The Early Career Faculty Research Excellence Awards advance the University’s enduring commitment to the scholarship and creative activity of early career faculty across the ten campuses of the University of California. Selected awardees will receive a one-time $50,000 allocation to support their proposed research plan and relevant and allowable activities during the upcoming academic year.
Reflecting the power of the ten-campus system, these award recipients will represent the breadth of the excellence of the professoriate while accelerating the continued impact of UC in California, across the country and around the world. This program builds on a range of existing programs and initiatives designed to support thriving faculty careers at UC. Indeed, the changing national landscape for research funding demands a renewed commitment and investment in the talent, achievement and promise of early career faculty at UC.
Nomination Process
UCI will nominate up to ten pre-tenure ladder-rank Assistant Professors, Assistant Professor of Teaching, and/or Assistant Professors In Residence for consideration based on confirmation of their eligibility and determination of good standing, and an internal campus application and selection process. Faculty in good standing are compliant with university requirements (e.g., no pending disciplinary actions, in active appointment status, and meeting their academic obligations). Faculty up for promotion to tenure or promotion in the 2025-2026 review cycle will not be eligible to apply.
Nomination Criteria
All proposed projects should:
- significantly advance an applicant’s career by helping to enable the completion of a milestone accomplishment (e.g. first book, major series of experiments, article(s) in major journals, a museum exhibit, etc.); and
- be important contributions to the advancement of knowledge and/or significant creative achievements.
The selection process will also bear in mind:
- projects for which access to extramural funding is generally limited;
- projects for which the federal funding environment has changed, making federal grants difficult to obtain or for which grants have been lost.
- projects for which access to extramural funding may prove challenging because they entail a new research direction for the applicants and, thus, some proof of concept or establishing a track record in the area is needed.
Proposal Requirements
Proposals must be submitted through the Proposal Central Platform by November 1, 2025, 12 a.m. Faculty who wish to apply, must register with the Proposal Central Platform using their UCI email address. This ensures the platform will route to the correct UC campus portal. The components of the proposal are listed below (character limits are noted). Please ensure your application abides by these requirements.
- Project Summary: Please provide a brief overview of the project (1700 characters, approx. 250 words)
- Project Description: Please provide a statement of the proposed research including significance of the project to relevant scholarship (7000 characters, approx. 1000 words)
- Career Significance: Please provide the goals for the award term and the impact of its completion (a) the project outlined in the Project Description and (b) the career of the applicant (3400 characters, approx. 500 words)
- Budget and Budget Narrative: Please provide details regarding the use of proposed funding, for example, preparation of research articles/books, PI salary, visits to archives or field sites, support for graduate students/post-docs, development of alternative funding sources for existing research, etc. (3400 characters, approx. 500 words).
- Optional: If applicable, please describe how any of the following pertain to your project (1700 characters, approx. 250 words):
- A project for which access to extramural funding is generally limited.
- A project for which the federal funding environment has changed, making federal grants difficult to obtain or for which grants have been lost.
- A project for which access to extramural funding may prove challenging because they entail a new research direction for the applicants and, thus, some proof of concept or establishing a track record in the area is needed.
- Related Awards and Grants: please list prior and current grants/awards that support this project.
- Abbreviated CV (10 pages max)
- Budget (1 page max)
- References Cited (1 page)
Faculty will need to submit their application no later than November 1, 2025, by 12 a.m., to the Proposal Central Platform. A selection committee will be charged with reviewing all applications and recommending ten (10) nominees to the Provost. Provost will make the final decision on which nominees are forwarded to UC Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs and Academic Programs (FAAP) by December 15, 2025. Final selection and announcement of awards by UC VAAP will be made around April 2026. Award funds must be spent by June 30, 2027 with an option of a 12-month no-cost extension approved at the campus level. A final report is also required at the conclusion of the funding cycle. Details of the final report will be announced at a later date.
