Intramural Funding Announcement

Spring 2026 Funding for Excellence Program

Pool 2: Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences

The Office of Research and Innovation at UMKC is pleased to accept applications for the 2025-2026 Funding For Excellence intramural funding program in the fields of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. The deadline for submission is Thursday, March 19, 2026 at 5:00 PM CDT.

FFE is an institutionally funded grants program to support the highest level of research, scholarship, and creative endeavors by UMKC faculty. For 2025-2026, there will be two distinct FFE programs: Pool 1- Health Sciences, STEM, and Education, and Pool 2 - Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (including Bloch and Law). This announcement pertains solely to Pool 2.

The four goals of the FFE program are to provide funding which:

• Enhances the creative, scholarly and research reputation of UMKC, or
• Encourages collaborative research between schools, divisions, departments, or disciplines, or
• Support highly innovative, high-risk/high-reward projects, or
• Allows preliminary data collection to support significant, new future sponsored research submissions

The program provides two funding Tier options to support research and creative activity. The total number of awards will depend upon the availability of funds and the budgets of the submissions. If projects can be completed for less than the maximum amount, applications with smaller budgets are encouraged. Awards will be made on a competitive basis, following review and recommendation by the UMKC Research Advisory Council (RAC).

APPLICATION TIERS

Tier 1 – up to $20,000 (approx. 3-4 awards)

Tier 1 proposals are solicited for interdisciplinary multiple PI research proposals, which must include a minimum of two contributing investigators representing independent UMKC schools, divisions, departments, or disciplines. Collaborators external to UMKC are permitted provided FFE funds are used only to support UMKC faculty, students, etc. In exceptional cases, single PI proposals will be considered. These proposals are intended to support pilot project, proof of concept, or preliminary data collection for major future submissions to NEH, NSF, NEA, and other external funding sources, e.g. private foundations or other public organizations. The budget per Tier 1 proposal is up to $20,000.

Tier 2 – up to $10,000 (approx. 5-7 awards)

Tier 2 proposals are solicited for creative, scholarly, and research work with the potential to bring reputation and publicity to UMKC but may not require additional funding or sponsored research. Costs may incorporate a pilot project, a proof of concept project, data collection; travel to research, exhibition, performance, and production sites; exhibition, performance, and production costs; publication subventions; and other creative, scholarly, and research activities. The budget per Tier 2 proposal is up to $10,000.

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

Tenured, tenure-track, ranked, 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 2022-2023, 2023-2024, or 2024-2025 (i.e. in the last three years). Recipients prior to Fall 2022 may apply provided a final report and summary of submitted external research proposals has been received by the Office of Research and Innovation as outlined in the “FFE Production and Reporting Requirements” section at the end of this document.

APPLICATION STRUCTURE GUIDELINES

The Project Narrative (numbers 1-5 below) must not exceed FIVE (numbered) pages and should be written for the educated layperson. Jargon specific to your research topic or discipline should either be avoided or very clearly defined in the proposal.

The full application (numbers 1-11 below) must be submitted online by the 5:00 PM CDT deadline on Thursday, March 19, 2026.

The text must be single-spaced with a standardized, non-condensed font in either 11-point or 12-point font size. Use no less than 0.5-inch margins throughout. The bibliography section is NOT included in the 5-page limit. Applicants are encouraged to use the following outline when preparing the proposal narrative; however, additional sections may be added as appropriate. The length of each section is just a guide, and applicants may vary the length of the sections based on their need while keeping to the 5-page limit.

For resubmission of an FFE proposal, up to one page that is not included in the 5-page limit may be used to describe how the proposal has been revised and to address reviewers’ comments.

1. Brief Introduction and Specific Aims (1 page suggested)

• Specific objectives including expected return on investment
• Statement of how the proposed project is collaborative (if applicable)

2. Significance and Innovation Statement (1/2 page suggested)

• Significance of the work, including a statement on the impact to UMKC
• Description of the innovation of the research project or creative work

3. Project Background (1 page suggested)

• Previous work of the applicant(s) and by other scholars in the proposed project area
• Relationship of the proposed project to current state-of-the-field
• Description of how this FFE project advances the field
• List all FFE awards received by the applicant and collaborators along with the outcomes including publications, creative works, and extramural grant applications. State whether these applications are pending, declined, or awarded (if applicable).

4. General Plan of Work (2 pages suggested)

• Design of activities to be undertaken, including methods and procedures
• Plans for preservation, documentation, and sharing of data or products, if appropriate
• Description of the role of each collaborator in execution of the work plan

5. Expected Achievements, Future Plans, and Timetable (suggested 1/2 page)

• State the expected deliverable(s) OR how this award will support a larger external grant application
• Timetable for completion of project within one year

The following documents are required and are additional to above 5-page proposal narrative:

6. Budget and Justification Please use the budget template provided online FFE Budget Template and include a brief justification of budgeted items. Please note, the FFE funds are not intended to support or supplement faculty salaries. However, for PIs and co-PIs on 9-month appointments, a salary request is permitted but the combined PI/co-PI salary request is capped at $4000 for Tier 1 proposals and $2000 for Tier 2 proposals. Any salary request must include the required benefits as listed on the budget template (this is above the $4000 salary cap). FFE funds may be used for course buyouts upon approval of the department chair, however buyout requests should not exceed $5000 for any tier. Project budgets that exceed the funding limit must describe the source of additional support. In case the proposal cannot be funded for the full requested amount, include a description of how some of the goals of the project could be met given a smaller budget.

Your budget must be signed by your supervisor (department or division chair, or if you are dept. Chair, your dean), prior to FFE proposal submission.

7. Bibliography
8. Appendix One-page appendix with supplementary figures, tables, etc. is allowed.
9. Biosketch

• If the intent is to use this FFE award to apply for extramural funding, the applicant may choose a Biosketch format that fits that agency. NSF format should be used by default for all applicants not applying for other types of external funding.
• The choice of Biosketch must be consistent for all named applicants (PIs, co-PIs, and research staff) on the proposal.
• Please use either the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Biosketch form, or use the instructions provided for the National Science Foundation (NSF) to create a Biosketch. There is no actual form, but it provides detailed instructions on what to include—NSF Biosketch Instructions.
• The choice of Biosketch must be consistent for all named applicants on the proposal.
• “Print” your Biosketch to PDF prior to combining with the full proposal.

10. Statement on human subjects and/or experimental animals (if applicable)

If the proposed study involves the use of human subjects and/or experimental animals, the appropriate protocols must be filed for review with the Institutional Review Board (IRB) or the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), respectively, prior to the application deadline. A statement with the date when the protocol was submitted must be included with the final submission documents. If an IRB or IACUC protocol has already been approved, please indicate the approved protocol number and the date of approval and expiration date. Applications without the accompanying required IRB or IACUC protocol submission will not be evaluated.

11. Letter(s) of Collaboration

Internal Collaborators (UMKC FT employees) should submit a Biosketch as part of the application materials as well as a signed letter of collaboration describing their role in the project and in the preparation of this application.

External collaborators should include a signed letter of collaboration describing their role in the project. External collaborators should include any intended in-kind contributions to the project.

FFE SUBMISSION PROCEDURES

Since FFE awards are intramural, applications should NOT be submitted to ORI Sponsored Projects/Pre-Award.

To submit:

1. Convert all components (budget justification, bibliography, appendix, biosketches, compliance statements, collaboration letters ) to PDF.
2. Combine into a single PDF with the 5-page narrative first.
3. Submit via:

Deadline: Thursday, March 19, 2026, at 5:00 PM CDT.

NOTE: All proposals must be submitted online by 5:00 PM CDT on Thursday, March 19, 2026. Proposals that are not submitted by the deadline or do not conform to the submission guidelines (above) will be returned without review. Please contact the Office of Research and Innovation (ORI) for assistance with compiling all information into one document, if needed. 

FFE PROPOSAL EVALUATION

Each proposal will be reviewed using the following criteria:

1. Do the intended outcomes (deliverables) of this application align with the FFE goals including development into a competitive application for an external grant (if a stated goal)?
2. Are the deliverables feasible given the applicant’s background, expertise, budget, timetable, and plan? AND is the budget and scope appropriate for the selected Tier?
3. Quality of Proposal (Clarity, Significance, Innovation): List the proposal strengths and weaknesses.

FFE PRODUCTION AND REPORTING REQUIREMENTS

Three reports are due at various times after the conclusion of the FFE grant period. Reports will be due at the end of the grant period, usually one year (if there is no extension) after the initial grant award, three years, and five years. Reports will be submitted via an online system maintained by ORI, who will also provide reminders of report due dates. For example, an FFE grant awarded in Fall 2026 will have reports detailing outcomes due at the end of Fall 2027, Fall 2029, and Fall 2031.

1. The reports will utilize dialog box capture of the elements of an FFE project, in addition to a pdf upload for additional information. The elements will include:
   1. Executive summary <250 words
   2. Research proposals based on the FFE project submitted and their status
   3. Other outcomes (publications, scholarly works, student thesis/dissertation, etc.)

2. Failure of a PI to submit any of the required fiscal and reporting documents over the 5 year reporting period and/or absence of evidence of proposal submission to an external funding agency (if required), will result in both PI and/or co-PIs being ineligible from applying for future FFE awards for a period of no earlier than 5 years from the initial proposal submission. For example, if the requirements are not met, then a PI and/or co-PI granted funds in Fall 2026 will be ineligible to submit any FFE proposals as PI or co-PI before Fall 2032.