Joint Faculty Appointments Program

JFAP Participants

The objective of the Board of Regents' Joint Faculty Appointments Program is to build nationally competitive research partnerships between historically black and majority white colleges and universities. The National Science Foundation has dubbed it an "innovative program that has the potential to become a model for the nation."

Under the program, two partnering units-one in a historically black, the other in a majority white institution-conduct a national search and together hire two faculty members into joint positions under the mentorship of a proven strong researcher leader. Each partner institution dedications a faculty line to the program, with all the amenities normally extended to first-class researchers.

The Joint Faculty Appointments Program (JFAP) was authorized through the Board of Regents' third competitive award under the National Science Foundation's Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) in August, 1995. The potential of JFAP so impressed NSF that the Board's original request of $1.2 million was increased to $2 million, a move unheard of in a competitive market for research dollars. As a result, four teams were fully funded (approximately $500K each) and another two were awarded seed money for further proposal development ($50K each).

The Joint Faculty Appointments Program was awarded an additional $3 million when in 1998 the Board of Regents received its fourth competitive award under the National Science Foundation's EPSCoR Program. Five additional teams have been funded (approximately $500K each).

In a recent evaluation of the program, external reviewers praised JFAP as "an excellent, unique program that has the potential to serve as a model of educational reform to ameliorate faculty quality among academic/research institutions within a state."

The Board of Regents, which in June, 1996 made a 10 year-commitment to JFAP, sees it as an opportunity to strengthen both the scienctific research competitiveness of Louisiana universities and the State's economy. As further evidence of support for this innovative program, the Board is proud to recognize and designate each individual hired under this program as a Board of Regent's Joint Faculty Appointments Program Professor.