Assistant/Associate/Full Professors in a tenured/tenure-track position
Clinical and extension faculty
Assistant/Associate/Full Professors-in-Residence
Storrs and Regional campus faculty only. UConn Health faculty are not eligible.

• UConn-hosted conferences, symposia, seminars, colloquia or workshops (support for planning and implementation but not attendance; events funded under this category must have a faculty facing research/scholarship focus; professional development/teaching development workshops are not eligible).
• Small start-up/pilot data projects in support of applications to external sponsors
• Test new procedures/methodologies
• Creative/scholarly projects in support of gallery shows or exhibitions
• Library/archival research leading to book/monograph
• Costs to bring book-length manuscripts to publication (textbooks not eligible)
• Publication costs (including open-access journal costs, copy-editing, etc.)
• Sabbatical projects
• Contractual services (including statistical consulting, graphic artists, website design, etc.)
• Other categories: any activity that does not fall under one of the categories above may be considered, provided a sufficient rationale is given.

Requests for SFF support must be submitted through the UConn Quest Portal’s online application form, and should include:

• Project Description (Limit: 2000 characters/250 words). Describe the activities you wish to undertake in the project, the scholarly products (publications, grant applications etc.) that these activities will enable, and your proposed timeline for these activities. 
• Budget and Justification (Limit: 2000 characters/250 words). Break down (itemize) the costs related to this project and provide justification as to why each is necessary and reasonable for the work described in the project description.  It is important to list each cost separately and provide information regarding how cost estimates have been reached.
  • The following items cannot be requested: faculty, clerical or administrative personnel salaries, including personnel whose primary purpose is to explore funding sources and/or prepare grant applications; service/maintenance contracts on equipment; laboratory renovations, or other infrastructure renovations; institutional memberships in professional organizations; travel to professional meetings to present the results of research; travel to explore extramural funding opportunities. SFF budgets must specify how funds will be used to advance/complete a specific aspect of a faculty project; SFF funds will not be granted solely to provide support or gap funding for personnel. 
• Funding Need (Limit: 2000 characters/250 words). Address all other sources of funding you may have available for this project.  Providing some level of explanation of the funding need (even if there are no other resources available) is critical for contextualizing SFF requests.  Requests that do not address funding need will have lower funding priority.
  • Include external funding earmarked for this project and what it will cover
  • Discuss existing start-up or IDC funds and what they will cover or why they are not available for the project
  • Describe any cost-matches that have been offered by department or school/college. The willingness of other units to contribute to the costs of the project will be viewed as a positive factor when evaluating SFF requests
  • Describe the importance of SFF funding for the continuation/success of the project.

• Requests are generally for a 1 year period, however, funds will be deposited into the PI’s IDC account, and will not expire. It is expected that funds will be used as described in the original application. Major changes to how the funds are to be used should be discussed with the OVPR before proceeding. Small amounts of leftover funds (after the SFF project is complete) may be used by PIs for other research-related costs at their discretion.
• Additional documentation may be required such as evidence of manuscript acceptance, book contract, exhibition date, etc. prior to award being made.
• SFF budgets must specify how funds will be used to advance/complete a specific aspect of a faculty research/scholarly project
• Salary support for faculty members (AY or summer) is generally not an allowable cost on SFF awards.
• Student-led research projects are not eligible for SFF funding.
• Projects focused on curriculum development or teaching are only eligible if they contribute to a program of pedagogical research and lead to appropriate scholarly products.
• SFF funds will not be granted solely to provide support or gap funding for personnel.
• Funds will not be granted retroactively (i.e. for activities that take place before the award period)
• If your project is approved, a project report must be submitted by the PI at project completion, and the OVPR will request annual updates on project outcomes for a few years following the award.

Awards are made based on the strength/completeness of the project description/budget, the applicant’s existing funding resources, imminent need, and recent internal funding history. Applications from early career investigators are given slight priority over applications from more established faculty members.