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University of Wisconsin–Madison

Salary Supplementation for Fellowships

Deadline to Apply:  June 13, 2025 (the application system will be off-line for improvements June 14-June 30, 2025)

To ensure that faculty are able to accept prestigious outside fellowship awards without a substantial income reduction, the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research (OVCR) partners with the College of Letters & Science and the School of Education to supplement the salaries of recipients of the following major fellowship awards: NEH, Guggenheim, ACLS and National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship (School of Education only).

Upon approval by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and partnering college, supplementation will be provided based on the approved salary for the year the award is taken, minus the total amount granted by the agency for the fellowship (example: $45,000 salary minus $35,000 fellowship = $10,000 supplement). In addition L&S and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research have committed to provide support for recipients of these fellowships as follows; the OVCR will provide up to 2.25 ninths to make an academic year salary whole and offer an extra month of summer salary support. The 2.25/ninths will not count against our OVCR supplementation policy but the summer month will still apply. The total award cannot exceed the nine-month salary approved by the UW Board of Regents. (Example: $45,000 salary minus $35,000 fellowship = $10,000 supplement: one ninth or $5,000 from College plus one ninth or $5,000 from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research.) If the outside fellowship will be taken for a semester, the supplementations will be based on half the academic year salary.

Applicants for one of the above awards are eligible to submit an application to the OVCR’s Research Committee Fall Competition to request funding other than the academic year salary supplementation (PA, flexible funds for research, etc.), or for insurance against the outside award.

To request supplementation, recipients should contact their chair as soon as they learn of their award. Chairs should then indicate whether leave will be granted for the fellowship period and forward a copy of the award letter to the appropriate associate dean in their school/college and associate vice chancellor for research in the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research.

For Other Awards

Supplementation for other external awards not identified above must be requested on an individual basis. Supplementation is not guaranteed but will be awarded on a competitive basis depending on the national or international prestige of the award and the amount of salary support it provides. To request supplementation, recipients should contact their chair as soon as they learn of their award. Chairs should then indicate whether leave will be granted for the fellowship period and forward a copy of the award letter to the appropriate associate dean in their school/college and associate vice chancellor for research in the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research.

For all other questions regarding supplementation, please contact the appropriate associate vice chancellor in the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research.

Application Instructions:

Please apply electronically at https://vcr-uwmadison.smapply.io/ . You may log-in using your UW–Madison NET-ID and password.  Select the “Special Research Funding Requests 2” program tile.  Click “Apply” to start a new application.

Some Key Tips:

  1. The faculty member must initiate and submit the complete application.
  2. You can also invite additional collaborators to fill out the application form. However, the faculty member who starts an application must also be the person that ultimately submits the application.
  3. The on-line cover sheet requests information about the faculty member.  The on-line salary supplementation for faculty fellowships request form will ask you to supply information on: the amount requested from OVCR, the time period of the fellowship and to upload the award letter and related correspondence from your department chair.
  4. Remember to scroll down to select “mark as complete” at the bottom of each completed page.
  5. You will be able to select “review and submit” before final submission.
  6. You will also have the option of downloading the entire application document.

Technical questions should be sent to:  competitions@research.wisc.edu

General questions about the publishing subvention request should be sent to the  appropriate divisional associate vice chancellor.