The UO encourages its faculty to seek external funding in the form of prestigious fellowships. Examples include yearlong fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Guggenheim, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Prestigious fellowships confer international recognition upon the faculty member and often provide important resources to advance the faculty member’s scholarship.  They also enhance the profile of the entire university as academic rankings often use the number of prestigious fellowships garnered by the faculty as a key measure of research quality of the institution.  Resources for faculty members interested in applying for externally funded fellowships can be found at http://rds.uoregon.edu/content/fellowships-awards.

The terms of external fellowships vary substantially in length, funding level, financial implications, and expected effort by the recipient.  Many of even the most prestigious fellowships expect the recipient to devote full time to scholarship away from the institution while not providing enough financial support to compensate for the concomitant loss of pay.  Given these complexities, it is important for a faculty member to have a clear understanding of a fellowship’s expectations, policies, and financial ramifications before accepting the award.  It is also important for faculty applying for fellowships to notify their department head before the application is due and to communicate with the university and department immediately upon receiving notice of an award.

This policy provides guidelines and expectations for faculty members applying for external fellowships and delineates the types of support that UO and CAS will provide.

Planning before applying for fellowships

Faculty must consult their department heads when applying for fellowships, so departments can plan for one or more faculty absences.  Additionally, faculty who wish to be eligible for supplementary support for yearlong awards must use the Electronic Proposal Clearance System (E-PCS) at the UO Sponsored Projects Services (SPS) for applying for all fellowships: https://orsa.uoregon.edu.  Submission through the E-PCS is required in order to be eligible for supplementary support, but does not guarantee it.  Below we describe which types of prestigious fellowships may receive supplementary support.

Financial implications when not eligible for sabbatical leave

As indicated above, many fellowships do not provide enough financial support to compensate the loss of pay from the UO while on leave.  For example, they may require the recipient to devote 100% effort to their research and scholarship while only providing an award equal to 25% of the recipient’s accustomed pay and benefits.  Taking a leave without pay from the institution in such a situation would mean the recipient suffers substantial loss in pay as well as the loss of all health benefits.

However, in some cases of prestigious awards that provide partial salary, UO and CAS may offer supplemental support for uncompensated salary and benefits under the terms described on HR’s website: https://hr.uoregon.edu/hr-operations/faculty-specific-topics/faculty-awards. A list of eligible fellowships can be found on the NRC’s website, under the category of “highly prestigious” awards in the Arts and Humanities and the Social Sciences: http://sites.nationalacademies.org/PGA/Resdoc/PGA_044718.

In cases of prestigious postdoctoral fellowships that support faculty research, UO will consider authorizing a leave of absence without pay.  See information at https://hr.uoregon.edu/hr-operations/personnel-actions/leave-absence.

All requests for leave will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Please note that CAS will not provide uncompensated salary and OPE for summer funding, short-term grants and fellowships, postdoctoral fellowships, teaching fellowships, or fellowships that are not identified on the NRC list above.

Financial implications when eligible for sabbatical leave

Because many fellowships do not provide enough financial support to compensate for faculty member’s full salary with OPE, we strongly encourage faculty to time applications for these fellowships so that they occur during a sabbatical year (i.e., apply the year before your sabbatical eligibility).  A fellowship award can then supplement the sabbatical salary.

CAS does not provide early sabbatical benefits even for faculty who receive prestigious fellowships.