All, in the interest of better supporting GRAs across Mason, Aurali Dade and Laurence Bray have been working to establish a pilot program that would provide additional financial support and incentives. The draft of the proposed program is attached. They are seeking comments from each of the units by July 1 with the expectation that the pilot program will be finalized and implemented this fall. In summary, the incentives will provide tuition support for some GRAs so that grants do not have to cover it and will provide additional indirect recovery for some faculty. The details are in the attached description.

Aurali has been trying to secure the necessary central funding. While not yet finalized, she believes she will get enough funding to support all faculty who meet the proposed criteria. 

I request you review the proposal and provide comments to Elizabeth and me no later than June 25 so they can be collated and submitted to Aurali by the July 1 deadline. Of special interest to Aurali is how important these incentives would be towards increasing the number of GRAs we can support. For your information, I have already suggested to Aurali and Laurence that we broaden the participating faculty from tenure-track to also include term faculty, recognizing that some term faculty are leading research projects.

Thanks.