Faculty Research Fellows Program

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The Public Policy Center (PPC) Fellows program is designed to recognize the contributions of faculty who create and share new knowledge from policy-relevant research activities, while contributing to the vitality of the PPC. The Program will emphasize, support, and increase the understanding of the breadth and reach of the research mission of the PPC and the policy-relevant research being conducted across the university. The titles associated with the Program are a public acknowledgement of these contributions.

Faculty with secondary or complimentary appointments at the PPC, who are both conducting policy-relevant research, and are actively involved in the activities of the Center, are eligible for the title Faculty Research Fellow (Fellow). The primary benefits of being a Fellow are the numerous opportunities for research support, interaction, collaboration, and relationship-building with others doing policy-relevant research, along with resources to promote their research. Being a Fellow is a renewable term appointment. Faculty with secondary or complimentary appointments can self-select into this category if they are interested in both the benefits of being a Fellow and believe they can meet the Program expectations during their appointment term.

Faculty Research Fellow titles correspond with academic rank

  1. Assistant Professor – Research Fellow
  2. Associate and Full Professor (first ten years) – Senior Research Fellow
  3. Full Professor (>10 years) – Distinguished Research Fellow

Benefits of being a PPC Research Fellow

  1. Opportunities for interaction, collaboration, and relationship-building with others on campus doing policy- related work, including an invitation to an annual research networking event.
  2. Assistance with pre-award grant support including the identification of potential grant opportunities, and the compilation, submission, budget development and data collection associated with these proposals. This includes access to all of the resources and support from the PPC’s Iowa Social Science Research Center (ISRC – services).
  3. Preliminary development, editing, layout and submission support for writing policy briefs, reports, journal manuscripts, and more.
  4. IT and data services to support your work, including data cleaning and visualization, database design and maintenance, data security, custom web applications, and more. 
  5. Promotion of research studies and research findings; professional awards; media appearances; and other activities via the PPC website, social media, press releases, UI strategic communications, local media, and a wide email distribution channel.
  6. Support in developing undergraduate research teams. We can help find, hire, and train students for your team. We can also provide funding for salaries and other research expenses and connect you to mentoring training and support resources. 
  7. Opportunities to apply for internal Program grants that help fund interdisciplinary research projects, data collection, and more. 
  8. Opportunities to coordinate or participate in PPC events such as symposia as part of the Forkenbrock Series.
  9. Invitations to all PPC-hosted or co-sponsored engagement events.
  10. Temporary swing space at the PPC (by appointment) for either collaborative team meetings or individual research in a supportive, quiet environment.

Expectations associated with being a PPC Research Fellow:

The general expectation associated with being a PPC Fellow is that you are interested in and willing to be an active member of the community of scholars associated with the PPC and that you participate in events and activities associated with the PPC.*

  1. On a regular basis this includes:
    1. Acknowledge your designation as a “Faculty Research Fellow at the UI Public Policy Center” wherever you deem it appropriate, such as on your CV; email and letter signature blocks; and on policy-relevant research publications and grant submissions.
    2. Provide updates on your policy-relevant research activities to PPC staff so this can be promoted on your behalf. This will demonstrate the important, applied research being conducted at the University of Iowa and increase the visibility of your research and scholarship. At a minimum, this information should be shared each summer for inclusion in the PPC’s annual report. More frequent updates will allow the PPC to post this information on social media platforms, the PPC website, through UI strategic communications, etc.
  2. Some combination of the following activities is expected during your renewable appointment term, as schedules allow, to provide visible and constructive engagement with the PPC:
    1. Participate in the Research Fellows Networking event. All Fellows will be invited to a networking event annually to share and receive feedback from other PPC researchers and to build potential collaborations.
    2. Produce a PPC Policy Brief or report based on your research. The PPC can assist with drafting, editing, and the layout of policy briefs, as needed; all editorial control remains with the lead author.
    3. Participate in organizing, or attending, a PPC engagement or research event.
    4. Attend a PPC staff meeting to share current activities with the group.

* Faculty who wish to be affiliated with the PPC but are unable to commit to the expectations will be given the title of Faculty Affiliate (e.g. "Senior Faculty Affiliate"). 

For more information, or to talk about becoming a PPC Research Fellow or Faculty Affiliate, please contact the PPC Director, Peter-Damiano@uiowa.edu.