RESEARCH AND FACULTY DEVELOPMENT NEWSLETTER
September 19th 2003

RESEARCH GRANT APPLICATIONS
Please observe the internal deadlines for SSHRC, NSERC and CIHR grant applications. The earlier I see them the more help I can give. Here is a reminder that the internal deadline for SSHRC Standard Research Applications is Monday 29 September. Please drop the application in Barb’s office and make an appointment to discuss it with me. If you apply for any grant that does not require my signature, please send copies of the application.

INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH OFFICER
The institutional research officer (Serge Beaulieu) spends part of his time in tasks that will help faculty to get research grants and part of his time on gathering and analyzing data for the university. Feel free to contact him if you have any technical question. He is available for one-off consultations. He does not have the time to do project work for faculty. If you have the need for ongoing technical work please let me know. Please make sure that you remember to budget for IT work in any grant application.

CANADA RESEARCH CHAIR APPLICATION
(This is a repeat of an e-mail)
This is a request for your participation in our planning for a Canada Research Chair at this university.

Thirty one institutions that do not have a Canada Research Chair, including this university, have been invited to submit nominations. Up to 10 chairs will be awarded. We can apply for a chair in either of the tiers - Tier 1 (senior researcher) or Tier 2 (junior researcher). We have not decided if we will apply for Tier 1 or Tier 2 yet. The Senate Research Committee has been working on this project since the spring and we have had several consultations with faculty. Our work needs to speed up this semester. The application must be submitted by December 15th. Our application package must include a nomination for the chair, a strategic research plan, a research plan summary and an application for infrastructure to support the chair.

There will be 4-6 focal areas in our strategic research plan. The chair we propose will have expertise in one of more of these areas. Last semester faculty suggested several possibilities. The Senate Research Committee met together today and has identified six foci for our strategic plan.
Narrative Studies
Human Rights/Social Justice
Qualitative Analysis
Atlantic Studies
Multiculturalism
At-risk populations

We are interested to have more comment from our community. Please let me know which of these areas would be your preferred focus for our chair, a 2-3 sentence justification for this focus,
and the names of any internal of external people who might be suitable candidates. The deadline for submitting your views is Friday 26th September. We will be making a decision about the focus for the chair during the following week.

SSHRC MASTERS SCHOLARSHIPS SCHOLARSHIPS
STU Nominations for Scholarships
The competition for SSHRC Master's Scholarships will be much earlier this year. The deadline for STU nominations is likely to be December 1st 2003 and the scholarships are likely to be worth $17,500. In brief:
1. Please let me know if you would be interested in participating in the committee that adjudicates SSHRC Master's Applications (Grad Student's Committee) - an indication of the time commitment is below. The work should all be completed this semester. We intend to have an 8-person committee with representation from humanities, social sciences and professional programmes. 2. Please encourage any students who might be good candidates for the competition to begin to construct their applications. The SSHRC site has not been fully updated yet but you can learn more about the programme and the research plan to be submitted by students from

http://www.sshrc.ca/web/apply/students_e.asp

In more detail
STU was allocated up to 2 Masters Scholarships of $17,500 each from SSHRC last summer. We made 2 applications on behalf of our students and both were successful. We are likely to be allocated 2-3 for 2004-5. We will send out an information sheet as soon as possible after the rules are announced for this year but if you check the web-site you will get a good idea about the programme. Recommend to your strongest students who will be beginning Master's programmes in 2004 that they should apply for a scholarship. STU will evaluate applications for 2003 and 2004 STU graduates. SSHRC will directly evaluate the applications of students who graduated before 2003. The programme was announced at the last minute and we scrambled to do the work when the rules were announced. I met together with several members of the committee that did adjudications last year and we have established the following adjudication process for the competition:

late Sep, early Oct
Committee meeting - asap after details for next competition are announced late Sept/early Oct
Information Sheet for Faculty and Students

early to mid Oct
Workshop for students who intend to submit applications

Oct 27th 9-10am
Blue Pencil Cafe where committee members will review and make last-minute suggestions about applications to students before the applications are submitted to departments

November 3rd 4pm
Deadline for students to submit applications to departments.
Departments will review applications, advise students, complete evaluations of applications and pass to Grad Students Committee through Larry Batt, Awards Officer

November 14th 10am
Deadline for departments to submit nominations with all necessary paperwork to Grad Students Committee

November 17th 8.30-10
First adjudication meeting for Grad Students Committee

November 24th 8.30 - 10.00
Second adjudication meeting for Grad Students committee

December 1st 2003
STU nominations to be couriered to SSHRC

Please let me know if you need more information

Information Session for Students
There will be an information session hosted by SSHRC for students who may be thinking of applying for a Master’s Scholarship for study next year. The session will be in the President’s Room, Alumni Building UNB from 1-2.30 on Wednesday September 24th

MEMBERSHIP OF ROYAL SOCIETY
I'm thinking about nominating one of the faculty for Fellowship of the Royal Society of Canada. Two of the three nominators must be members. Are you a member, or do you know any members?

BOOK LAUNCHES
Thanks to everyone who turned up for the book launches for Omar and Karen. Again, congratulations to both authors. Sorry the noise was disturbing and thanks for the suggestions about an alternative location. Please keep free October 3rd at 3.30 for the next launches - but don’t expect a 3 course meal for refreshments . . .

LTD COMMITTEE
The LTD Committee has a number of interesting and useful events planned for us all. Please see the pink flier and let Ray Williams know if you haven’t received one. The LTD site can be accessed from the “Teaching” page of the Research and Faculty Development site.