Interdisciplinary Research Grant Evaluation Guidelines

The following guidelines are used for scoring Interdisciplinary Research Grant applications:

1. Incomplete applications or those that failed to answer directly the questions posed are penalized substantially.
2. Applications that do not clearly explain the interdisciplinary character of the research are penalized substantially.
3. Credit is given for proposals that are written in language appropriate for an interdisciplinary faculty audience drawn from across the university.
4. Priority is given to research teams that include faculty members who are on tenure-leading lines, but not yet tenured.
5. Credit is given for applicants' record of research, scholarship and creative activity, relative to time in career.
6. For more senior faculty, considerable credit is given to those who have established a “track record” of using internal monies to seed projects which lead to externally funded projects.
7. For those faculty members who have previously received Research Council awards, credit is given for the effective use of those awards in producing quality research, scholarship and creative activity outcomes and in obtaining external funding.
8. An attempt will be made to evaluate the quality of the research, scholarship and creative activity product for which funds are being sought.
9. Budget and budget justifications are regarded favorably when complete, appropriate, and accurate.
10. Any proposals which are for teaching activities, as opposed to research or other creative scholarly activity, are considered more appropriate for the UNL Teaching Council and are rated accordingly.
11. Recipients are required to submit a proposal for competitive external funding within 12 months of the end of the Interdisciplinary grant period.