SCHARP awards are available to individuals with a primary, full-time faculty appointment to UConn/UConn Health, within the following parameters:

• Applicants must be tenure track, Clinical, Research, or in-Residence faculty at the rank of Assistant Professor or higher.  Faculty with Research Professor titles will need to have some institutionally-funded research time available in order to eligible.
• Applicants may be from any department or discipline within the University, so long as the project makes a strong contribution to scholarship in the arts or humanities or a significant creative endeavor.
• Faculty may submit only one project per academic year in each SCHARP category.
• The same project may not be submitted for both a Breakthrough and Development award in the same academic year.
• The same project cannot receive funds from SCHARP and the smaller Scholarship Facilitation Fund or the larger Research Excellence Program mechanisms
• Because of the limited funding available, projects that receive a Development award are not eligible for another Development award.  However, such a project is eligible for a future Breakthrough Award.  Projects that receive a Breakthrough Award are not eligible for additional SCHARP funding.

Proposals for SCHARP Awards should contain the following elements and follow the structure and guidelines indicated.  All length guidelines assume 1” margins, 11-12pt fonts, single spacing and single side pages.

• Cover Page: Title of Project, Applicant information, and a list of collaborators
• Abstract: A lay summary of the project's activities and major goals
• Project Narrative: Describe the project and its anticipated outcomes.  Project narratives should address the following and not exceed 2 pages for Development awards. References should be included and do not count against page limits.
  • Provide background on your project's field of study/practice to provide context for the work you are proposing.
  • Describe the work you wish to accomplish through project (scholarly / artistic approach, theoretical or methodological framework, specific activities that you propose undertaking, and the expected products of the project [e.g. performances, exhibitions, publications, media, public engagements, etc.]).
  • Explain how your proposed activities will contribute to the achievement of your scholarly/artistic goals and how the achievement of your scholarly/artistic goals will contribute to your field of study or practice.
  • Access and Resources: If the project requires special technical expertise, describe how this need will be addressed.  If the project requires access to archives/collections/resources at another institution, describe the arrangements that have been made to gain access to them.
• Budget describing and justifying use of SCHARP funds.  Please see Internal Funding Budget Guidelines for instructions and a budget template.
• Updated CVs for all key project contributors that includes most recent publications / performances / exhibitions or those that are most relevant to the work proposed.

Proposals for SCHARP Breakthrough Awards should contain the following elements and following the structure and guidelines indicated.  All length guidelines assume 1” margins, 11-12pt fonts, single spacing and single side pages.

• Cover Page: Title of Project, Applicant information, and a list of collaborators
• Abstract: A lay summary of the project activities and major goals
• Project Narrative: Describe the project and its anticipated outcomes.  Project narratives should address the following and not exceed 5 pages for Breakthrough Awards. References should be included and do not count against page limits.
  • Provide background on the field with which your project will engage to provide context for the work you are proposing, describing current scholarly/artistic norms in your field, opportunities to build on or challenge those norms, or obstacles that need to be overcome before further progress can be made.
  • Proposed work: Describe the work you wish to accomplish with this project. Explain the scholarly or artistic approach and any theoretical or methodological framework you are applying, the specific activities that you propose undertaking to advance your project, and the outputs or products of this work (e.g. performances, exhibitions, publications, media, public engagements, etc.).  Proposals should specifically address the ways in which the project is innovative/novel compared to existing work within the discipline.
  • Impact and outcomes: Explain how your proposed activities will contribute to the achievement of your scholarly/artistic goals and how the achievement of your scholarly/artistic goals will be transformative for your field of study or practice.
  • Expertise/Skills, Access, and Resources: If the project requires special technical expertise, describe how this need will be addressed.  If the project requires access to archives/collections/resources at another institution, describe the arrangements that have been made to gain access to them.  If your project includes collaboration, describe how the skills and expertise of each scholar/artist contributes to the success of the project and explain how the collaboration is innovative/novel compared to what is common within the discipline.
• Budget describing and justifying use of SCHARP funds. Please see Internal Funding Budget Guidelines for instructions and a budget template.
• Updated CVs for all key project contributors that includes most recent publications/performances/exhibitions or those that are most relevant to the work proposed.

Please see the general budget guidelines for the OVPR Research Development Internal Funding awards.

Review Process

All proposals will be evaluated by a peer-review team composed of the University of Connecticut faculty and overseen by the OVPR.

• The Internal Competitions Advisory Board (ICAB) faculty Co-chairs are assigned to provide reviewer suggestions for proposals to the OVPR.
• The OVPR in turn will invite and select reviewers based on disciplinary areas consistent with the proposal category, scholarly reputation, and whenever possible expertise and specialization consistent with the proposal topic.
• ICAB Co-chairs will review the recommendations by the reviewers, identify the strongest proposals for funding, and make their recommendations to the OVPR, keeping the review criteria in mind.
• The OVPR leadership will review all the recommendations and scores for award consideration. Final awards are made by the OVPR leadership based on the ICAB recommendations, program objectives, equity factors (including disciplinary representation), recent internal funding history, and alignment of projects with other institutional priorities or investments.

Criteria

• Significance/Importance – Why does this project matter?
• Innovation/Novelty – How is this project new?
• Feasibility of Approach – How will the work be done?
• Environment/Resources – What resources/facilities will be used
• Team qualifications – Who will be working on this project, and how are they uniquely suited to accomplish this work?
• Outcome – What value/impact will this work promise to return?
• Assessment – How will success be determined?
• Budget – Are funds to be used efficiently and effectively to achieve project goals?

After SCHARP awards are made, the OVPR would like to check in with awardees periodically to evaluate project progress and to learn about the impact of the work that has been done.

In the short term, the OVPR will follow up with awardees at the end of each year during the award period.  If the award was given for multiple years, we will ask for a brief update on how your project is progressing and for an updated budget for the following year.  If significant budget changes are needed at any point within an award period (i.e. because of unanticipated delays, new costs, significant shifts of funding between categories), awardees may contact research@uconn.edu to work out a revised budget.

Post-award considerations

• Reporting requirements: PIs will need to prepare a brief report, using this Award Report Template to summarize project progress within one month of posting final expenses unless an extension from the OVPR has been received.
• Further reports on project outcomes may be requested in the future to track return on investment.