The responsibilities formerly handled by the Department's Research Committee are now being handled by the GARC. In this capacity the GARC is charged with recommending to the Chair distribution of monies earned by sponsored research in the Department and accruing in the Indirect Cost Recovery account (currently 1-90270, often called the "Overhead Account"). The specific duties of the Research Committee are:

1. Make recommendations to the Chair concerning the utilization of the overhead account pertinent to the support of research activities in the Department.

2. Provide advice to the Chair on requests from Faculty for expenditures of Overhead funds that exceed a faculty-established limit (currently $5,000).

3. Administer distribution of overhead and non-overhead funds that are awarded to graduate students in support of research. Instructions for application, selection criteria, amounts and due dates are published as part of the Department's World Wide Web page. (URL, http://www.evsc.virginia.edu/) Specifically, the awards are:

   • Exploratory research awards for graduate students. These are merit-based prizes for proposals from graduate students submitted in the spring and prior to the defense of their research proposals. The awards are for financial support for exploratory research leading to a thesis or dissertation proposal, and are limited to a one-time per degree amount usually not exceeding $1,000.

   • Travel grants for graduate students. Graduate students may apply no more than once per degree for assistance (up to $600 per request) to attend a regional or national meeting at which the student is presenting a paper on work conducted during the graduate tenure in the department.

   • Research Awards: Graduate students who have successfully defended their research proposals may compete for additional research funding by applying for the Department Overhead and Fred H. Moore Research Awards. Awards are limited to a one-time per degree amount usually not exceeding $4,000.