Co-Funding of Faculty

Overview

The Children, Youth, and Families Consortium seeks to stimulate interdisciplinary activity in targeted areas of research strength at Penn State in key ways. One mechanism is the co-funding of faculty hires in several colleges. Currently, the CYFC co-funds approximately 15 faculty in the Colleges of Agricultural Sciences, Education, Health and Human Development, and the Liberal Arts, and the Penn State College of Medicine. Co-funded faculty may be junior or senior faculty members who have demonstrated research expertise in strategic areas identified by both the CYFC administration and the CYFC Steering Committee.

Once the CYFC administration and Steering Committee have selected an area/areas of strategic research activity in which to hire, an announcement is developed and sent to departments in the five colleges, asking department heads to develop proposals to create a position in their department in the identified area(s) of interest.

Please see Procedures for Submitting Co-Funded Faculty Proposals for guidelines on writing the proposal. It is also strongly recommended that department heads meet with their dean and associate dean for research to ensure complete communication in this process. Feel free to contact Susan M. McHale, SSRI Director (x2u@psu.edu), or Keith Aronson, SSRI Assistant Director (kra105@psu.edu) with any questions.

The timeline for proposals is rather tight. Proposals, once developed, are forwarded to college deans, who then review them and decide which will be sent to the CYFC for further consideration. Proposals are then reviewed and rank-ordered by the CYFC Steering Committee, who then submit them to the SSRI/CYFC Director. The Director then meets with the SSRI Oversight Committee (composed of Eva Pell, Senior Vice President for Research, and the deans from Agricultural Sciences, Education, Health and Human Development, the Liberal Arts, and the College of Medicine). Final decisions are made at that meeting.

Once a proposal is approved, the department receives $3,000 from the CYFC to help defray the costs for the search. The CYFC also commits to paying up to 50% of the start-up costs as well as up to 50% of the salary (renewable after a successful CYFC review every five years). Before making a final offer, departments are asked to involve the CYFC director and assistant director in discussions about candidates.

Last modified: 07/18/07 | Contact Webmaster