Artificial Intelligence Faculty Cluster Hiring Proposal Guidelines

The Office of the Provost expects to fund 2-3 clusters that consist of a maximum of three faculty each.

The Office of the Provost invites cluster hiring proposals from the HU community as follows:

• Two or more Deans are encouraged to submit joint proposals that involve hiring of two to three faculty across multiple departments in two or more Schools/Colleges.

How Should Proposals be Prepared. Cluster hiring proposals should include the following elements:

Cover Page: 

• The cluster focal area to which your proposal is responding,
  • Technical aspects of Artificial Intelligence (including machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision, robotics, cybersecurity, etc.)
  • Ethical use of Artificial Intelligence
  • Artificial Intelligence policy development and implementation, including legal aspects/impacts of AI
  • The application of AI in the Humanities and Social Sciences
  • The application of AI in health care
• The names of the Deans advancing the proposal
• The name and contact information for the designated contact person for the proposal

Relevance to Howard University

• A description of why it is important for HU to develop greater instructional and research strength in the chosen cluster topic area.

Cluster Description - Describe your vision for the fully developed cluster to include:

• The proposed faculty rank of each member of the cluster
• Proposed research expertise for each member of the cluster
• Brief description/example of how the various skills and experiences represented in the cluster may be expected to collaborate in research and in teaching
• Timeline for generating the fully developed cluster (identify important milestones in the development of your cluster)
• Respondents are expected to identify the department and college within HU that each hire may be appointed
• Impact of the cluster on the academic opportunity for Howard Students and how the cluster supports the mission of Howard broadly 

Candidate Recruitment Plan - Provide a description of your plan for recruiting the faculty hires to include a timeline for: 

• Placement of ad
• Assembly of candidate search/evaluation committee
• Receipt of candidate credentials
• Evaluation of candidate credentials
• Candidate interviews
• Campus visits as necessary
• Final candidate selection and recommendation to the Provost

Infrastructure Considerations

• Availability of adequate accommodations for each new hire
• Start-up budget estimates for each new hire

Opportunity for Resource Leveraging

• While it is not required for consideration, please indicate the willingness and ability of the associated schools/colleges to partner with the Office of the Provost to provide tangible support to the hiring effort. This support could come in the form of a matching faculty line or as start-up package support for the new hire(s).

The HU Community Fit

• Since the cluster hires are expected to teach both in their respective departmental course offerings and participate in an interdisciplinary AI initiative, please describe how the proposed hires will complement, enhance, or create new instructional areas in the departments in which they will be hired.
• Indicate how the hires will strengthen existing research expertise at HU, or how new hires will create a new area of research expertise at HU, if so why this new area is important and needed at HU.
• Letters of Support from departments/colleges where new hires will be located.

Funding Potential

• Describe how being part of a cluster will enhance the funding potential of the new hire as well as that of any existing HU faculty.

Additional Supporting Materials – Please provide the following:

• Copy of recruitment ad to be placed
• Three examples of advertisement venues where the ad could be placed
• List of search/evaluation committee members (note each cluster search/evaluation committee will have representation from the Office of the Provost)

Final Supporting Materials

Proposals should be no more than 8 pages including the cover page.  Start-up budget estimates, the list of additional proposal materials, and letters of support are not included in the total page count.  Completed proposals should be submitted as a single PDF file to huprovost@howard.edu not later than 11:59 pm on January 13, 2025.

How will Cluster Hiring Proposals be Reviewed and Selected. Cluster hiring proposals submitted in response to this call for proposals will be reviewed by a faculty review committee with the utilization of ad hoc reviewers as needed. In its review of proposals, the faculty committee will consider each of the elements described in the proposal development instructions.

The faculty committee will provide an un-ranked list of four proposals to the Provost of Howard University.  The Provost will subsequently select two or three proposals for funding and will communicate to the winning submitters of their proposal selection. 

How will Candidate Recruitment Occur?

• The colleges/schools associated with each winning proposal will conduct a recruitment process as described in the text of their proposal.
• The candidate credentials will be evaluated by a search/evaluation committee that is assembled by the associated colleges/schools and will include representation from the Office of the Provost, consistent with the provisions provided in the Howard University Faculty Handbook (2019).
• Final search committee recommendations will be submitted to the respective Deans and Office of the Provost.