OVPRED/HI Book Proposal Peer Review Funding

UB’s Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development (OVPRED) supports this program administered by HI offering grants to fund developmental book proposal workshops that aim to:

• Generate specialized, constructive feedback for improving the book proposal’s focus and pitch in order to secure a publisher
• Develop concrete strategies for improving the proposal to best showcase its research focus
• Review submission procedures, potential publishers and related contracts
• Create scholarly networks that familiarize colleagues beyond UB with humanities research occurring on our campus and promote UB humanities faculty as leading scholars in their fields
• Faculty who apply for the proposal review program may later apply to the manuscript peer review program when their book is finished

Awards consist of $600 (State IFR funds) remitted to the awardee’s department for use within one year from the date of award notification. The funds provide honoraria of $300 each for two outside reviewers¹ who will be present at the workshop via Zoom. This amount may be augmented by the awardee’s department (to fund higher honoraria or to create an in-person event) if so desired. Once a date is set, the awardee's department will extend invitations to potential external reviewers and one or more internal reviewers, preferably including at least one from a department other than the awardee’s own, on the awardee’s behalf. Internal reviewers are not compensated through this program.

[1] Note that, because of SUNY funding structures, these honoraria can only go to faculty outside of the SUNY system.

Applications, due on a rolling basis, must include:

• an abstract of the proposal (approximately 250 words)
• approximate target date for the workshop
• a list of possible external reviewers ranked in order of preference
• information on whether the proposal has been reviewed elsewhere (please elaborate)
• curriculum vitae