To provide a forum for faculty and staff to have input relating to the policies and procedures of the university as they relate to externally funded research and sponsored programs. The Faculty Research Council will also serve as a catalyst for interdisciplinary research and sponsored projects involving different segments of the university and will offer guidance as to where fellow researchers and administrators may find funding for projects through contact and information sharing.
FRC Mission Statement
FRC Status (as of Fall 2021) – Research & Scholarship paused the work of the Faculty Research Council in early 2020, in order to implement recommendations from the Research & Scholarship Task Force Final Report (2019). Updates will be shared as this work progresses during the 2021-2022 Academic Year.
Provost Award – Excellence in Research and Scholarship
The Faculty Research Council participates in the selection of the Provost Award – Excellence in Research and Scholarship. This honor is awarded annually and recognizes distinguished accomplishments in the pursuit of scholarly activities across the academic disciplines. Please view the Awards page for more information on this honor.
FRC Reports
The Faculty Research Council (FRC) formulated in Fall 2015 the Scholarly Needs Assessment Poll (SNAP), a methodology for data collection that would enable the FRC to collect input from faculty in order to reveal their needs pertaining to research and scholarship at JMU. A training protocol and associated guiding documents were also developed and FRC members were invited to participate in the implementation of SNAP sessions during the Spring 2016 semester. The data were ultimately transcribed and coded by themes, and subsequently reduced to 14 domains from which three significant areas of concerns were later defined. During the 2017-18 academic year, faculty teams conducted final data quality control and finalized definitions of the domains and assignments of themes to domains. The data collected from faculty and subsequent analyses led to the development of three Overarching Themes, each of which broadly addresses a set of defining institutional characteristics of JMU that often confront faculty while pursuing or engaged in a program of research and scholarship at JMU. Full Report
In 2011, the Faculty Research Council revisited the “Scholarship at James Madison University: Seeking a Common Understanding” report, and reconstituted a subcommittee to develop a common understanding narrative with respect to the research and scholarship culture at JMU. The purpose of this document is to provide a broad overview of scholarly activities, and in particular recognize the institution’s unique commitment to community engagement, which is reflected in the new JMU Vision Statement: To be the national model for the engaged university: engaged with ideas and the world. Full Report
The Role of Research Subcommittee was created at the behest of Dr. John Gilje, Interim Dean, College of Education and Psychology, and Dr. John Noftsinger, Vice Provost for Research and Public Service. The group met regularly during the spring of 2001, as a subcommittee of the Faculty Research Council, and were charged with articulating JMU’s research and teaching mission in a way that suits JMU's unique faculty culture, and for purposes of future planning. Although each member brought different definitions of “research,” “scholarship,” and “teaching” to the table, it was agreed that the traditional definitions of these activities did not well suit the JMU profile. Traditional models were found to be too linear, and too much a one-way street from research to teaching, with few avenues for application. Traditional models of research and teaching do not capture how exploration (theory, research), expression of results (publication, scholarship), and practice (teaching, application) inform and energize one another. So, attention was turned to the question of what structure and what descriptors were more congruous with JMU's academic culture and vision. Full Report
