Proposal Evaluation

How Proposals will be Evaluated

A committee of UMN Morris faculty will evaluate the applications and make recommendations to the dean. The committee will rate proposals based on the following weighted criteria:

• Merit and impact (50 percent of overall rating): Will the proposed use of funds make a positive contribution to the field? Will awarding funds for this proposal be money well spent?

• Appropriateness for requested budget (25 percent of overall rating): How well does the proposed use of funds fit within the proposed budget? Is the budget adequate to address the stated goals of the proposal? Does the proposal describe how the budgeted funds will be used?

• Feasibility of proposal (25 percent of overall rating): Does the proposal make a clear, articulate case for the proposed use of funds? Given the project's description, is the project's timeline reasonable? 

Projects that use primarily social science research methodologies, or will be published in social sciences journals, may face more scrutiny given that the Imagine Fund’s mission is to support scholarship in the arts, humanities, and design.

Applications will be reviewed confidentially. They will also be sorted by staff in advance to ensure that no faculty committee member reviews an application from their home discipline.