VCU Presidential Research Incentive Program Announces 2012-2013 Awards

The Virginia Commonwealth University Presidential Research Incentive Program, or PRIP, has announced its fourth round of internal funding awards totaling more than $845,000 to support faculty engaged in new, emerging or continuing research.

In this round of funding, 20 awards involving 25 faculty members received funding, supporting projects across the institution from the schools of Medicine, Allied Health, Arts, Education, Engineering, Nursing, Social Work, Dentistry, Business and Pharmacy, and from Life Sciences and the College of Humanities and Sciences. The university supported this research through more than $501,000, and the units provided matching dollars totaling more than $344,000. The entire list of awards can be found at http://www.news.vcu.edu/pdfs/pdf/PRIPSpring2012.pdf.

Once again, this unique program has brought together investigators interested in common research paths from across schools and within departments to share expertise and knowledge.

“VCU continues to build on its strong commitment to its role as a research university and enhancing the research enterprise across the institution,” said VCU President Michael Rao, Ph.D. “I am so pleased with the growing enthusiasm for research among faculty colleagues and this program enables us all to expand our research and scholarship, providing new opportunities that continue to push VCU forward as it becomes a leader among national research universities.”

The VCU Presidential Research Incentive Program, or PRIP, received more than 90 applications from schools and colleges across VCU. Of the more than 90 applications, 20 were recommended for funding to the PRIP Review Committee.

Faculty grants were awarded based on a two-step review process involving the schools and the VCU Research Development Advisory Council. The first stage was a school level review, in which each school received applications from its faculty and established a rigorous review process that used the PRIP Review Committee (PRC) selection criteria, which centered on the scholarly merit of the project, the potential for extramural funding leading from this project and the contribution of the project to the scholarly trajectory/line of inquiry of the investigator. Each school forwarded to the PRC those applications receiving the highest ratings at the unit level and for which there was a funding commitment from the dean or relevant department chair.

PRIP dollars provide 60 percent of the award and the faculty member’s department and/or school provided 40 percent. The funding period is 18 months.

For more information on the program, visit http://www.research.vcu.edu/vpr/prip/