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By Craig Leroux, Senior Communications Officer

Expressions of interest (EOI) are now being accepted for this year’s round of the Queen’s National Scholars (QNS) program, which aims at attracting outstanding junior and mid-career professors to Queen’s. The program, re-launched last year, distributes two QNS awards annually to support the hiring of new faculty members. Each QNS awarded commits $100,000 per year, for five years, to assist the successful faculty or school in funding a new hire.

“The QNS program offers academic departments the opportunity to recruit a talented new teacher and researcher to deepen its expertise in a priority field,” says Alan Harrison, Provost and Vice-Principal (Academic), “I encourage departments, faculties and schools to identify how the QNS might support their existing or emerging strengths.”

Expressions of interest are welcome from any academic discipline, and should highlight how the proposed QNS aligns with the faculty or school’s priorities as well as the University’s Academic Plan, Strategic Research Plan, and Proposed Mandate Statement. Interdisciplinary and cross-faculty submissions are encouraged.

Expressions of interest should be submitted electronically to the relevant dean by October 25. The EOI template, available on the Provost’s website, will guide interested units through the submission process.

The QNS Advisory committee will review the EOIs and select four to advance to the second stage of the competition, which will invite successful departments to submit an expanded proposal. The committee will review the four proposals and recommend to the principal which two candidates should be appointed.

Last year’s QNS competition saw three proposals advance to the second round, with the two successful proposals to be announced later this fall.