REP Guidelines

(Updated on August 27, 2020)

Research Enhancement Program Guidelines

  1. General Guidelines
    1. All Texas State faculty members with full-time, continuing nine-month academic appointments are eligible to apply. Tenured, tenure-track, clinical faculty, and faculty of practice who hold the rank of assistant professor, associate professor or professor may apply as principal investigators (PIs) or co-investigators (CIs). Nontenure line senior lecturers may only apply as co-investigators with eligible PIs. The principal investigator and all co-investigators must be employees of Texas State.
    2. Department Chairs, School Directors, Program Directors, Deans, Assistant/Associate Deans and Research Faculty are not eligible to apply. Program Faculty may be included and compensated as internal consultants. External consultants are allowed but must be paid for professional services as vendors.
    3. Faculty may submit only one proposal, whether submitting individually or collaboratively. Principal investigators must apply within their own academic colleges.
    4. Faculty serving as either PI or CI cannot be awarded REP grants in consecutive years. In addition, any prior REP grantees with delinquent final reports are not eligible to apply.
    5. The maximum award level for individuals applying for grants is $8,000. Collaborative projects involving two or more eligible faculty may be awarded a maximum of $16,000. In collaborative proposals, the applicants must designate only one PI, as this will determine which College Research Enhancement Committee (CREC) will review the proposal.
    6. Salary stipends may not exceed $8,000 and may be requested only for summer months. The combined summer teaching salary (if any) and REP salary stipend may not exceed one-third of the applicant’s nine-month salary. Faculty on developmental leave may be funded, but again, a salary stipend can only be paid during the summer months. Lump-sum payments are allowed as long as they do not constitute pay-above-base.
    7. The total available REP funds will be divided proportionately among the seven academic colleges so that each CREC will have a specific amount allocated to it for distribution to its approved applicants. The funding rate will be determined by dividing the total available REP funds by the summation of the actual request amounts for all colleges.
    8. The following activities are not fundable:
      • any research associated with the completion of the applicant's master's thesis or doctoral dissertation
      • any faculty education or training not directly relevant to the grant project
      • course or curriculum development projects
      • travel to conferences
      • registration for conferences
    9. Recipients of REP awards must submit a written final report by June 15 following the grant termination date (see section IV). The report is a summary of the project’s accomplishments highlighting any publications, presentations, and external grant proposals that result from the REP. Faculty may not submit new REP proposals while reports from past grants are overdue.
  2. Application Process

Applicants must use the online application process provided on the REP webpage  to submit materials. Click on the menu bar tab titled "REP Online Application System" to begin the process. You may direct programmatic questions to: blanda@txstate.edu. Questions regarding the online system should be directed to ys11@txstate.edu.

The Research Enhancement Program application consists of the following items.

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    1. Abstract - Provide a 150-250 word abstract on the application page that summarizes the project.
    2. Proposal narrative - A narrative description of the proposed study, up to five pages in length, double-spaced in 12-point Times New Roman font with one inch margins. Any references should be included in the five-page limit, but may be single-spaced. Text associated with tables in the narrative should be single spaced.

The narrative must include:

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      1. An introduction including literature citations (if appropriate) and statement of hypothesis or purpose
      2. An explanation of the project's goals and a detailed description of methodology, e.g. design, data collection/analysis procedures (as appropriate)
      3. A description of the project, with an emphasis on organization and presentation of ideas. Statements detailing the importance of the project to the applicant's field and personal scholarly/creative development, and the applicant’s access to necessary resources (i.e. library archives, instrumentation, etc.) should be included.
      4. A detailed budget justification that is separate from the budget template in the application form, (see application tutorial pgs. 8 - 10 ). Justification is especially important for equipment and travel requests.
      5. An explanation of the explicit roles of each applicant if there are multiple investigators.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The narrative must be combined with the vita described below as a single PDF. If the narrative is deleted by the applicant, it can take up to 48 hours to be cleared from the online system database during which time revised narratives can’t be uploaded.

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    1. Vita – A two-page maximum, single-spaced in 12 pt. Times New Roman font with one-inch margins, for each applicant that summarizes their research, and scholarly/creative activities.

The PI vita must indicate specific outcomes (publications, creative works, presentations, proposals, awards, etc.) from prior REP grants received (up to five years if applicable). An extra page for the vita is acceptable for this purpose.

The vita(s) must be added to the end of the narrative so that both comprise a single PDF. For individual applications, the maximum number of pages in the narrative/vita is eight. For collaborative projects, up to two additional vita pages per applicant are added to this total.

 

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    1. Project Budget Form – detail of faculty salaries, maintenance and operating expenses (including consulting and payments for human subject incentives) must be provided using the online budget template.

The application must be completed using the online application system and submitted by the due date and time posted on the REP homepage and in the annual fall program announcement. Applications submitted after the posted deadline will not be accepted by the online system.

  1. Review Process

Proposals are peer-reviewed by each College’s Research Enhancement Committee (CREC), made up of elected departmental representatives. In instances where the department does not provide an elected representative, the chair of the University Research Enhancement Committee (UREC), in consultation with the department’s senator or senate liaison and CREC chair, will recruit a suitable representative. Departments are strongly encouraged to appoint an alternate representative to the college review panel. The CREC’s evaluations guide the UREC, consisting of a tenured representative appointed by the Faculty Senate from each college, in recommending grants to be approved by the Faculty Senate.

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    1. Prior to meeting to discuss proposals, each CREC will examine proposals to determine whether or not the guidelines have been observed. Incomplete applications or applications that do not conform to these guidelines, including formatting specifications, will not be reviewed.
    2. Collaborative proposals from faculty in different colleges will be reviewed by the CREC for the Principal Investigator. A principal investigator must be designated.
    3. Four essential aspects of all proposals will be evaluated and given a numerical score.

The evaluation areas and their maximum point values are as follows:

  • Introduction (statement of objectives and/or research questions) (10 pts.)
  • Budget request detail and justification (10 pts.)
  • Quality of proposed project (creativity, organization and presentation of ideas, importance to field, access to resources) (55 pts.)
  • Methodology (project design) (25 pts.)

Refer to the evaluation instrument posted on the REP webpage for your college's more specific requirements.

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    1. After eligible proposals from a college are discussed, the individual CREC members will submit numerical scores via the online system. In general, the highest rated proposals within a college should be fully funded. At the discretion of the CREC, budgets may be adjusted in the lower-ranked proposals that are deemed worthy of funding resulting in partial funding of those projects. The CREC will resolve any tied scores at the funding cut-off point.
    2. The UREC will oversee each college’s funding process and will resolve any conflicts. The UREC may examine proposal budgets and amend them according to the recommendations of the CREC. After the UREC has approved each CREC’s funding recommendations, it will submit its recommendations to the Faculty Senate for final approval.
    3. The roster of successful applicants will be posted on the REP website. Unsuccessful applicants are encouraged to contact the online system administrator within the Division of Research (Dr. Xia at YS11@txstate.edu) to request their proposal review scores and to discuss ways to improve their proposals for future submission with their CREC chair.
    4. Department chairs/school directors will be notified of the Research Enhancement Grants awarded to faculty in their units. PIs should meet with their chairs/directors to apprise them of the impact the grant will have on equipment or other unit resources and/or summer teaching schedules.
  1. Post Award Guidelines

If exceptional circumstances arise, an extension may be requested from the Assistant Vice President for Research and Sponsored Programs.

  1. Where appropriate, applicants are expected to consult their college dean to ensure that proposed projects will conform to university intellectual property policies. [Refer to the Faculty Handbook, General University Policies, "Faculty Earned Royalties" and to Regents' Rules and Regulations, Chapter III, Section 10 (3).]
  2. Any research involving human or animal subjects must be approved by the Internal Review Board (IRB) and the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees (IACUC), respectively, before a grant account can be set up.
  3. If faculty PIs or CIs wish to monitor grant activity (viewing budget to actual reports or approving requisitions) then they must submit a SAP Financial Security Authorization form. Also indicated on the SAP Financial Security forms are the names of any administrative support staff (e.g. Research Coordinators, Departmental Administrative Assistants, Procurement Specialists, etc.) who are needed to assist with management of the award.

Department chairs / school directors will be issued the purchase/requisition approver role on awards from their departments so that they can assist the faculty in administering the grants.

Departmental administrative assistants or Research Coordinators may perform other functions such as payroll approval, budget transfers and purchase requests. Therefore, they will require a Security Authorization form signed by the faculty PI delegating those duties.

All Personnel Change Request forms (PCR’s) for designating summer salary for faculty, graduate student stipends and hourly wages must be submitted in accordance with University procedures.

  1. Research Cash Advances for incentive payments to human subjects and other allowed research expenses must be submitted via the Research Cash Advance online system and in accordance with UPPS 02.02.06.
  2. The maximum REP budget period allowed is 18 months (January through May 31 of the following year). In situations where account set up is delayed as a result of compliance approvals (IRB/IACUC), a minimum project period of 12 months is guaranteed. Grantees are strongly encouraged to submit compliance protocols as soon as possible.
  3. ll equipment purchased with REP funds is the property of the university. Equipment is not to be considered for the grantee's exclusive use once the REP project is completed.
  4. Faculty members receiving an REP grant are expected to serve as continuing faculty members at Texas State University for the duration of the grant period. If the employment status of the faculty member changes during the grant period, the faculty member should immediately notify the REP Director of the change. The grant account will be inactivated on the last day of employment and any unexpended funds will be returned to the Research Enhancement Program for future allocation.
  5. Recipients of awards must submit a written terminal report to the REP Director by June 15 following the termination date. The final report is a summary of the project accomplishments highlighting any publications, presentations and external grant proposals that result from the REP. Faculty are not eligible to apply for REP grants until reports from past grants have been submitted. The terminal report template can be found on line at: REP Terminal Report

Division of Research

JC Kellam, Room 489

Phone: 512-245-2314, Fax: 512-245-3847