Please submit the form only after reading these instructions [1]
The Grant to be paid during 2024 is given for academic activity that was carried out in 2023.
Eligibility criteria for Grant Submission:
All senior academic faculty (from the rank of lecturer or above) who are employed full time by the university and have received a salary for at least six consecutive months during the 2023 academic year from the university.
Faculty who retire before 1.10.2023 cannot apply for the grant.
Faculty who were on sabbatical or unpaid leave in 2023 can submit a request based on reporting for academic activities in 2022
Additional guidelines for receiving a Criteria Grant:
New faculty who start their employment at the University during the 2023-2024 academic year will be eligible for the Grant in 2025.
Faculty on sabbatical or unpaid leave in 2024 will not be eligible for Grant payments for the months when they are on sabbatical or leave.
Faculty members returning from an absence of longer than a full academic year will not receive the Grant in 2024. At the end of the year, they may report their activities for 2024 and if they fulfil the necessary criteria, they will be paid the Grant twice in 2025.
After completing the various parts of the form, authorizing the correctness of the information and pressing “submit", the electronic form will be sent to your Head of Department for approval. There may be criteria which require the Dean or Rector's approval. Following their approval, the relevant systems (in Human Resources) will be updated according to the Grant eligibility rate. Forms with four or more automatic criteria will be sent directly to HR (no need for approval by the Head of Department).
Please note that the information submitted might be subjected to further checks by the University.
Please submit the electronic form no later than September 30th, 2023 to avoid any delays in payment.
Note:
The academic grant is awarded for academic activities beyond the regular teaching and research responsibilities that comprise most of a faculty member's work. A detailed clarification of what constitutes the regular responsibilities of a faculty member at the university, for which the faculty member is not eligible for the grant, can be found below.
Explanation of what constitutes Regular Academic Activities at BGU
(as defined for the purposes of the Academic-University Criteria Grant)
The regular academic activities of a faculty member at the university are defined to include the following activities:
1. Teaching:
The teaching responsibilities of faculty members include: frontal teaching, preparation of syllabi, evaluation of exams and written work, consultations with students, supervision and instruction of advanced students, and evaluation of master's theses and doctorates.
The amount of work commonly expected by the university for a faculty member on the regular track is comprised of 6-8 hours of frontal classes. Laboratory supervision, clinical teaching, and guided reading courses are considered frontal classes for this purpose. Supervision in the field and class excursions may also be considered frontal courses according to the established index. In any case, a faculty member who teaches more than 7 hours per semester (an average of 6-8 hours per year) may tick criteria 7 below.
On the recommendation of the department head and with the permission of the dean, a faculty member may receive an exemption from up to half of the teaching requirements in a single semester, with the completion of a one-time project.
Faculty members who hold titled positions at the university may receive an exemption from some of the required teaching hours, according to the decision of the Central Academic Committee.
The faculty dean, with the permission of the rector, may exempt faculty members from the required teaching hours, even without the substitution of a project as described above.
2. Significant Research Activity:
A faculty member at the university must dedicate all of his/her available time to research, in addition to the time spent teaching and completing administrative tasks. S/he must make every effort to complete a research project and is encouraged to publish the results of this research in academic journals for peer review.
3. Administrative Academic Tasks:
Participation in the committees and institutions of the university, fulfillment of the academic functions for which one has been elected or appointed, participation in the appointment and promotion of colleagues, including the writing of evaluations for colleagues who are candidates for appointment or promotions, etc.
Administrative academic tasks beyond the scope of ordinary expectations will make the faculty member eligible for the appropriate criteria. Activities such as these include, for instance, participation in a central academic committee (according to the publicized list of committees), in which one's activities have gone beyond the usual extent, and/or participation in at least two committees, and/or the completion of two other regular administrative academic functions as described in criterion 6 and supplement 1, attached below.
4.Miscellaneous:
For activities in which more than one faculty member is involved (not necessarily from the same institution), the activities must be split between all participants. For example, if two faculty members jointly teach a year-long course of 4 weekly hours, that course will be considered only 2 weekly hours per year for each faculty member.
Mentoring of advanced students is limited to an approved time span for each student – 2 years for a master's student and 4 years for a doctoral student.
Academic faculty work requires cross-pollination between its faculty participants and direct collaboration with students. For this purpose, it is critical that faculty members be present on campus to the extent necessary to fulfill their responsibilities in the area of teaching, research and adninistration.
Declaration of Eligibility Criteria for the Academic-University Grant for Activities 2022-2023
A senior academic faculty member on the regular track who is employed in a full-time position at the university and fulfills all the terms of regular employment will receive the full academic compensation if he/she fulfills four out of the following 11 criteria. A faculty member who fulfills three of the criteria will be entitled to 3/4 of the grant, one who fulfills two of the criteria will be entitled to 1/2 of the grant, and one who fulfills a single criterion (as detailed in the explanations below) will receive 1/4 of the grant.
A. Significant Research Activities
B. Research Support
C. Teaching
D. Promotion of Academic Connections to Society – Contribution to the Economy and to Society
At least one of the criteria must be in category A – "Significant Research Activities." If further criteria are marked, at least one of them must be in categories B-D.
Please note: faculty members may not submit four criteria from category A.
An academic faculty member on the regular track, with the status of lecturer, and who fulfills all requirements for full-time dedication of time to the institution, will be entitled to the academic-university grant according to the criteria for the first six years of his/her employment at the institution, according to the following conditions:
2. If s/he fulfills three of the criteria described in this document, including at least one criterion from category A and at least one from categories B-D, and has submitted a 1- to 2-page report of research activities to the dean, s/he will receive the grant in full.
3. If s/he fulfills one criterion from category A, and has submitted a report as described above, s/he will receive 3/4 of the academic grant according to the criteria.
4. If s/he fulfills only one criterion, from category A, s/he will receive 1/2 of the academic grant according to the criteria.
The above, stated in reference to a lecturer, is also applicable to a senior lecturer in the first four years of his/her employment at the institution.
(A lecturer or senior lecturer may also choose to fulfill four of the criteria, as is mandated for the rest of the faculty, and thereby may exempt him/herself from the additional requirement to fulfill the conditions.
Instructions for Filling Out Online Criteria Application
For the online form (in Hebrew) for submitting an application for the Criteria Grant »
Academic-Grant-Form 
Academic-Grant-Form
[1] The online criteria form was designed according the report approved by the VATAT with the approval of the University Senate in its meeting on 12 November 2017
Criteria
1. Mentorship of advanced students (at least two), or evaluation of a research project for a master's degree or doctorate from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Indicate evaluation of more than one doctoral project or more than two master's projects. Mentorship must be of advanced students working towards a thesis (up to 2 years), a doctorate (up to 5 years), or a post-doctorate (up to 3 years)
One may write the name of a master's student for no more than 2 years, only if he/she is on a research track and will write a final thesis under the guidance of the faculty member. One may write the name of a doctoral student (including interns) for no more than 5 years, and a post-doctorate for no more than 3 years. Please write the full names of the students and the degrees towards which they are working.
2. Active supervision of research funded by an external foundation, or submission of a grant application to a competitive foundation (from a list of competitive foundations issued by the Budget and Planning Committee for funding needs) which received extremely positive feedback within the last two years. In the event of application only, the date on which the application was received must be specified, as well as the academic responsibilities of the faculty member in that application.
3. Publication of a book on a scientific subject, or publication of two articles which were published during the year in peer-reviewed scientific journals. The same article may be used by all of its co-authors. Eligibility for the publication of a book will extend for three years from the day of its publication. At his/her discretion, the rector may apply this criterion to a single article, on the condition that the article was published in one of the highest-ranked journals (impact factor), counted among the top 5% of the scientific journals in its field.
4. Active participation in a scientific conference with peer evaluation (presentation of research at a conference), or active participation in the organization of a scientific conference (e.g., official members of the organizing committee). "Scientific conference" will be defined as a country-wide scientific conference (e.g., the National Economics Association or the National Association for Physics), or an international scientific conference outside of Israel.
Please note the name of the conference, the date on which it took place, and the extent of your participation: lecture, presentation of display, organization of the event, etc. This criterion is intended to refer to conferences that are outside the regular activities of the university.
5. Active peer review (for significant scientific projects outside the institution, without financial compensation). For example, an extensive scientific professional opinion requiring an examination; reading and scientific evaluation of advertisements for the purpose of establishing consistency or improvement; checking a final thesis, a doctoral dissertation, or a scientific text; active membership of the editorial board of a scientific journal that requires peer review; or evaluation of more than one scientific article or research proposal. The faculty member must provide identifying details of the text, book, or other scientific entity upon which s/he provided his opinion, without causing exposure of his/her identity as a judge. The faculty member will only be eligible under this criterion if he/she does not receive financial compensation for the critique.
6. Faculty members who play an active role on the Central Committee or fulfill a central academic function (as detailed in the attached supplement), as appointed by the university, or faculty members who are active on an international or national committee whose focus is science, professional or educational. If the faculty member receives compensation for the fulfillment of this role, it cannot be considered for this criterion.
7. Teaching more than the required hours – with the permission of the faculty dean. It is important to note that additional teaching at the university for which the faculty member receives financial compensation will not be eligible under this criterion.
The faculty member who chooses to mark this criterion must list all teaching tasks, including laboratory supervision etc., and explain why the value of these tasks is not covered by his/her regular compensation. Under this criterion, the faculty member may also include the establishment of a new study track for bachelor's, master's, or doctoral students, through the university, with the permission of the dean.
As stated above, the faculty member must list on this form the names of all the courses he/she teaches, their numbers, and their duration.
8. The teaching of a course in which 75 or more students were enrolled, which requires work beyond the demands of a regular course, or the preparation of an online course in the first or second year in which the course is offered, or offering an English-language course (in the year the course is offered). The course may be a year long or semester course. Please list the name and serial number of the course.
9. "Quality of teaching" rating above the faculty average, or participating in supplemental courses in the field of pedagogy. For this rating, the average is calculated on the basis of the evaluation ratings of the faculty member for courses which comprise more than half of the faculty member's weekly teaching hours over the course of the year (semesters 1 and 2).
Supplemental courses in the field of pedagogy, as per the definition offered by the university, must be listed either for the present year or in the year after which the faculty member participated in order to be recognized for this criterion.
10. Reception of a grant intended for applied research, such as those offered by the Israel Innovation Authority or additional offices with the permission of the Budget and Planning Committee (eligibility will extend through all the years during which the research takes place), or writing a report or research initiative for a public entity.
11. Submission and approval of patents or delivery of public lectures. The submission of a patent for registration will be eligible for this criterion in the year that it is submitted. Approval of a patent will be eligible for this criterion for two years from the day of its approval. Alternately, the delivery of 4 public lectures without financial compensation at the request and/or invitation of a public entity will be eligible for this criterion. The delivery of 4 lectures in conjunction with the "Science-Oriented Youth" program, without financial compensation, will be eligible for this criterion. Similarly, mentorship of high school students in their research projects for matriculation, without financial compensation, will be considered (at least 3 research projects for matriculation).
