OAR Internal Funding Programs

The Office for Advancement of Research (OAR) promotes faculty success through both at-need rolling programs and competitive annual awards. Applications to rolling programs are reviewed on a monthly basis, generally in the first week of the calendar month following receipt. For example, an application received on September 30th would be reviewed as part of the October cycle, whereas an application submitted on October 1st would be reviewed as part of the November cycle. Applications are generally reviewed during the first full week of each calendar month, with the goal of returning  decisions to applicants by the second Thursday of the month. 

Monthly/Rolling Award Programs

Monthly/rolling funding is offered through the following programs:

Seed – Funds are available to support pilot or preliminary work necessary to pursue a major grant application to an external funding agency. Funds may be requested to undertake a pilot study to gather background data toward supporting a major proposal. Funds may also be requested to conduct planning activities or support the writing of a major proposal. Seed funds are generally under $4,000 per request. Faculty requesting Seed Funding will need to submit an application to an external funding program within one (1) year of receiving funding, and must revise and resubmit the proposal at least one time (to the same or an alternative external funding program) if the original proposal is not funded. To make a request to the Seed Funding program, faculty must submit a project summary (maximum two pages). This summary should justify the seed request, detail the funding agency being targeted and the nature of the planned proposal, and provide a detailed budget. Requests should be submitted in electronic form (pdf preferred) to oar@jjay.cuny.edu, with Seed Funding clearly indicated in the subject line.

Faculty Scholarship – Faculty Scholarship funds are intended to support efforts related to the publication of a significant work of scholarship or the mounting of a creative work such as a performance, art exhibition, musical composition, etc. Awards are generally under $3,000 per request, and can be used for the purpose of travel to libraries, archives, or other sites for data collection; purchase of software or equipment required for analysis; costs related to the mounting of creative works, etc. Funds are not intended to support release time or conference travel. Awardees must publish (as a book or in a peer-reviewed journal) or produce the results of the funded work within one (1) year of receiving funding. To make a request to the Faculty Scholarship Funding program, faculty must submit a project summary (maximum two pages). This summary should justify the need for funding, describe the intended scholarly outcome, and provide a detailed budget. Requests should be submitted in electronic form to oar@jjay.cuny.edu with Faculty Scholarship Funding clearly indicated in the subject line.

Proposal Pre-Review ­– To improve the quality of external grant proposals and their likelihood of success, OAR makes funds available for faculty to obtain external reviews of grant proposals, prior to their submission to an agency or funding organization. Requests must be made in writing to OAR (oar@jjay.cuny.edu) with Proposal Pre-Review clearly indicated in the email subject line. Please include a summary of the grant application to be reviewed, along with a potential reviewer's name, title, affiliation(s), and a brief (one-sentence) description of their qualifications. Faculty are responsible for identifying and handling all communications with the peer reviewer, and the request must be sent at least 30 days before the grant deadline in order to be considered. Each award will provide an honorarium of $300 (limited to one review per grant application), which will be paid directly to the peer reviewer to incentivize their work. The awardee must submit a copy of the external review to oar@jjay.cuny.edu at least two weeks prior to the grant application deadline in order for the honorarium to be paid.

Open-Access Publication – Funds are available to faculty who wish to publish articles in open-access format in major, peer-reviewed, scholarly journals. Once a manuscript is accepted for publication, faculty must submit a request to OAR with the journal name, a copy of the acceptance letter, and a brief description of the journal quality and reach. Each named author (with the exception of student contributors) is expected to contribute a minimum of $100 to the overall cost of Open Access fees, and author contributions must cover 50% of any costs over $2,000. Requests should be submitted in electronic form to oar@jjay.cuny.edu with Open-Access Publication clearly indicated in the subject line. 

Book Publication – The Office for the Advancement of Research wishes to support faculty authors who are in the process of publishing books (as a single-author/editor) with high-quality, reputable presses. OAR will reimburse the author up to $1,500 to pay page fees, indexing fees, image rights, etc. Once a book proposal is accepted for publication, faculty must submit a request to OAR with (1) the original proposal, (2) a copy of the publication contract, (3) a brief description of the publisher's quality and reach, and (4) copies of receipts or invoices for the services to be funded. Please note that contracts in which the author receives a lump sum advance are not eligible for this funding program. In the case of co-authored or multi-author works, each author (with the exception of student authors) will be expected to contribute an equal share to the costs Book Publication funds are intended to cover. Requests should be submitted in electronic form to oar@jjay.cuny.edu with Book Publication clearly indicated in the subject line.

Community Event – The OAR will fund scholarly or creative events to be held at John Jay College that are free of charge and open to the John Jay Community as a whole. Faculty requesting funding should submit a proposal (maximum two pages) in electronic form to oar@jjay.cuny.edu with Community Event Funding clearly indicated in the subject line. Successful requests will include (1) a detailed description of the planned event; (2) a line-item budget with clear justifications for each expense; and (3) a compelling rationale for how the John Jay community stands to benefit from hosting the event. Awards are generally under $3,000 per request.

Enhanced Travel – The OAR will fund major travel opportunities with the potential to have a significant impact on a faculty scholar's professional trajectory. Examples include personally invited talks, special workshops or trainings, keynote addresses at major conferences, etc. Travel to present papers accepted as part of a public call or invitation to a standard academic conference is not eligible. Requests are limited to $2,000 per faculty member and faculty members are limited to a maximum of two (2) awards per academic/fiscal year. In order to apply, please submit requests in electronic form to oar@jjay.cuny.edu with Enhanced Travel Funding clearly indicated in the subject line. Successful requests will include (1) a justification for the funding need that clearly differentiates the travel opportunity from the general round of academic conferences in your discipline; (2) a letter of invitation detailing the expected parameters of your participation; and (3) an accompanying explanation from your department chair as to why they are unable to fund the opportunity through the departmental travel allocation.

Conference Reception – The OAR recognizes that academic conferences, conventions, and annual meetings play an important role in networking, scholarly collaboration, hiring, defining disciplinary culture, setting research agendas, influencing public policy, and more. In order to enhance the College’s institutional presence at mission-related academic and professional conferences (or analogous events), the OAR will provide support for a limited number of receptions or other formal gatherings, sanctioned by the conference organizers and included in the conference agenda, that formalize the involvement of John Jay faculty with the larger event, sponsoring organization, and discipline as a whole. Average funding is expected to range from $3,000-5,000 per request. In order to apply, please submit requests in electronic form to oar@jjay.cuny.edu with Conference Reception Funding clearly indicated in the subject line. Successful requests will include: (1) An outline of the relevant details of the conference in question (including title, date, location, and sponsoring organization mission); (2) A brief (maximum two pages) description and rationale for your planned reception, including how the larger event relates to the College’s mission, and how the reception will enhance John Jay faculty involvement or benefit the John Jay community as a whole; (3) a list of the John Jay faculty presenting/participating in the conference; and (4) a line-item event budget.

Emergency – Support is available for research or other scholarly activities that specifically address a need that is urgent and/or time-sensitive in nature. This may include support for research on disasters or other unanticipated events for which a rapid response is critical. Emergency funds may also be requested for expenses related to externally-funded projects that could not be anticipated in the normal course of research; for example, new legislative funding priorities, cuts to a grant budget that may severely impact performance, etc. Emergency Funds are not appropriate for needs that could have been anticipated in the normal course of research. To make a request, faculty must submit a project summary (maximum two pages) electronically to oar@jjay.cuny.edu with Emergency Funds clearly indicated in the subject line, detailing the reason why Emergency Funds are required. Awards are generally under $6,000 per request.

Annual Competitive Award Programs

Senior Scholar Release – This program is intended for tenured Associate and full Professors who are working toward a major scholarly outcome or creative project and have no other sources of course release. The program provides 1 course (3 credit hours) of release time to be used in the subsequent academic year. These funds cannot be used for summer salary or any support other than course release time. Applicants must be at least 3 years post-tenure, and new applicants will receive priority over repeat applicants (especially in the case of repeat applications for the same scholarly project). Faculty must submit a project summary of no more than two pages to the Office for the Advancement of Research, detailing the nature of the scholarship planned and the reason the project requires the requested amount of course release time. Requests should be submitted in electronic form to oar@jjay.cuny.edu with Senior Scholar Release clearly indicated in the subject line. All applications will be reviewed by the Research Advisory Council and decisions will be announced by OAR.

In addition to the above, OAR recognizes faculty achievement through the following retrospective award programs:

The Faculty Scholarly Excellence Award – Up to five tenure-track or tenured faculty who have demonstrated exceptional scholarship in the previous three calendar years will be awarded two courses of reassigned time during the following academic year.

The Donal EJ MacNamara Junior Faculty Award – An award of $2,000 is given to an instructor or assistant professor who has made a significant scholarly contribution in the preceding two years to the fields of criminal justice or criminology.

Up Next: Resources for Identifying External Funding Opportunities.