Grant Award for the Disciplines

The American University in Cairo (AUC) values and supports a culture of research, innovation, original thought, and knowledge-sharing. The Research and Creativity Convention (RCC) Grant Award for the Disciplines, featured in the closing session of the annual RCC, is a recognition of an academic department or program that advances undergraduate students’ original research and creative work.

Award Objective

To award a degree-offering department or program that invests in, maintains and grows a robust, invigorating and sustainable infrastructure to advance high-quality undergraduate research, innovation and creative activity.

Eligibility

All disciplines, departments or degree-offering programs, are eligible for the award.

Prize

Sponsored by the Office of the Provost, the prize is a formal recognition at the RCC and an award of $25,000 (the equivalent paid in Egyptian pounds), divided as follows:

• An award of $10,000 for demonstrated past student achievements
• A grant of $15,000 to be used to further new undergraduate research, innovation and creative activities

Assessment Criteria

The applications are expected to detail the following:

• A proposal for how the grant may be utilized
• Evidence of high performance fulfilling the first criterion below; student achievements (worth 40%) and three others selected from the following criteria (worth 20% each)

1. Evidence of Student Achievement*: The department students readily pursue research and/or creativity goals and engage in multiple research-driven activities, both curricular and co-curricular, including grant-seeking, public presentation, scholarly or creative publication, creativity exhibitions, and/or entrepreneurship expositions.

2. Strategic plan: Evidence that the department includes research, innovation, entrepreneurship or creative achievement as a priority in its strategic plan/mission.  

3. Faculty leadership: The department faculty members mentor students engaged in research, innovation or creative work, involve students in their own research, create research-intensive courses, and support student public presentation and publication, including department (students, faculty, chair) engagement in the annual RCC and faculty serving as reviewers for the Undergraduate Research Journal.

4. Administration: The department chair provides advocacy for research and creativity activities, and includes faculty mentoring of student scholars in the department’s faculty assessment and promotion criteria. The department also allocates resources for supporting research and innovation.

5. Research learning outcomes assessment: Evidence that the department tracks and evaluates student research and/or creativity outcomes. Student course goals, assignments and summative assessments include research and/or creativity.

6. Community Engagement: Evidence that the department seeks community partnerships, and seeks opportunities to align its research, creativity, and entrepreneurship goals with community needs.

7. Interdisciplinary Connections: Evidence that the department seeks collaborative connections with other disciplines and promotes interdisciplinary research, innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity activities.

*required

Funding goals

The grant award may be used to sponsor student research-based activities, covering costs such as:

• Research resources, supplies, materials or software
• Student travel to research and creativity-related events, not normally covered by the Undergraduate Research Program
• Manuscript preparation fees
• Stipends for undergraduate or graduate research assistants or hired service providers/consultants working on undergraduate research activities
• Departmental student research-related activity-organizing
• Selected student researchers’ membership fees for specialized organizations
• Data purchased from external sources

Funds are disbursed on the first day for the fiscal year for which the award is made.

Reporting and Project Dissemination

The grant may cover the duration of one fiscal year. Funds that are not spent cannot be rolled over to the next fiscal year. Remaining grant funds (out of $15,000) must be returned to the associate provost for research, innovation and creativity.

Awarded departments are expected to submit a grant progress report on the outcomes and expenditures by the end of the first semester within which the award was received, and a final report at the end of the grant coverage period.

Awarded departments are also expected to present their student research/creativity outcomes in the following annual Research and Creativity Convention.

Application Process

Departments and academic programs should send their application form and supporting documents, including testimonials from students and recent alumni, to rcc@aucegypt.edu.

Evaluation

The RCC Award Evaluation Committee will consist of members from both the University Research Board (URB) and the RCC Organizing Committee.

To apply, click here.

The deadline for submitting the application portfolio has been extended to February 10, 2022.