Research Board

PNW’s Faculty Research Board promotes faculty and student research and serves as the independent advisory board to the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost on all matters related to scholarly activities.

Research Board Charter

Revised/adopted on October 4, 2019

Scope

The Purdue University Northwest Faculty Research Board (PNW-FRB) promotes faculty and student research and serves as the independent advisory board to the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost (VCAAP) or designee on all matters related to scholarly activities.

Functions

The PNW-FRB serves four primary functions: Research Advocacy, Research Policy and Procedure Advisement, Internal Grant Review, and Research Centers/Institutes Review.

The PNW-FRB promotes the importance of research to the university community and advocates for programs and services that support faculty and student research. This includes assessing faculty and student need for research support and educational programs; assisting with grant writing, budgeting and statistical consultation; and locating appropriate funding sources. The Board will also facilitate planning and execution of Faculty and Student Research Days.

The PNW-FRB advises the VCAAP on policies and procedures related to faculty and student research including internal grants and awards. This includes providing feedback on the purpose of grants, amount of funding, timeline of request for proposals and award period, as well as eligibility criteria and reporting requirements.

The PNW-FRB conducts the review of internal research grants and university research events. The process of review of internal research grants is standardized by the PNW-FRB to include a rubric for evaluating grant proposals; a defined number of review members; criteria and process for selection of members to serve on review committees; and a timeline for the completion of the review process.

To insure the integrity of grant review process, representatives of the PNW-FRB with tenure serve as chairs of internal research review subcommittees. A subcommittee of tenured faculty representatives of the PNW-FRB will serve as reviewers for Internal Grant proposals. If committees have insufficient number of members they can be populated by qualified members of the faculty, including but not limited to previous grant awardees

Additionally, the PNW-FRB reviews reports of the Office of Sponsored Programs on faculty grant activity (funded and unfunded).

The PNW-FRB serves in an advisory role for research centers/institutes. Responsibilities include reviewing guidelines for creation and evaluation of research-focused centers and institutes; reviewing written reports of research centers/institutes and providing written feedback to directors of Centers/Institutes and to the VCAA and Provost.

A subcommittee of tenured faculty representatives of the PNW-FRB with vote will serve as reviewers of Research Centers and Institutes.

Membership

The PNW-FRB is comprised of 16 Members from across the University, with 11 voting representatives.

Board terms for representatives last for three years. Initial terms (to be determined) shall be staggered during the first three years of the PNW-FRB to allow for rotating membership.

The PNW-FRB is comprised of the following Members:

Seven non-administrative, tenured faculty representatives from the following areas, serving with vote:
- 1 representative from the College of Business
- 2 representatives from the College of Engineering and Sciences
- 2 representatives from the College of Humanities, Education, and Social Sciences
- 1 representative from the College of Nursing
- 1 representative from the College of Technology
Two at-large non-administrative tenured faculty representatives, serving with vote
Two at-large non-administrative, untenured/tenure track representatives (assistant professors). Untenured/tenure track representatives serve with vote, except on matters related to review of internal grants and review of research centers and institutes.
The following five Members, serving ex officio without vote:
- VCAAP or designee
- Dean
- 1 designee from the Student Research Office
- Director of Sponsored Programs or designee
- Director of University Libraries or designee
If a member is appointed to an administrative position, he/she will serve as an ex officio member.

Attendance

Representatives are expected to attend each meeting of the PNW-FRB, to be held from 10 to 11:30 a.m., the first Friday of every month. If a representative cannot attend a meeting, he or she should notify the chair in advance of the absence. There will be no substitute representatives for missed meetings.

If a representative is absent for two or more meetings during an academic year, the board shall notify the dean of the representative’s College and request a replacement representative.

If a representative goes on leave during the term of office, a replacement representative will be elected in accordance with the procedures below.

Election of Representatives

College representatives to the PNW-FRB should be nominated and elected by their College.

At-large representatives of tenured and tenure-track/untenured faculty to the PNW-FRB should be elected by the faculty of the university.

Representatives should be actively engaged in scholarship and grant writing.

The names of representatives for the following academic year should be sent to the current Board by April 1.

Election of PNW-FRB Chair

The chair is elected for a one-year term as chair-elect followed by a one-year term as chair. They are elected by the voting representatives of the PNW-FRB and must be a tenured representative from among the nine representatives with full voting rights to qualify.

The election of chair shall take place each year on the last PNW-FRB meeting of the academic year. The chair-elect will work with the presiding chair to learn the role for one academic year before assuming their duties as chair. The chair-elect succeeds the chair at the first meeting of the next academic year each September. The chair may participate in activities over the summer to prepare for the upcoming year.

During the term of service, the PNW-FRB Chair will receive either 0.25 FTE course release time per semester or professional development support (up to $3,000 in replacement costs per semester) at his or her choice.