Call for Proposals: Faculty Associates and Fellows
The Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future announces its first annual call for proposals for Faculty Associates and Fellows for the 2015-16 academic year. Faculty Associates and Fellows are critical partners in making the Center’s core mission a reality.
The Center’s main research focus can be generally described as solution-oriented scholarship. We are primarily interested in interdisciplinary scholarship that is oriented around more than diagnosing problems, and seeks to illuminate and encourage decision-making to solve problems. Long-standing interests include the future of urban systems, combined human and natural systems, and global environmental change. But whatever the underlying issues, the Center encourages truly interdisciplinary activities that may involve economics, political science and sociology, international relations, governance and development challenges, as well as engineering, public health, management, and scientific disciplines.
The Center seeks to catalyze faculty research in several ways. It has a long history of sponsoring events for the academic community – seminars, conferences, and workshops that explore a wide range of issues that are important for understanding how the future evolves over a period of decades to a century. We anticipate being able to support up to two major events and several seminars per semester. The Center also convenes task forces of researchers who are interested in forming collaborations that may last from one to several years, and whose results are of interest to both scholarly and decision-making audiences. In addition, the Center has the capacity to make a limited number of small investments in faculty research, which are intended to cover some of the initial costs of research, e.g. travel, partial grad student or postdoc support, teaching release, but are not intended to cover faculty salaries.
The Pardee Center also publishes several types of reports, from short Issues in Brief, targeted at decision-making audiences, to longer, more in-depth conference volumes and research reports. The Center additionally encourages all Center projects to publish in either journal or book form, as appropriate to the underlying disciplinary or interdisciplinary scholarly audiences.
The Center offers several categories of association that BU Faculty may request, summarized below. Each category has associated specific roles and responsibilities and length of services. All BU Faculty and BU-associated researchers, including Research Faculty and Visiting Scholars, are eligible.
Faculty Associates (Annual)
- Attend as many seminars and events as possible
- Promote graduate fellowship program
- Assist with review of graduate fellowship proposals if possible
- Suggest seminar topics/speakers
- Invitation to small group discussions with featured speakers on topical issues
Faculty Fellows (Two-year term)
- Plan a conference or event with Pardee staff and oversee the written product(s)
- Participate in graduate fellowship program as a lunchtime speaker
- Assist with review of graduate fellowship proposals
- Assist with review of Fellows applications
- Consult and advise on Pardee Center research
Faculty Research Fellows (Three-year term)
- Convene a Pardee task force, or
- Perform some tangible piece of Pardee-oriented research
- Publish paper(s) as Pardee publication, journal publication, book chapter, etc.
- Assist with review of Fellows applications
- Eligible for partial support for grad student/postdoc/teaching relief
- Consult and advise on Pardee Center research agenda
Sabbatical Leave Scholars
- In residence at Pardee Center
- Participate in seminars, events, research collaborations
- Publish with acknowledgement of Pardee Center support
Process: In order to be considered as a Faculty Associate, Faculty Fellow, Research Fellow, or Sabbatical Leave Scholar, we are using a simple process, as follows:
Faculty Associates (one year): Simply send an email to ffpardee@bu.edu indicating your interest in becoming a Pardee Faculty Associate
Faculty Fellows (two years): Send a proposal of 1,500 words (maximum) including a 250 word abstract that clearly outlines the research topic and how it fits the Pardee Center’s mission for interdisciplinary and policy-relevant studies of the longer-range future. The proposal should include a short statement of the type of research-related activity desired (e.g., conference, task force, workshop), anticipated timing, the type of related publication expected, and be accompanied by a statement of the type of resources requested (e.g., Pardee staff time for event planning and coordination and/or financial resources not to exceed $10,000 per year). All resource requests must include a strong statement of justification. Please note: Payment of faculty salaries is not allowed. Resource requests are in addition to the 1500 word limit.
Research Fellows (three years): Send a proposal of 1,500 words (maximum) including a 250 word abstract that clearly outlines the research topic and how it fits the Pardee Center’s mission for interdisciplinary and policy-relevant studies of the longer-range future. The proposal should include a statement of what research will be accomplished over the three years, the type of associated publication(s) expected, and the specific need for financial resources not to exceed $10,000 per year. All resource requests must include a strong statement of justification. Please note: Payment of faculty salaries is not allowed. Resource requests are in addition to the 1500 word limit.
Sabbatical Leave Scholars: Send a proposal of 1,500 words (maximum), with a strong emphasis on the research to be conducted, how it fits the Pardee Center mission, and anticipated benefits from spending your sabbatical year at the Pardee Center.
Proposals will be evaluated against criteria of originality, creativity, intrinsic scholarly merit, degree of interdisciplinarity, and relevance to the Pardee Center’s overall mission of policy-relevant research. Strong preference will be given to proposals that involve new and unique interdisciplinary collaborations across disciplines, Departments, and Colleges. Preference will also be given to proposals that have the potential to evolve into significant proposals for externally funded research. We anticipate up to 10 proposals may receive support per academic year.
All proposals and indications of interest to become Faculty Affiliates or Fellows should be sent to ffpardee@bu.edu. Questions may be addressed either to Anthony Janetos, the Director of the Pardee Center (ajanetos@bu.edu) or Cynthia Barakatt, the Associate Director (barakatt@bu.edu).
Proposals will be reviewed through the end of June, with the intent of making announcements in late July for appointments beginning in September.
Click here for a list of current and past Faculty Fellows.