Presidential Awards

• Application deadline: Thursday January 23, 2025
• Apply Now for the Presidential Semester Award
• Semester Awards are limited to eligible full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty. Each Semester Award includes a buy-out of one faculty member’s teaching load for either the Fall 2025 or Spring 2026 semester, and up to $12,500 in funding to support project activities. Priority will be given to projects that pursue ongoing research, scholarly, or creative endeavors. Proposals must include concrete activities and milestones that have a high likelihood of advancing the faculty member’s research, scholarship, and creative activities beyond the period of the award. Recipients of Semester Awards commit to developing a proposal for external funding within 6 months of the end of the award period. In disciplines where external funding opportunities may be limited, proposals should address how the award will enable continued scholarly and creative activities after the award period.
• Applicants must specify whether they will focus on their efforts during the fall of 2025 or the spring of 2026, and must meet with their department heads and deans to determine the best semester to utilize the award. Faculty selected for this award may not teach any academic courses during the duration of the funded semester. Faculty award recipients must also sign an agreement to indicate their return to UNG for a period of at least one year after the completion of the semester leave. (University System of Georgia - Board of Regents Policy Manual - Education and Professional Leave 8.2.7.4).

• Eligibility is limited to tenured or tenure-track UNG faculty who will have been employed at UNG a minimum of two years at the completion of the 2024 - 2025 academic year. Semester awards are intended to be an individual award. Co-applicants are not permitted.
• Past Semester Award recipients are not eligible to receive a new Semester Award for three academic years following the academic year the award was received.
• Prior awardees of Presidential Awards must not be delinquent on award requirements, and must have conducted previous awarded projects with fiscal responsibility and research integrity in order to be eligible for a new award.
• An individual can be an applicant or co-applicant on only one application per Presidential Award cycle, regardless of award category. Duplicate proposals will not be considered for funding, regardless of category or applicant/co-applicant.

• Application deadline: Thursday January 23, 2025
• Apply Now for the Presidential Special Initiative Award
• Special Initiative Awards provide up to $10,000 for projects or programs that support teaching, research, creative activities, and service opportunities that are aligned with UNG’s mission and strategic initiatives, including UNG’s Big Bets and Moonshots. Preference will be given to projects that will improve student engagement and success, process efficiencies, or advance collaboration across disciplines or departments. Special Initiative Awards are available to all full-time faculty and staff.
• The project period for Special Initiative Awards is July 1, 2025 – June 30, 2026.

• Prior awardees of Presidential Awards must not be delinquent on award requirements and must have conducted previous awarded projects with fiscal responsibility and research integrity in order to be eligible for a new award.
• An individual can be an applicant or co-applicant on only one application per Presidential Award cycle, regardless of award category. Duplicate proposals will not be considered for funding, regardless of category or applicant/co-applicant.

As part of the application, applicants are required to upload a letter signed by the applicant(s), each applicant’s department head, and each applicant’s dean/division head that acknowledges that each person signing understands the requirements related to a potential award, including allowable expenditures and other responsibilities associated with utilizing an award. Applicants are required to use the letter template provided on the online application webpage. Signature by each applicant’s department head and dean/division head serves as an approval of the submission of the proposed project and budget, and certification that the applicant is eligible to receive the award.

The Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Research Administration (IERA) will oversee the application and review process. IERA will conduct an initial review of applications to check for applicant eligibility, adherence to application instructions, allowability of budget items, and applicants’ management of prior Presidential Awards. Prior awardees must not be delinquent on award requirements, and must have conducted previous awarded projects with fiscal responsibility and research integrity in order to be eligible for a new award.

All accepted applications are reviewed by committees consisting of members of UNG faculty, staff, and administration. Applications are scored using rubrics provided to the committees. Scoring rubrics are available to applicants on the application webpage, so that applicants may ensure that their applications are addressing all aspects of the rubric.

Please refer to the Presidential Award applications and award management guidelines (PDF)