Dear Colleague:

The Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Science (SBE) at the National Science Foundation (NSF) would like to share with you an opportunity of which you may not be aware. Several years ago, the NSF, in recognition of the critical role that primarily undergraduate institutions play in educating tomorrow’s scientists and engineers, established the Research in Undergraduate Institutions (RUI) program.

We have identified your institution as being a candidate for RUI eligibility. The guidelines as stated in the RUI program announcement (http://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/getpub?nsf00144) should be reviewed carefully. In general, if you award an average of no more than ten doctorates per year in disciplines that NSF supports and if the Principal Investigator of the proposal is from a department that does not grant any doctorate degrees, then that proposal can be submitted under the RUI title.

Proposals submitted under RUI are still submitted to the core programs or initiatives but also include a RUI certification and an impact statement. The Impact Statement is an opportunity to provide information that a reviewer will find helpful in assessing the likely impact of the proposed research activity on the research environment of the predominantly undergraduate institutions(s), on the career(s) of the faculty participants, and on the ability of the involved department(s) to prepare students for entry into advanced-degree programs and/or careers in science and engineering. The Impact Statement may include information on factors affecting research productivity such as teaching loads, availability (or lack) of support personnel, nature of experimental and computational facilities, and features of the student population. Reviewers are given instructions and items to consider when evaluating a proposal from a RUI institution.

In addition, the RUI program announcement details another unique resource, Research Opportunity Awards (ROA). ROAs provide funds for a RUI-based researcher to travel and conduct research at another university with an NSF grant. The spirit of the ROA is to allow for more interchange between all researchers and to provide for special collaborations. SBE is currently providing special funds for ROAs, as detailed in the accompanying letter.

Sincerely,

William P. Butz
Director
Division of Social and Economic Sciences