The program provides two funding Tier options to support interdisciplinary collaborative and single investigator research. The total number of awards will depend upon the availability of funds. Awards will be made on a competitive basis, following review and recommendation by the UMKC Research Advisory Council (RAC).
FFE is an institutionally-funded grants program to support the highest level of research, scholarship, and creative endeavors by UMKC faculty. For 2024-2025, there will be two distinct FFE programs: Pool 1- Health Sciences, STEM, and Education, and Pool 2 - Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.
Tier 1 proposals are solicited for interdisciplinary multiple PI research proposals which must include a minimum of two contributing investigators representing independent UMKC units (Schools, Divisions, Departments, or Disciplines). Co-investigators external to UMKC are permitted provided the contributions from the external collaborator are covered by in-kind support. These proposals are intended to support preliminary data collection for major future submissions to NSF, NIH, and other external funding sources. The budget cap for Tier 1 proposals is $75,000; however, we encourage submitters to create a budget and justification that estimates what aspects of their research can be completed if smaller amounts were awarded (for example, $25K, $50K, full funding) and how each level of budget would support an external grant submission. The budget cap for Tier 1 proposals is $75,000.
Tier 2 proposals are solicited for single or multiple PI research proposals. These proposals are intended to support data collection and preliminary research generation for future sponsored project submissions. For these proposals, multi-investigator, cross-unit applications are encouraged but not required. If multi-investigator, the same requirements as set out for Tier 1 apply. The budget for Tier 2 proposals is up to $10,000.
Tenured, tenure-track and non-tenure track faculty at the rank of Assistant Professor or higher holding at least a 0.75 FTE appointment are eligible to serve as Investigators if their appointment allows it. A PI may resubmit a previously unfunded proposal from a prior FFE cycle but must include an explanation of how the proposal has been revised and how the reviewers’ comments have been addressed. Past recipients of FFE awards are ineligible to apply for this round if they received their FFE award for either 2022-2023 or 2023-2024 (i.e. in the last two years). Recipients prior to 2022 may apply provided a final report and summary of submitted external research proposals has been received by the Office of Research Services as outlined in the “FFE Production and Reporting Requirements” section at the end of this document.