Apply Starting September 15

The timeline is intended to spur participating institutions to be rigorous and focused in their approaches, as well as begin to provide case studies for other institutions engaging in their own RPT modernization efforts.

There are no rigid parameters to limit a proposal’s scope. We anticipate and encourage a diversity of approaches to achieve the goal of modernizing academic hiring, review, promotion, and tenure criteria to explicitly reward activities that align with institutional values. A nonexclusive list of the types of projects that would be within scope includes the following: 

• Advancement of complete lifecycle – e.g., development, socialization, implementation, and assessment – of new research evaluation approaches, procedures, and/or criteria.

• Development of training modules, tools, and infrastructure to effect the rapid transformation of review, promotion, and tenure processes, hiring, and/or awards.

• Creation of qualitative indicators and datasets for effectively recognising diverse research contributions, societal impact, etc.

• Facilitation of traditionally under-resourced partnerships among researchers, community organizations, policymakers, and/or the general public, as well as criteria to recognize the impact of these activities.

• Development of public science communication and outreach efforts, as well as criteria to recognize the impact of these activities.

• Enhancement of tools and platforms for team science and interdisciplinary science, as well as criteria to recognize the impact of these activities.

As a condition of Award, representatives from the Challenge winners will participate in a community of practice over the duration of the program, overseen by the Open Research Community Accelerator (ORCA).  This will provide them with support in the development, execution, and assessment of their modernization strategies.  It will facilitate the rapid sharing of challenges and lessons learned across the cohort, and create the conditions under which key findings can be efficiently and rapidly shared with the wider higher education community.

There are no rigid parameters to limit the role professional societies might play in submitted proposals. Acknowledging that professional societies play a unique and critical role in identifying, articulating, and socializing appropriate norms within their disciplines, the Challenge encourages departments, centers, and institutes to collaborate with them in areas including, but not limited to, building upon disciplinary standards and good practices; leveraging existing field-specific training resources and infrastructure; developing plans to disseminate lessons learned across other departments within the discipline; and building upon established engagement and communication channels.

For Tier 1 grants, eligible principal investigators are members of the executive leadership team at eligible U.S. colleges and universities or are leaders working closely with the executive leadership team (provost or vice provost, chancellor, dean of faculty, etc.) to move activities forward. They have visibility into and influence on institutional policies and practices, and access to the resources needed to optimize and implement the award. They also possess the skills needed to cultivate trusting relationships with faculty governance bodies and other campus stakeholders. If the PI is not a member of the executive leadership team, please provide a letter of support from your institution's administration.

For Tier 2 grants, eligible principal investigators are department or unit chairs and center directors, provided they supply letters of support from their institution’s executive leadership (e.g., presidents, provosts, chancellors, vice presidents, vice provosts, deans, unit heads). 

While institutional context and readiness for change is a key piece of the proposal and evaluation process, we understand your institution may not have started conversations about modernizing appointment and advancement. This will not disqualify an applicant, as you may have activities and approaches to reform that will still achieve the four MA3 goals.

We encourage you to include details about awareness-raising in your approach and activities section of the application.