The Office of Research offers a suite of programs to support research and creative activities and the dissemination of results.
One of the goals of the internal grant programs is to strengthen and reinforce best practices in grant writing and submission. Therefore, applications are expected to follow the published program guidelines and proposal requirements. Proposals that do not meet these expectations will not be reviewed. Deadlines are enforced. Research Development staff, who are not part of the review process, are available for consultation about your application.
Research Assistance Fund
The Research Assistance Fund (RAF) supports a wide variety of activities, including conference travel for presenting your research. The awards are intended for faculty and career academic staff with immediate research needs that cannot be supported through other campus funding. $2,500 maximum.
Discovery and Innovation Grant
The Discovery and Innovation Grant (DIG) program supports initial stages of research with the intent of making projects more competitive for completion or expansion through external funding. Applicants must demonstrate that the work is not just an incremental extension of their current or past projects or the field in general. Recipients are expected to submit external grant proposals within three years of the start of funding for at least three times the DIG budget. Proposals are externally reviewed. $70,000 base award maximum.
Advancing Research and Creativity
The Advancing Research and Creativity (ARC) program supports meritorious research and creative projects across all disciplines at UWM. Proposed projects may be at various stages of development. Awards are expected to result in scholarly, scientific, and artistic products that will increase the national and international recognition of the awardees, their programs, and the institution. Typical award range is $8,000 to $15,000.
Finish Line
The Finish Line is a pilot program intended to increase competitiveness of proposals being resubmitted to federal sponsors in the categories of Research and Public Service. Funding is provided for work that is needed to address written review concerns. Applicants are required to share scores and comments from previous proposal submission(s). The performance period for most Finish Line awards is no more than 12 months in duration.
Comparison of internal awards
See full program descriptions for detail, especially eligibility requirements
| Program Name | Discovery and Innovation Grant (DIG) | Advancing Research and Creativity (ARC) | Finish Line | Research Assistance Fund (RAF) |
| Intent | Project seed funding to strengthen external grant submission; priority given to early career researchers and those pursuing new lines of research | Project funding – various stages of completion | Strengthen proposals for grant resubmission by responding to issues raised in reviews | Specific, short-term research needs such as travel for conference presentations, participant incentives |
| Deliverables | External grants within 3 years of DIG award start date Scholarly and artistic products | Scholarly and artistic products External grants (optional) | Grant resubmission within a year of Finish Line award start date | Activities as described in the application Expenses must be posted within a year of the award start date |
| Application Deadline | Mid-October Award decisions typically made by mid-April | Mid-October Award decisions typically made by mid-April | Applications accepted August 1 through May 15 (or as program budget lasts) and reviewed within 8 to 10 weeks of submission | Applications accepted August 1 through May 15 (or as program budget lasts) and reviewed within 6 to 8 weeks of submission |
| Award budget maximum | $70,000 | None, but typical award range will be $8,000 to $15,000 | None, but historical award range is $12,000 to $30,000 and no more than 10% of external budget request | $2,500 |
| Award frequency maximum | One award as PI every four fiscal years | One award as PI every four fiscal years | One award per PI per fiscal year | One award every other fiscal year |
Support for Undergraduate Research Fellows (SURF)
The Support for Undergraduate Research Fellows (SURF) program is designed to foster faculty-student research collaborations, and, as such, we are particularly eager to fund applications in which students have the opportunity to engage in thoughtful and progressively sophisticated work central to the overall research program of the principal investigator.
Research Recognition Awards
The following awards recognize and encourage UWM faculty early in their careers whose research, scholarly, or creative activity have shown potential to achieve distinction in their academic disciplines or honor veteran researchers who have a long history of significant contributions to their fields of research.
Office of Research/UWM Foundation Research Awards
First awarded in 1979, the annual Office of Research /UWM Foundation Research Awards recognize and encourage UWM assistant and associate professors who have shown the potential to achieve distinction in their academic disciplines through scholarship, creative activity, and the dissemination of knowledge.
Departments/programs are encouraged to nominate a faculty member for an award. In addition to providing a means of honoring outstanding researchers, these awards recognize our collective commitment to academic research and to the importance of UWM‘s research mission.
Eligibility
- Open to assistant and associate professors.
- Full professors and Distinguished Professors are ineligible.
- Previous research awardees are ineligible.
- One individual may be nominated from a single department or program.
Nomination
The nomination materials should include a letter of nomination from a dean, department chair, or multidisciplinary program director; two letters of support; and an up-to-date vita. You may secure letters of support from UWM faculty members or from colleagues outside UWM. If you wish to submit or quote from confidential letters written for another purpose, you must first secure the permission of the author(s).
A call for nominations is sent to campus each Spring from the Office of the Vice Provost for Research.
Selection
The Committee of UWM Distinguished Professors reviews the nominations and makes recommendations to the interim vice provost for research for the final selections. The individuals selected as recipients receive a $1,500 award and will be honored at the fall UWM Awards Ceremony.
Office of Research Senior Faculty Awards
The UWM Research Foundation, in collaboration with the Office of Research, has established the UWM Research Foundation Senior Faculty Awards, designed to recognize researchers who have a long history of significant contributions to their field of research.
We encourage you to consider nominating a member of your department/program for an award. In addition to providing a means of honoring outstanding researchers, these awards recognize our collective commitment to academic research and to the importance of UWM‘s research mission.
Eligibility
- Open to full Professors.
- UWM Distinguished Professors are ineligible.
- Previous awardees are ineligible.
- Only one individual may be nominated from a single department or multidisciplinary program.
Nomination
The nomination materials should include a letter of nomination from a dean, department chair, or multidisciplinary program director; two letters of support; and an up-to-date vita. You may secure letters of support from UWM faculty members or from colleagues outside UWM. Submission of or quotation from confidential letters written for another purpose require permission of the author(s).
Selection
The Committee of UWM Distinguished Professors will review the nominations and make recommendations to the Vice Provost for Research for the final selections. The individuals selected as recipients receive a $1,500 reward and will be honored at the fall UWM Awards Ceremony.
Research in the Humanities Award (Biennial)
The Office of Research offers the Research in the Humanities Award which recognizes outstanding scholarship and research in the Humanities within the past two years.
The award recipient will have demonstrated a comprehensive grasp of the subject(s) of inquiry and research and will have made a substantive contribution to humanistic thought through a monograph or other scholarly publication during the two years prior to the award year.
In each odd-numbered year, the Office of Research solicits award nominations of faculty members in the Humanities (see below for eligible departments). The faculty member selected for the award is honored at the Fall Awards Ceremony and receive a $1,500 prize.
Eligibility
- Humanities faculty members in the following departments: African and African Diaspora Studies; Ancient & Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures; Art History; Communication; English; Global Studies; History; Linguistics; Literatures, and Cultures; Philosophy; Spanish and Portuguese; Translation and Interpreting; Women’s and Gender Studies.
- Author of monograph or other scholarly publication that was published during January 1, 2021, through December 31, 2022.
Nomination
The nomination materials should include a letter of nomination; two letters of support; an up-to-date vita and a copy of the monograph or other scholarly publication. Calls for nomination are generally issued in February of each award year, with a March deadline.
Outstanding Creative Research Achievement Award (Biennial)
The Outstanding Creative Research Achievement Award recognizes a UWM faculty member for achieving significant artistic or creative contribution to their field or discipline within the past three years. The recipient will receive $1,500 and be honored at the Fall Awards ceremony. The award is offered biennially in rotation with the award that recognizes scholarly monographs in the humanities.
Eligibility
Any tenured or tenure-track faculty member of the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee is eligible to be nominated for this award. Evidence of artistic or creative accomplishment (significant advancement of knowledge, technique, or creative expression) must be in a form that is appropriate to the nominee’s professional field/discipline.
Selection
A panel composed of the Vice Provost for Research; Associate Deans in the College of Arts and Architecture, the College of Letters & Science (AD for Humanities), and the chair of the Arts and Humanities divisional committee will make the final selection.
Nominations
The nomination materials should include a letter of nomination and an up-to-date vita. Calls for nomination are generally issued in January of each award year, with a March deadline.