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Presidential Scholars Challenge

Program Description and Guidelines

Review Procedure

• Faculty submit applications to ORSP and their respective Deans
• Deans review and forward recommendations to ORSP
• ORSP conducts technical review; forwards conforming applications to Review Panel.

Review Criteria

Proposals are evaluated for intellectual merit and broader impacts and assessed for their potential to secure external funding. The most important review criterion is external funding potential. Note that resubmissions of proposals previously submitted do not count toward fulfilling the requirement to seek external funding.

A combination of the National Science Board-approved merit review criteria and the Institute of Educational Research review criteria for scientific merit are used to evaluate intellectual merit.

Intellectual Merit:

• How important is the proposed activity to advancing knowledge and understanding within its own field or across different fields? Does the applicant provide a compelling rationale?
• How well-qualified is the proposer (individual or team)
• To what extent does the proposed activity suggest and explore creative, original, or potentially transformative concepts?
• How well-conceived and organized is the proposed activity?
• How well does the proposed activity integrate research and education?

The congruence and potential impact on the strategic plan and core initiatives of the University will be used to evaluate broader impacts.