CIFellows 2020 For the Record

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Appendix Q-S: Emails Informing Applicants of Decisions

July 21, 2020

Appendix Q: Email to Selected Fellows

Dear [First Name]:

On behalf of the Computing Research Association (CRA), the Computing Community Consortium (CCC), and the CIFellows Selection and Steering Committees, we are extremely pleased to inform you that you have been selected as a 2020 Computing Innovation Fellow.

Pending approval by the National Science Foundation, this award will provide funding for your proposed two-year postdoctoral work under the mentorship of [Mentor First Name] [Mentor Last Name] at [Mentor Organization].  Please respond by July 28, 2020 (but the sooner the better), by responding HERE:

  • If you no longer need/want this award (so that we can seek to award the fellowship to another worthy applicant) or
  • To accept this award (you will be asked to confirm some information and provide a Project Title and 1-sentence overview).  If you need more time, please send an email to cifellows2020@cra.org explaining why.      

We are sending a companion email to your mentor, as they will also have to respond by July 28, 2020 affirming that they agree to mentor you. After acceptance by you and your mentor, CRA will then explain the process of establishing a subaward from CRA to the institution that hosts you. (Your mentor is likely to be much more familiar with this process than you are.) This host institution will be your mentor’s institution unless you receive permission to do otherwise via an email to cifellows2020@cra.org explaining why.  More details will follow, but the fellowship subaward monies provide for an annual salary of $75,000 plus fringe benefits. You will also be able to apply to CRA to access funds that can pay or partially defray additional expenses associated with your fellowship, such as specialized equipment and travel to conferences.

A big part of being a postdoc is building a network and community.  The CIFellows program adheres very strongly to this ideal and is working on ways to create community amongst the CIFellows.  Once you confirm your CIFellowship, we will invite you to join our Slack Channel to connect with the other CIFellows.  We will be holding regular events (virtually) throughout your CIFellowship, and expect to hold an in person workshop in Year 2.  We expect that you will attend the in person event, at our expense. 

Thank you for your interest in the CIFellows Project.  We send hearty congratulations for winning such a competitive award!

–Mark D. Hill, Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Chair Emeritus 

–Ellen W. Zegura, Computing Research Association (CRA) Board Chair

Appendix R: Email to Selected Mentors

Dear Mentor First Name:

On behalf of the Computing Research Association (CRA), the Computing Community Consortium (CCC), and the CIFellows Selection and Steering Committees, we are pleased to inform you that [First Name] [Last Name] has been named a 2020 Computing Innovation Fellow with you as their mentor.

We request that you reply HERE as quickly as possible, but no later than July 28, 2020 to confirm that you still can and want to be their mentor. We are also asking your CIFellow to respond (separately).

Once you and your mentee have accepted, CRA will then explain the process of establishing a subaward from CRA to the institution that hosts your mentee. This host institution will be your institution unless your mentee gets permission to do otherwise via an email to cifellows2020@cra.org explaining why. More details will follow, but the fellowship subaward monies provide for an annual salary of $75,000 plus fringe benefits with overhead (indirect) expenses not to exceed 35% of direct costs. Your mentee will also be able to apply to CRA to access funds that can pay or partially defray additional expenses associated with their fellowship, such as specialized equipment, and travel to conferences. Be advised that the subaward will require a postdoc mentoring plan in NSF required format. 

We will follow up with more best practices on being a CIFellows mentor, an excellent resource is Computer Science Postdocs — Best Practices, based on prior work CRA and CCC have done with the community. 

Congratulations!

–Mark D. Hill, Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Chair Emeritus 

–Ellen W. Zegura, Computing Research Association (CRA) Board Chair

Appendix S: Email to Rejected Fellows

Dear First Name:

On behalf of the Computing Research Association, the Computing Community Consortium and the CIFellows Steering Committee I regret to inform you that you have not been selected as a 2020 Computing Innovation Fellow.  Your application was carefully reviewed by the Selection Committee and a pool of reviewers from the research community.  However, we received well over 500 applications and many difficult decisions had to be made. 

Thank you for your interest in the CIFellows Project and congratulations on submitting such a competitive application.

Best wishes,

–Mark D. Hill, Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Chair Emeritus 

–Ellen W. Zegura, Computing Research Association (CRA) Board Chair