Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Awards
Our commitment to enriching the research skills and professional growth of young faculty members at ORAU member institutions is embodied in the Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Awards Program. These competitive research awards provide seed money for junior faculty members that often result in additional funding from other sources. The award amount provided by ORAU is $5,000. The applicant’s institution is required to match the award with at least an additional $5,000. This is a one-year grant (June 1 to May 31).
Eligibility for the Powe Awards is open to full-time assistant professors at ORAU member institutions within two years of their tenure track appointment at the time of application. If there is a question about eligibility, your ORAU Councilor makes the final determination. Only two nominations are allowed per institution.
Research must fall within one of these seven disciplines:
- Engineering and Applied Science
- Life Sciences
- Mathematics/Computer Sciences
- Physical Sciences
- Policy, Management, or Education
- *NEW* Augmented Reality in the Workplace
- *NEW* Supply Chain Innovation
New Discipline Areas: As a result of ORAU’s partnership with The Augmented Reality for Enterprise Alliance (The AREA) and General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT), two new research disciplines have been added to the list from which candidates may select:
The AREA: Augmented Reality in the Workplace
The AREA seeks to promote research that brings greater attention to the use of AR in enterprise environments and supports aspiring future leaders in the field of enterprise AR. One (1) award will be made in this research area. The following represents preferred research focus areas:
- Design, development, and use of displays for AR experience delivery.
- Development of business and technical standards to address interoperability between AR components or to accelerate AR integration with IT systems.
- Design, development, and/or evaluation of methods to ensure privacy, security and safety of AR systems and their users.
- Integration of artificial intelligence (AI) with AR solutions to enhance workplace productivity and safety.
- Assessment/comparison of AR-assisted procedures to those enterprise operations without AR in order to understand drivers and barriers to adoption in a particular industry.
GDIT: Supply Chain Innovation
GDIT is interested in promoting multi-disciplinary research that focuses on developing innovative supply chain solutions. One (1) award will be made in this research area. The following examples are representative of preferred research topics:
- How can emerging technology innovations in areas like artificial intelligence, robotics, and IoT be used to create supply chain improvements?
- From a policy perspective, how do you address the ethics implications of sharing data across an integrated supply chain system?
- Examining the impact of medical supply chain improvements on health and health care disparities.
- How can Big Data be used to increase supply chain efficiencies and effectiveness?
Junior faculty members interested in applying should consult their ORAU Councilor, and visit the frequently asked questions.
