A&S Strategic Research Initiative: Faculty Research & Scholarship Funding

Request For Proposals for CY 2027

Recognizing the need to build capacity for success in obtaining external competitive funding, technology transfer, and/or scholarly and creative work, the College of Arts & Sciences (A&S) sponsors the Strategic Research Initiative (SRI) Faculty Research & Scholarship Funding (FRSF) program. This is a modified version of the previous SRI Faculty Seed Funding opportunity.

The A&S Faculty Research & Scholarship Funding program provides funding to assist faculty in advancing promising research and scholarly projects, generating preliminary results, developing new directions, and achieving significant project milestones. Funding is intended to serve as a strategic investment that enables faculty to move projects forward toward meaningful outcomes, including competitive external funding, publication, IP to commercialization, and completion of substantial scholarly/creative work.

The College of Arts & Sciences will be accepting proposals for projects to be funded through the FRSF during Calendar Year 2027. Applications are welcomed from any A&S discipline.

FACULTY RESEARCH & SCHOLARSHIP FUNDING PROPOSAL GUIDELINES

The College of Arts & Sciences Faculty Research & Scholarship Funding (FRSF) program is designed to support a broad range of research and scholarly activities across the disciplines represented in A&S. We have modified the previous Faculty Seed Funding (FSF) program guidelines and RFP language in order to encourage broader participation across the disciplines represented in A&S. Rather than limiting proposals to specific funding tracks, we are broadening project funding categories to include Strategic Research Development, Cross-disciplinary Research, IP to Commercialization, and Book Completion & Scholarly Endeavors. Each category is explained in more detail below.

Proposal categories include the following types of projects:

  • Strategic Research Development is designed to support
    • Early-stage research that explores promising research questions, emerging ideas, or new scholarly directions in need of preliminary data.
    • "Hot-topic, immediate need, or new-direction research" that builds on an existing idea, preliminary findings, or an established research program to develop a new line of inquiry.

    Potential outcomes include proposal submission in response to nationally competitive RFPs and/or quality scholarly publication.

  • Cross-disciplinary Research is designed to support research efforts that could not be successful within a single discipline but require collaboration from multiple disciplines in order to move forward toward success. Potential outcomes include establishment of a collaborative interdisciplinary team working toward answering a question/filling a gap/solving a problem. Potential outcomes include proposal submission in response to nationally competitive RFPs.
  • IP to Commercialization is designed to support projin involving research discoveries, technologies, creative works, or other innovations with need for IP protection and potential for technology transfer, commercialization, and/or industry/commercial partnership. Potential outcomes include patent filing, I-Corps completion, market analysis, prototype development, or submission of technology-transfer related funding opportunity.
  • Book Completion & Scholarly Endeavors is designed to support the completion of substantial scholarly or creative work, in order to move the project toward publication, or public dissemination. Potential outcomes may include a completed book manuscript, edited volume, press interest/intent/acceptance, press contract, publication of digital humanities project, or other significant scholarly or creative product.
  • Awards will be announced mid-December 2026.
    • Spending authority and project period of performance for awardees is January 1 through December 31, 2027.
    • A one-time six-month extension with no additional funding may be approved upon request. Extension requests must be submitted in writing to the Office of the Associate Dean for Research by December 1, 2027. If a request is not approved, or if no request is made prior to the deadline, any unspent funds will be returned to A&S at the end of the original project period.
    • Awardees are required to submit an initial report that is due by January 31, 2028 (or within 30 days of the end date if an extension is granted). They may also be asked to submit a follow-up report in the following years to update A&S with the continued impact of this funding.

General Guidelines (all categories):

  • To be eligible for FRSF, the PI must be an A&S tenure-track faculty member, although any MSU faculty member can serve as co-PI and/or collaborator.
  • If a PI is within the first 3 years of their tenure-track appointment, there must be an explanation of how the requested FRSF funds will leverage or be used for a project that was not accounted for by start-up funds provided at time of hire.
  • Leveraging existing funds, resources, and/or partnerships is strongly encouraged.
  • A renewal for a second year of funding can be submitted for competitive review and funding; however, it is not guaranteed. Renewal proposals/application must be submitted in response to the RFP. Renewal funds will only be released once the initial required report has been submitted for the first year of funding.
  • Projects can initiate as early as January 1, 2027.
  • An annual/initial report is required within 30 days of the end of the project. These reports must be submitted by logging into the web portal and completing the report form available at the end of the active proposal tracker: https://webapps.its.msstate.edu/cas/rfp/sri-faculty/.

Proposal specifics

  • A compliant proposal submission will contain a Proposal Cover Sheet (web form) and a Full Proposal Document described below and must follow the format included in this RFP.
  • Enter the proposal submission portal by clicking the button in the upper right of this SRI Faculty Research & Scholarship Funding announcement webpage.
  • To create a new proposal and to enter the submission portal, click on the +New Proposal/Submission box.
  • The submission portal will request that you enter the following information in a web form (Cover Sheet):
    • PI NetID, Name, and Contact Information
    • PI Title/Faculty Rank
    • Departmental Affiliation
    • Proposal title
    • Category (dropdown menu)
    • Anticipated Start Date
    • Total Requested Proposal Budget (see Budget Specifics below)
      • SRI FRSF request
      • Other sources of funding if available
    • Abstract/Project summary (type in or cut and paste into box provided)
  • The portal provides a browse and upload function to upload the Full Proposal Document (PDF format). The Full Proposal Document must consist of only the following:
    • Project Narrative (5 page maximum, single-spaced, 1" margins, 12-pt font. Narrative must include PI's overall research/scholarly program goals, specific project goals, objectives, anticipated outcomes, impact, and plan for leveraging SRI funding. If using figures and tables, they must be included within the 5-pg narrative)
    • Literature Cited (does not count against page limit for the project narrative)
    • Budget/Budget justification (should itemize and describe all budgeted categories; explain other sources of funding if appropriate, does not count against 5 page project narrative maximum)
  • Co-PI information can be entered into the boxes provided.
  • Department Head and Business Manager information (NetID) is required.
  • When you have entered all required information, uploaded the Full Proposal Document, reviewed all and are ready to submit, click the Submit for Approval box at the bottom of the page.
  • After successful submission, you will receive a confirmation screen, and your Proposal will be routed to the Department Head for review and approval. If you do not receive a confirmation, please contact atemple@deanas.msstate.edu.
  • Once the Department Head approves, submitters will be sent a confirmation email, and the proposal will be routed automatically to the Associate Dean for Research (ADR) queue where it will remain until the review process is complete.
  • Proposals must be submitted by the applicant and fully approved by the Department Head via the FRSF Web Portal so that they arrive in the ADR queue by 5pm November 12th, 2026.

Budget Specifics/Criteria

  • Salaries are allowed but are limited to A&S faculty summer salary or AY time commensurate with the replacement cost of one course (lecturer replacement cost) for faculty with teaching loads >3/2, post-doctoral associates, graduate research assistants, or undergraduate student wages. Partial funding for post-doctoral associates will be considered in proportion to their time and effort allocation to the SRI project and will require a justification. Other allowable costs include travel, supplies, small equipment.
  • Note that fringe benefits and tuition costs associated with salary requests must be included in the budget.
  • Budget Limitations
    • Track I - $500 - $10,000 per proposal.
    • Track II - $500 - $10,000 per proposal.
    • Equipment requests will be considered, but must be well justified. Equipment for shared use will be given more positive consideration.
    • No indirect costs are allowed.
  • A budget and budget justification should include all budgeted categories and must be included in the Full Proposal Document.
  • If other sources of funds have been or are to be committed to this effort, you should include the amount, source(s), and justification (include one budget/budget justification page).

SRI Review Criteria

Proposals will be screened for compliance with stated eligibility criteria, stated budget criteria and adherence to topic area. Non-compliant applications will receive limited review, are unlikely to be funded or may be returned without review.

Proposals will be reviewed by a panel comprised of current and retired A&S faculty that represent the broad research areas of the college including natural, physical, social and behavioral sciences, and humanities. Note that these reviewers are knowledgeable but not experts in your specific field. Please keep this in mind when writing the proposal summary and narrative. Proposals review much better when jargon is kept to a minimum and written for a knowledgeable non-expert audience.

Merit review guidelines are as follows:

  1. Does the proposal narrative address the PIs overall research program goals, specific FSF goals, objectives, anticipated outcomes, impact, plan for leveraging SRI funding?
  2. Are the goals clearly stated and achievable within the timeline and budget?
  3. Are the approaches clearly described?
  4. Is there a clear path to competitive funding and/or quality peer-reviewed publication?
  5. What is the potential impact of the proposed project?
  6. If the project is a continuation or if it builds on previously collected data, is sufficient information/data presented to judge the merit of the proposal?
  7. Is the budget well justified, allowable, and reasonable?
  8. If the PI is within 3 years of TT hire, do they justify how the requested funds are not covered by start-up funds received?