Purpose

The Academic Quality Fund (AQF) will enable the University to seize opportunities that might otherwise be lost and, in particular, to invest in those that transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries. Through an assessment of all Morningside Campus school budgets effective July 1, 1998, the AQF will grow from almost $1 million in the 1998-99 academic year to roughly $7 million over the next five years. The AQF will support a relatively small number of compelling initiatives each year to advance the goals of the institution in tangible and measurable ways.

Types of Projects

Proposed academic initiatives should:

1. enhance the quality and excellence of research and/or teaching
2. promise significant impact across fields and/or schools
3. provide for long-term significance and sustainability.

On occasion, the Fund will support proposals that:

1. enhance academic performance or success through fundamental restructuring of operational systems or processes that support academic programs
2. provide substantially enhanced levels of needed or requested service
3. support capital projects that otherwise would not be feasible but that are essential for an academic initiative or the maintenance of preeminence for the University.

Proposal Process

The AQF competition is held once a year. Proposals must be submitted by deans and vice presidents on behalf of their faculty. In the case of Arts and Sciences, all proposals (including those developed or screened by the deans of the individuals schools) must be reviewed for their budgetary impact by the Vice President. Deans must approve forwarded applications to ensure that there are no unfunded mandates to the schools as a result of AQF funding of initiatives. Care should be taken to ensure that proposed projects do not bring additional costs to the schools or the central university that are not part of the request.

Review Process

Preproposals and proposals are reviewed initially by a faculty peer review committee appointed by the President. The committee will recommend to the President and Provost high-quality initiatives that are judged to be worthy of funding. The review criteria will include: excellence of the content of the proposal; the ability of the faculty to develop the initiative; the potential impact of the initiative in producing new or enhanced academic excellence at Columbia; the adequacy of the budget for the initiative and the likelihood that the project can become self-sustaining after a limited period of support. We expect that there will be significantly more high-quality proposals than funds to support them. The President and Provost reserve the right not to use the full AQF allocation in a given year and/or to make allocations of funds that will be used over several years. Each year a portion of the Fund may be set aside to support extraordinarily important initiatives that require rapid decision making. In these cases the decisions will be made by the President and Provost. Final recommendations will be presented to the Resources and Priorities Subcommittee of the University Planning and Budget Committee and to the Council of Deans. Funded initiatives will be publicized through various campus media.

Awards

For the 2004-2005 academic year, $1 to $1.25 million will be available to support AQF initiatives.

Deadlines

Preproposals (twelve copies on hole punched paper) must be received from deans and vice presidents by Wednesday, November 26, 2003. (The Vice President for Arts and Sciences and the deans of the Morningside professional schools require that proposals be submitted to them prior to that date.) Preproposals selected for development into full proposals will be announced January 23, 2004. Twelve copies of the final proposal will be due Friday, March 12, 2004. Recipients will be announced by the end of the spring semester 2004.

Preproposal

Submit twelve copies of the preproposal to the Office of the Provost, 205 Low Library, by 5 p.m. Wednesday, November 26, 2003. Late applications will not be accepted. Faculty and staff who prepare preproposals must submit them, consistent with unit deadlines, to deans or vice presidents so as to ensure that they have adequate time to review them and decide whether to consider them for submission. Preproposals must include:

1. AQF application cover page
2. Description of proposed project, including budget information: maximum of three (3) one-sided pages.

Final Proposal

Twelve copies of the final proposal must be submitted by 5:00 p.m. Friday, March 12, 2004.

They must include:

1. AQF application cover page
2. Description of proposed project, including budget information and explicit discussion of any issues raised in the review of the preproposal: maximum of nine (9) one-sided pages (12-point font minimum) (Budget portion: maximum of two (2) out of the (9) one-sided pages).

Description of Proposed Project

The description of the proposed project should provide the following information:

1. Project background - provides the context for the proposed program (project), including its historical antecedents and the challenges it seeks to address.
2. Significance to the University - outlines why the project is important to the quality of the academic program. In particular, the proposal should reflect strategic thinking that tries to anticipate longer-term opportunities. In addition, the impact on the community-at-large and its attendant implications for Columbia should be included.
3. Benefits - states the anticipated outcomes of the proposed program and presents arguments that would justify major investment of scarce resources. If appropriate, note any consequences if such action is not taken.
4. Unit commitments - summarizes the financial, personnel and space resources to be contributed by each participating unit.
5. Leverage and sustainability - indicates how investment of Columbia resources both at the central and unit level can generate external resources such as grants, gifts, collaborative ventures, including such examples as the possibility of attracting complementary programs or branches of federal agencies or special institutes and the like, and demonstrates how the project or activity can become self-sustaining after the expiration of AQF support.
6. Budget - presents details of the requested budget, including unit commitments as well as anticipated external funding services. A guideline for budget information is attached.
7. Endorsements - lists participating units and includes the endorsements of the supporting deans and/or vice presidents who will serve as the co-leaders of the program/project. In addition to the signature of the primary dean or vice president, the names and contact information of the faculty who spearheaded the creation of the proposal should be listed.

Budget Guidelines

Formats for budget information are outlined in the attached guidelines. Any questions should be referred to the office of the appropriate dean or vice president. Some budget items will not be funded and should, therefore, be excluded from the request. (For example, routine inflation costs, salary increases, utility costs and similar expenses that would normally be considered an integral part of the University budget.) Further, expenditures from these funds are subject to the normal restrictions on use of University funds. Any assumptions regarding expected tangible or in-kind resources from other schools/central service units that are not an explicit component of the budget should be clearly stated. These will weigh in the review process and, if absent from the proposal, will not necessarily be made available when the project is initiated.

Return to Letter from Provost Brinkley | Sample Format