Who evaluates the proposals, and how are applications evaluated?
Using the NASA model for selecting proposals supporting undergraduate research, the awards committee (composed of a majority of the departmental representatives) meets to discuss and evaluate the candidates/proposals in order to review and rank them. It is valuable for the student/professor to inform the departmental representative, since the representative will have the opportunity to voice the case for every proposal in their area. The faculty mentor input is also very important, since the letter of recommendation includes a numerical score of student evaluation, and therefore provides guidance in proposal scoring. The top 12 proposals will be supported, pending funds. If the non-salary support request of highly rated proposals is too great, students will have the option to revise their non-salary support budgets downward of to drop from the competition. We would hope to retain all 12, while distributing non-salary support which enables all to succeed.
