COTTRELL SCHOLAR AWARDS
Major Awards to Encourage Research and Teaching
by Beginning Faculty Members
Introduction
The Cottrell Scholar Awards, instituted in 1994, are named in honor of Frederick Gardner Cottrell, scientist, inventor, and philanthropist. Dr. Cottrell founded the Research Corporation in 1912 and provided means for scientific research and experimentation at scholarly institutions. He not only contributed fundamentally and practically to scientific knowledge, but he dedicated his career to enlisting science in the service of society (see Biography of Frederick
Gardner Cottrell).
Objectives
The Cottrell Scholar Awards are designed for institutions and faculty members who are committed to excel at both teaching and research. These awards enable recipients to implement their plans to become outstanding scientists and educators as well as tomorrow's academic and scientific leaders. The awards also seek to reinforce faculty mentoring, communication, and a heightened appreciation for instruction in university science departments.
The Cottrell Scholars program owes its origins to Research Corporation's concern with the separation of teaching and research in universities. Rather than being communities of teacher-scholars, universities are perceived as collections of specialists. We seek to reinforce the growing awareness that these two functions are complementary rather than wholly or partially exclusive. A key objective of the program is to build a community of outstanding teacher-scholars who are dedicated to becoming leaders in both research and teaching. As such, participation in the annual Cottrell Scholar Conference, which seeks to promote community amongst Cottrell Scholars, is an important part of the program.
Eligibility
Awards are made to U.S. universities to further the teaching and research of faculty members in a Bachelor’s and Ph.D. degree-granting department of astronomy, biochemistry, biophysics, chemistry, or physics, but not in a school of medicine or engineering. Applicants must be in the third full calendar year after their first tenure-track appointment (i.e., faculty members who assumed their first tenure-track position anytime in calendar year 2006 may apply only in 2008, observing the September deadline). Applications consist of both research and teaching proposals and will only be accepted on the current foundation form. Applications must conform to guidelines and directions, and need to be endorsed by the institution. Potential applicants can begin the online submission process by completing the online submission Eligibility Quiz. If eligible, you will be able to download the application materials.
Budgets
All Cottrell Scholar Awards are in the amount of $100,000. Budgets are not required, hence, there is no budget page in the proposal. Cottrell Scholar Award funds can be used at the discretion of the awardee for most direct costs, with limitations only on the range of acceptable expenditures. There is no provision for indirect costs or overhead, faculty salaries, tuition, or for routine institutional services. However, we do request in the proposal a description of current and pending support from all sources for research and educational activities for which the applicant is the principal investigator. Funds from an award may be used to support both the teaching and research projects of the Cottrell Scholar. In addition, Scholars attend the Cottrell Scholar Conference, which is focused on their teaching activities, held annually in Tucson. Research Corporation covers expenses for the conference.
Applications
Eligible faculty can begin the application process by completing an Eligibility Quiz. If eligible, applicants will gain access to a page containing the Cottrell Scholar Award application packet and instructions for electronic submission. The deadline for proposal submission is the close of business (5:00pm MST) on the first regular business day in September. Earlier submission is encouraged. In preparing the proposal, Ariel font size 11 or larger is required. Applications not conforming to the font and font size requirement may be denied without review.
Applicants should provide a list of at least two potential “inside” reviewers, preferably former mentors. Applicants also should provide a list of at least eight potential “outside” reviewers, individuals with whom the applicant has had no substantive contact, who are expert in the area of research or who could comment as experts on the teaching plan, or preferably both. The best outside reviewers are frequently corresponding authors in the cited references not known to the applicant. See Frequently Asked Questions for further details.
The Proposals
There are two elements to the application, the Research Proposal and the Teaching Proposal. To be successful, applicants must demonstrate a strong commitment to teaching and high prospects for becoming a national leader in their field of research.
The successful research proposal will identify a problem of high scientific significance and offer an original, creative, and feasible approach to its solution. The research proposal may or may not offer a new scientific thrust for the applicant. Often the research proposal addresses an area of work that is already being pursued by the applicant and for which external support and published results have been obtained. Consequently, existing support does not hinder an application. Winning proposals must convince reviewers that the applicant is pursing an important, independent program of research that is already having, or is likely to have, high impact in their area. The proposal should offer a clear plan for how progress will be achieved under this award and the significance of this progress to the field.
The teaching proposal should identify a problem in science education and offer a feasible strategy to address it. Criteria for evaluating the teaching plan include the originality of the proposal, the suitability and sustainability for the institutional setting, and an assessment of the probability for successful implementation. Prior accomplishments, especially as they relate to undergraduates in both instructional and research laboratory settings, enhance the case for the applicant's commitment to teaching. The strongest proposals will include appropriate references to the rich science education literature thereby demonstrating the applicant's familiarity with what has already been accomplished and laying the foundation for the proposed teaching program. The components of a successful teaching proposal will vary widely. Employing new techniques such as web-based instruction and cooperative learning can enhance a teaching proposal, but should be connected to clearly stated educational goals and objectives. Outreach to students, teachers and the community should be coupled to the educational goals and strategy of the institution. Projects that deal solely with graduate education are discouraged. Examples of successful teaching proposals.
Evaluation
The potential of the applicant to mount an outstanding program in both research and teaching and her or his commitment to pursuing a career as a teacher-scholar will be of paramount importance. Proposals are first scrutinized internally to assess the quality of the teaching plan. Typically less than half of the proposals are passed forward to the next review stage. Applications that pass the first screening go on to peer review of both research and teaching proposals. The foundation’s Awards Program Advisory Committee makes the final recommendations. Decisions will be announced in mid-May of the year following submission of an application, with funding to follow soon after.
Assessment of Awards
Research Corporation measures the success of Cottrell Scholar awards by peer-reviewed research publications acknowledging the award and the impact of these publications; substantial involvement of undergraduate and graduate students in the Cottrell Scholar’s research program; further applications for competitive external funding and grants received that were underpinned by the award; successful implementation, assessment, and dissemination of the teaching project and its impact on the Cottrell Scholar’s academic department. The most successful awards are productive in all these categories and help establish the career of an outstanding teacher-scholar that extends well beyond the period of the award.
Cottrell Scholars Conference
Awardees participate in the Cottrell Scholar Conference held annually in early July. There they meet with other current and past Cottrell Scholars to discuss their teaching initiatives and issues related to becoming academic leaders in research and teaching. Past keynote speakers have included Nobel Laureates and other prominent teacher-scholars. About 35 Scholars attend each meeting, with priority given to the new class of awardees. However, many Cottrell Scholars from previous years back to the inception of the program choose to attend. Research Corporation covers awardee expenses related to attending the conference.