible conduct of research, biosafety, and research with vertebrate animals are available to all Fairfield-affiliated researchers, including students and faculty. You can find the CITI link on http://my.fairfield.edu/ then click on the “Register” button to create your account.  Contact irb@fairfield.edu with any questions.

8.    Building Your Toolkit – If you would like to know more about tools to support your research, you can find presentation slides and recordings with information on GrantForward, Digital Measures, Zotero, the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD), and the Faculty Resource Network (FRN) at https://wiki.fairfield.edu/display/ORG/Building+your+Toolkit 

Please reach out to the ORG Team for other useful tools and guidance or visit www.fairfield.edu/org.  We look forward to working with you, and to supporting your work.

Best regards,

Kathleen, Marie-Laure, Deb, Kathy, and Julie of the Office of Research and Grants

Kathleen Freis, Executive Director, Foundation Relations (kfreis@fairfield.edu)
Marie-Laure Kugel, Associate Director, Foundation Relations (mkugel@fairfield.edu)
Deb Matthews, Director, Post-Award Administration (dmatthews@fairfield.edu)
Kathy Nantz, Faculty Liaison for Innovative Research (nantz@fairfield.edu)
Julie Peters, Director, Pre-Award Administration (jpeters@fairfield.edu)