Steps in Research Proposal Deliberation

Faculty members who would like to apply for a university research project should fill out the proper research project form available at the UFRO. To be attached to the form is the research proposal for further evaluation of the Department Research Committee.

1. The project proposal form should be submitted to the Research committee head of the department where the faculty belongs.

2. The Department Research Committee head, after reviewing the research proposal, will convene two (2) faculty members in the department who are knowledgeable in the topic concerned for the deliberation of the proposal. The CFRC Chair, Department chair, the dean of the college and the UFRO research monitoring and evaluation coordinator are also members of the committee. The seven members of the committee have the power to vote for the approval of the research under deliberation. During the deliberation, it is imperative that the research proponent should be present to answer questions from the committee members.

If the committee head finds the proposal multidisciplinary or will cross on the other disciplines, he or she will invite faculty from other departments who are knowledgeable in the subject matter. Invited faculty members who are not members of the committee cannot vote for the approval or disapproval of the research.

3. It is important that the deliberation in the department level should be recorded (with minutes). Minutes will be kept by the department and a copy of the same should be forwarded to the University Faculty Research Office. The minutes should be taken by the CFRC Chair.

After the evaluation, if the committee finds the proposal relevant and worthy of pursuing, it shall then approve the research proposal. It is worthy if it is in the line with the university research thrusts, college and department's research agenda and if it generates new knowledge (basic) or if its result have practical applications (applied).

The committee members shall approve the proposal by signing in the appropriate forms provided by the UFRO. On the other hand, if the committee members decide that the proposal needs to be improved, the proposal will be returned to the proponent for revision. Reasons for the disapproving the proposal should be clearly stated in the forms provided by UFRO.

5. Approved proposal will be endorsed to the College Faculty Research Council for notation through the College Faculty Research Council Chair. After the presentation of all the approved research proposal in the college, the CFRC Chair will present them to the University Faculty Research Council for budget allocation.

6. Approved research proposals are presented to the UFRO for the budget deliberation. The UFRC deliberation is limited only in discussing faculty research incentives and research financial assistance. It will no longer look into the content of the research. Theoretically, if the proposal is submitted by the CFRC to the UFRC, t is understood that the proposal has undergone a rigid screening via discussion in the department level. Thus, it is the Department Research Committee that approves or disapproves research proposals. The UFRC only decides on the funding to be allotted for the approved research.

7. After the UFRC deliberation, all approved research proposals shall be kept by the UFRO. The UFRO, through the College Faculty Research Chairs, shall notify the research proponents regarding the status of their research.