ASHRAE is pleased to announce the establishment of the ASHRAE New Investigator Award.

PURPOSE

The purpose of the award is to:

1. Enhance the academic careers of recent Ph.D. recipients by providing support for research activities.
2. Promote research related to the goals of ASHRAE in universities and colleges.
3. Promote educational efforts related to the goals of ASHRAE in universities and colleges.

ELIGIBILITY

Nominee:

Nominees shall be nominated by their Department Head or Chairman. Nominees must be within 5 years of receiving a Ph.D. or an equivalent degree and be within 5 years of the start of their first full-time tenure-track or tenured faculty position or equivalent at their nominating institution.

Institution:

Any university that awards degrees in engineering, science, or architecture is eligible. It is expected that the nominee’s institution will waive all indirect costs to accept the New Investigator Award based on the fact that there are no contractually required deliverables and all intellectual property generated by the faculty is retained by the institution.

SELECTION

The selection of the recipient will be based on the nominee's ability and potential, as a researcher, for continuing to the viability of ASHRAE's engineering effort. The selection of awardee will be made by the ASHRAE Research Administration Committee with advice of members of the society. The review criteria include:

Competence in engineering - as evidenced by the nominees' achievements to date, particularly the quality of research and publications, teaching accomplishments, and References.

Potential for continued professional growth as a research engineer - as evidenced by the quality of the nominee's research plan, the currency and significance of the long-range research and the appropriateness of the research to ASHRAE and to the academic setting.

Potential for significant development as an educator and academic leader in the training of future engineers in ASHRAE's area of interest as evidenced by the nominee's teaching plan and the narrative statements describing the nominee's qualifications for this award with regard to the nominees development as an academic leader in an ASHRAE related interest area.

Support and Commitments:

An ASHRAE New Investigator Award carries a base grant of $15,000, with the potential of up to $15,000 of additional funds on a dollar per dollar basis to match contributions from industrial sources. The industrial support must be from industries engaged in activities related to ASHRAE's areas of interest. New Investigators who transfer at any time, prior to or during the period of their grant, to institutions that do not meet the institutional eligibility criterion must resign their awards.

The research project undertaken by the award is assigned to an ASHRAE Technical Committee Task Group (TC or TG). The awardee is expected to attend the annual and winter ASHRAE meetings for the first year of the award and to present an informal report at the sponsoring TC or TG meeting. In addition, the research resulting from this award will be presented at ASHRAE meetings as a Technical paper. The research may also be presented and published elsewhere later as appropriate.

At the end of the first year, the awardee may request from ASHRAE continued funding up to a maximum of $15,000. The request is to be based on the need to complete the research project. Total award from ASHRAE shall not exceed $45,000.

Nomination Items

The following items shall constitute a complete nomination package:

APPLICATION

Nominations, together with all support documents should be submitted to the ASHRAE Manager of Research and Technical Services, 1791 Tullie Circle, NE, Atlanta, GA 30329, prior to December 1. Six copies of the nomination should be submitted. The selections of the winning nominee will be made at the ASHRAE winter meeting and the selection will be announced in February. Initial grant funds will be available shortly thereafter.