Intramural Funding Announcement

2025-2026 Funding For Excellence Program:

Pool 2 – Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

The Office of Research Services at UMKC is pleased to accept applications for the 2025-2026 Funding For Excellence (FFE) intramural funding program in the fields of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. The deadline for submission is 5 p.m. CST Thursday, March 20.

FFE is an institutionally funded grants program to support the highest level of research, scholarship, and creative endeavors by UMKC faculty. For 2025-2026, there will be two distinct FFE programs: Pool 1- Health Sciences, STEM and Education, and Pool 2 - Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. This announcement pertains solely to Pool 2.

The four goals of the FFE program are to provide funding which:

Allows preliminary data collection to support significant, new future sponsored research submissions
Encourages collaborative research between schools, divisions, departments or disciplines
Enhances the research, scholarly and creative reputation of UMKC
Supports highly innovative, high-risk/high-reward projects

The program provides three funding tier options to support research and creative activity. The total number of awards will depend upon the availability of funds. Awards will be made on a competitive basis, following review and recommendation by the UMKC Research Advisory Council (RAC).

APPLICATION TIERS

Tier 1 – up to $15,000 (approx. 3-4 awards)

Tier 1 proposals are solicited for interdisciplinary multiple PI research proposals, which must include a minimum of two contributing investigators representing independent UMKC schools, divisions, departments or disciplines. Co-investigators external to UMKC are permitted provided FFE funds are used only to support UMKC faculty, students, etc. In exceptional cases, single PI proposals will be considered. These proposals are intended to support preliminary data collection for major future submissions to NSF, NEH, NEA and other external funding sources. The budget per Tier 1 proposal is up to $15,000.

Tier 2 – up to $10,000 (approx. 4-5 awards)

Tier 2 proposals are solicited for single or multiple PI research proposals. This Tier is intended to support data collection and preliminary research generation for future sponsored project submissions. For these proposals, multi-investigator, cross-unit applications are encouraged but not required. Co-investigators external to UMKC are permitted provided FFE funds are used only to support UMKC faculty, students, etc. The budget per Tier 2 proposal is up to $10,000.

Tier 3 – up to $7,500 (approx. 5-7 awards)

Tier 3 proposals are solicited for research, creative and scholarly work with the potential to bring reputation and publicity to UMKC but may not require additional funding or sponsored research. Costs may incorporate data collection; travel to research, exhibition, performance and production sites; exhibition, performance and production costs; publication subventions; and other research and creative activities. The budget per Tier 3 proposal is up to $7,500.

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

Tenured, tenure-track, ranked and non-tenure track faculty at the rank of Assistant Professor or higher holding at least a 0.75 FTE appointment are eligible to serve as investigators if their appointment allows it. A PI may resubmit a previously unfunded proposal from a prior FFE cycle but must include an explanation of how the proposal has been revised and how the reviewers’ comments have been addressed. Past recipients of FFE awards are ineligible to apply for this round if they received their FFE award for either 2023-2024 or 2024-2025 (i.e. in the last two years). Recipients prior to 2023 may apply provided a final report and summary of submitted external research proposals has been received by the Office of Research Services as outlined in the “FFE Production and Reporting Requirements” section at the end of this document.

APPLICATION STRUCTURE GUIDELINES

The project narrative must not exceed five (numbered) pages and must be submitted online, along with all associated documents, by the deadline of 5 p.m. CST Thursday, March 20.

The text must be single-spaced with a standardized, non-condensed font in either 11-point or 12-point font size. Use no less than 0.5-inch margins throughout. The bibliography section is NOT included in the five-page limit. Applicants are encouraged to use the following outline when preparing the proposal narrative; however, additional sections may be added as appropriate. The length of each section is just a guide and applicants may vary the length of the sections based on their need while keeping to the five-page limit.

For resubmission of an FFE proposal, up to one page that is not included in the five-page limit may be used to describe how the proposal has been revised and to address reviewers’ comments.

Brief Introduction and Specific Aims (One page suggested)

Specific objectives including expected return on investment
Statement of how the proposed project is collaborative (if applicable)

Significance and Innovation Statement (Half page suggested)

Significance of the work, including a statement on the impact to UMKC
Description of the innovation of the research or creative work

Project Background (One page suggested)

Previous work of the applicant(s) and by other scholars in the proposed project area
Relationship of the proposed project to current state-of-the-field
Description of how this FFE project advances the field
List all FFE awards received by the applicant and collaborators along with the outcomes including publications, creative works and extramural grant applications. State whether these applications are pending, declined or awarded (if applicable).

General Plan of Work (Two pages suggested)

Design of activities to be undertaken, including methods and procedures
Plans for preservation, documentation and sharing of data or products, if appropriate
Description of the role of each collaborator in execution of the work plan

Expected Achievements, Future Plans and Timetable (suggested half page)

State the expected deliverable(s) OR how this award will support a larger external grant application
Timetable for completion of project within one year
The following documents are NOT included in the five-page limit:

Budget and Justification Please use the budget template provided on the REDCap online submission page or the FFE webpage and include a brief justification of budgeted items. Please note, the FFE funds are not intended to support or supplement faculty salaries. However, for PIs and co-PIs on nine-month appointments, a salary request is permitted but the combined PI/co-PI salary request is capped at $4,000 for Tier 1 proposals and $2,000 for Tier 2 and 3 proposals. FFE funds may be used for course buyouts upon approval of the department chair; however, buyout requests should not exceed $5,000 for any tier. Project budgets that exceed the funding limit must describe the source of additional support. In case the proposal cannot be funded for the full requested amount, include a description of how the goals of the project could be met given a smaller budget.

Your budget must be signed by your supervisor (Department or Division Chair, or if you are Department Chair, your Dean), prior to FFE Proposal submission.

Bibliography

Appendix one-page appendix with supplementary figures, tables, etc. is allowed.

Biosketch If the intent is to use this FFE award to apply for extramural funding, the applicant may choose a biosketch format that fits that agency. NSF format should be used by default for all applicants not applying for other types of external funding.

The choice of biosketch must be consistent for all named applicants on the proposal.

Statement on human subjects and/or experimental animals (if applicable)

If the proposed study involves the use of human subjects and/or experimental animals, the appropriate protocols MUST be filed for review with the Institutional Review Board (IRB) and the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), respectively, at the time of application. A statement with the date when the protocol was submitted must be included with the final submission documents. If an IRB or IACUC protocol has already been approved, please indicate the approved protocol number and the date of approval and expiry. Applications without the accompanying required IRB and IACUC protocol submission will not be evaluated.

Letter of Collaboration

Internal or external collaborators should include a signed letter of collaboration describing their role in the project and in preparation of this application. External collaborators should include any intended in-kind contributions to the project.

FFE SUBMISSION PROCEDURES

The proposal narrative, signed budget and budget justification, bibliography, biosketch(es), figures, appendix and if appropriate, statement on human subjects and/or experimental animals and letter of collaboration, should be in PDF format. Submissions of proposals for this cycle will be online via REDCap. Please use this link to upload your proposal: redcap.link/FFEPool2_2025. If you have questions regarding the REDCap submission process, please contact Sandy Wilson in the Office of Research Services. If you have questions regarding the specifics of this intramural funding call for proposals, please contact RAC Chair Cindy Russell Lippincott. Since FFE awards are intramural, applications should not be submitted to ORS Pre-Award.

NOTE: All proposals must be submitted online by 5 p.m. CST Thursday, March 20. Proposals that are not submitted by the deadline or do not conform to the submission guidelines (above) will be returned without review.

FFE PROPOSAL EVALUATION

Each proposal will be reviewed using the following criteria:

Do the intended outcomes (deliverables) of this application align with the FFE goals including development into a competitive application for an external grant (where appropriate)?
Are the deliverables feasible given the applicant’s background, expertise, budget, timetable and plan? AND is the budget and scope appropriate for the selected Tier?
Quality of Proposal (Clarity, Significance, Innovation): List the proposal strengths and weaknesses.

FFE PRODUCTION AND REPORTING REQUIREMENTS

At the completion of the FFE award, awardees will be required to submit two documents:

A brief report summarizing the research and creative results from the FFE project, including publications and public-facing scholarship.
A list of proposals submitted, along with funding status, as a result of FFE funding.
A summary of any publicity or additional acclaim attributed to UMKC as a result of the FFE project.

For two years following completion, an update to the second document must be submitted.

***NOTE: Failure to submit the required documents and/or absence of evidence of a proposal submission to an external funding agency will result in exclusion of all applicants on that proposal from applying for future FFE awards for a period of five years.