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CSSH Top Up Policy

Faculty members receiving grants or fellowships that require a substantial portion of an academic semester or year should read and review CSSH’s Top Up Policy below.

CSSH Support for External Fellowships (aka “Top-Up Policy”)

The Office of the Dean at the College of Social Sciences and Humanities provides generous financial support to faculty who obtain awards from external sources by means of “top-ups” that make up the difference between the full-time salary and the amount provided by the award. The objective of the policy is to provide an incentive for faculty to apply for prestigious fellowships, which allow them to dedicate themselves full-time to research for an extended period of time (usually one academic year).

In order to receive a top-up, faculty must inform at the time of application:

Once the Office of the Dean is notified and after consultation with the Department Chair, the Associate Dean of Research will write a memorandum specifying the College’s obligations to the applicant and to the department if the fellowship is awarded.

If these conditions are met, the Office of the Dean will provide a salary supplement for an external fellowship with the following limitations and provisos:

  1. The College will provide supplemental salary funding only up to the total value of the fellowship award. Thus, in order to maintain a full salary, the amount of the fellowship must equal at least one-half of the recipient’s salary for the period of leave being requested (normally one academic year; use prorated salary for shorter periods). For example, if a faculty member’s salary is $100,000, a fellowship award of $50,000 or higher is eligible for Top-Up to full salary and benefits.
  2. Given the prestige of the following thirteen fellowships, the College will Top-Up to full salary and benefits (even in cases the award amount is less than one-half of the faculty’s salary):
  • American Academy of Arts and Sciences Visiting Scholar
  • American Association of University Women Postdoctoral Fellowship
  • American Council of Learned Societies Individual Fellowships
  • Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship
  • Fulbright, research only
  • Guggenheim Fellowship
  • National Endowment for the Humanities: Public Scholar Fellowship
  • National Endowment for the Humanities: Faculty Fellowship
  • National Humanities Center
  • Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
  • Wenner-Gren Foundation: Hunt Postdoctoral Fellowship
  • Wenner-Gren Fellowship in Anthropology and Black Experiences
  • Fejos Postdoctoral Fellowship in Ethnographic Film
  1. Faculty should not generally expect to receive supplementary salary support for a fellowship more than once every three years. A faculty member’s absence more often than one year in three would limit his/her ability to contribute to the University’s teaching mission, to interact with colleagues, and to assist with the service obligations of the faculty to the University. In other words, if a yearlong fellowship is taken, the faculty must return for two full years before the faculty can be eligible to accept another fellowship funded leave.
  2. Faculty who are paid directly by fellowship agency do not receive the University’s contributions to retirement savings for the portion of the salary covered by the award. Faculty will receive University contributions to retirement savings on their full salary if the fellowship is run through NU-Research Enterprises and University payroll.

*Important: The CSSH Intent to Submit form for the Office of the Dean’s Office must be submitted even if the agency accepts applications directly from the applicant. If a faculty member receives a fellowship award without first completing the CSSH Intent to Submit Form, the College will be under no obligation to support the award in any way. Given the competitive nature of fellowship awards, even unsuccessful applications will be looked upon favorably by Units and the Office of the Dean and is considered part of faculty’s scholarly production.