Faculty Fellowship Criteria Review Forms, and Evaluation Process

Criteria Approved by the URC for Review of Faculty Fellowships

Pursuant to University Statutes and according to criteria approved by the URC, Faculty Fellowships are awarded “on the basis of demonstrated research competence of the applicant, the value of the project submitted and its potential contribution to the University and to the professional development of the faculty member.”  Faculty in the creative arts make contributions other than research-driven ones, and thus they are to be evaluated on demonstrated productivity in their field, the value of the project submitted and its potential contribution to the University and to the professional development of the faculty member.

Specifically, applications for Faculty Fellowship should be evaluated based on:

  1. Overall goal(s) – contribution to the applicant’s field;
     
  2. Specific objectives:
    i.  the proposal identifies concrete outcomes  consisting of a) published, peer-reviewed works or the professional equivalent, or b) external grant or fellowship proposals;
    ii. the plan for achieving these outcomes is clear and feasible;
     
  3. Relevance and importance to the professional development of the applicant – the overall goal(s) and specific objectives are important opportunities for the applicant to continue his or her line of research or creative work, or will enable the applicant to extend his or her research or creative works in new and significant directions;
     
  4. Importance of the identified outcomes to the applicant’s larger field; and
     
  5. Potential contribution to University in promoting the core objectives of a research University.

Faculty Fellowship Review Forms

Review of faculty fellowships occurs by chairs, deans and faculty who serve on the Faculty Fellowship Advisory Committee (FFAC). Sample review forms can be found here: [Deans, Chairs, Advisory Committee]. Exact items on review forms may be modified prior to review process after consultation and recommendation by the FFAC and University Research Council (URC) and prior to dissemination of the applications for review.

Faculty Fellowship Evaluation Process

  1. The Office of Research (OR) reviews applications for completion, procedural compliance, and applicants’ eligibility in accordance with the University Statute 4-05.10. (September 16 – 19)
  2. OR sends all eligible applications to department/area Chairs who provide a written qualitative assessment and a tally of quantitative evaluation points for each application. (September 20 – 30)
  3. OR forwards all eligible applications and the department/area Chairs’ reviews to their Deans who review all application materials. The Deans write their own qualitative assessment and their tally of quantitative evaluation points for each application. (October 1 – 15)
  4. OR forms a Faculty Fellowship Advisory Committee (FFAC), which is comprised of members who are recent successful Fordham-funded Faculty Fellows and/or possess an impressive research record. (October 16 – 30)
  5. The Office of Research identifies applications which have been given an overall rating of less than 4 of 5 points by Chairs and/or Deans and forwards them to the FFAC for review. (November 1 – November 4)
  6. The FFAC members receive flagged application materials and conduct evaluation of each applicant’s record identified in step 5, without any knowledge of the other committee members’ identities or assessments. However, they may view both the points and the qualitative assessment provided by Chairs and/or Deans. (November 5 – November 15)
  7. OR receives and reviews assessments submitted by the FFAC members. The FFAC, if necessary, convenes online or in person in November (November 16 – November 22) to discuss the merits of each of applications with all application materials at their disposal.
  8. OR submits a list of all applications reviewed by Chair, Dean, and FFAC to the Provost who then provides the recommendations to the President. The President makes the final decision with respect to funding (November 23 – December 14).
  9. OR emails letters from the President and the CRO to all applicants (December 15).
  10. Faculty whose applications are not approved will receive a signed letter of denial, which also invites the applicant to meet with Office of Research staff online or in person. At those meetings with OR staff, faculty can discuss any additional information they may have, and they can receive support for a resubmission of their application. Applicants who receive a denial may submit an appeal to the Faculty Senate Hearing Committee regarding the evaluation process or regarding their application’s assessment.