Faculty Fellows Program

The Dean’s office will input information about the nominee in the Qualtrics application form and upload the nomination file at the end of the form. The nomination file includes several pieces: the Dean’s cover letter, recommendation letter, and nominee’s letter/research proposal. 

Below is the information the Dean’s office will need to have ready to paste and upload to the application portal. The Chair or Director of the nominee will provide this information, as needed, to the Dean.

• nominee’s research project title
• nominee’s hiring date
• nominee’s upcoming review (third-year reappointment review, tenure review, promotion to full) and estimated semester of that review
• identify which semester the candidate is requesting as the semester in residence at the CCSS.
• describe the normal teaching load of the nominee (2/2, 3 courses/units per year, etc.).
• describe the plan for excusing the nominee from teaching while in residence, including how many courses they will be excused from, the resulting proposed teaching load, how the teaching release will be covered, and other pertinent details.
• describe the plan for excusing the nominee from service obligations while in residence.
• confirm that the faculty member can take course and administrative release during the residence semester, will not incur a teaching deficit, is not beginning the fellowship with an existing deficit, and can be in residence at the CCSS during the requested semester.
• should the course off-set support be transferred to a department account or college account? (practice varies by college/school) Please provide a contact name and email if it is a college account.
• name and email address of the nominee’s department financial manager

At the end of the application form, please upload a nomination file containing all the pieces for a single nomination. The completed nomination file itself is composed of several parts:

Dean’s cover letter:

The cover letter should indicate the Dean’s support for the nomination from the college and support for the terms of the fellowship as indicated on the CCSS website and the information entered in the application form (see above for the application information details).

Letter of recommendation & information for the application form: 

The recommendation letter is written by the Chair, Director, or Dean depending on the preferred process of the college. It should indicate the support of the Chair and department if written by the Dean. The letter should:

• detail the ambitions of the project and describe how the candidate meets the following selection criteria: (1) quality of nominee’s scholarly publications; (2) level of productivity of nominee thus far; (3) creativity of the overall research agenda; (4) current impact of the candidate’s work; and (5) the potential for future significant contributions to the field.
• explain how this opportunity will help the nominee’s chances to achieve the goals of the project, in what way(s) the nominee stands out compared to peers, and how the nominee contributes to the intellectual community at Cornell.

Information for the application form:

• The chair or director of the nominee should provide the information that the Dean’s office will enter in the application form, as needed. Please see Qualtrics Application Form above for details.

Items from Nominee:

These pieces are usually sent to the Chair or Director, who writes the letter of recommendation and sends all of these materials on to the Dean to prepare the cover letter.

• Nominee letter: A letter from the nominee outlining the project and goals, potential career impact, with a statement justifying that the work is at a level of scope and ambition that would make it difficult or impossible to achieve without the fellowship. 
• Research proposal: The nominated faculty member prepares a short research proposal (no more than 5 double-spaced pages) including a project title, 45-word abstract, a project description, and a brief itemized budget for $8,500.
• Data archiving and replicability plan: Please describe your data plan per the CCSS data archiving policy.
• Nominee CV: A complete and up-to-date CV.

Roughly 8-12 fellows will be selected for the program. The applications will be reviewed by the Directors of the CCSS and a review committee. Selection will be based on the following criteria: quality of scholarly publications; level of productivity; creativity and intellectual merit of the applicant’s work; current impact of the work; and the potential for future significant contribution to the field. The selection process will also take into account the diversity, on many dimensions, of the fellows’ cohort. We hope to share decisions with the Deans by early February.

• The primary purpose of the CCSS Faculty Fellows Program is to nurture the careers of Cornell University’s most promising faculty members in the social sciences, with a special focus toward supporting the research of early-career faculty.
• The goal is to provide time and space for high-impact social scientific scholarship with the potential to result in the completion of ambitious projects, leading to external funding and book manuscripts.
• The program is also designed to create an environment of intellectual exchange and an appreciation for interdisciplinary scholarship.

• Fellows can request research funds up to $8500 to be used for expenditures directly related to the research and scholarly activities proposed in their applications.
• Fellows will also receive $500 per year for three years following the fellowship to compensate them for reporting on their results and progress.
• The CCSS will provide $10,000 to partially offset course reductions. This support is provided to the primary department or primary college of the Fellow, depending on the practice of the Fellow’s college/school.