Arts & Sciences Faculty Grants Fund
Invitation to Apply
The Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences is committed to making professional development funds available to all continuing Arts & Sciences faculty. Grants are awarded consistent with the contractual obligations of the faculty member in the areas of research, teaching, or service.
Please read the information below carefully as the administration, requirements and scope of the Faculty Grants Fund have changed since the previous academic year.
Types of Supported Activities
- Individual or small group research projects and/or events
- Conference travel
- Other faculty professional development opportunities
- Student hourly wages that are related to a specific research project
Types of Activities that are NOT Supported
- Departmental or programmatic initiatives (for example, departmental lecture series)
- Curricular support
- Faculty salary or stipends
- Major equipment purchases (costing $5,000 or more), standard office supplies, home office expenses
Visit the Faculty Funding page for additional funding opportunities.
Eligibility and Restrictions
The Faculty Grant Fund (FGF) is available to all full-time continuing Arts & Sciences faculty (subject to the restrictions listed below) and is intended to be a resource for those who have no, or insufficient, funds available to support their proposed projects. The restrictions on FGF applications are:
- You must not apply earlier than 12 months after the application deadline of your most recent successful Faculty Grants Fund proposal.
- You must have no outstanding Faculty Grant funded projects.
- Reports from previously funded projects must be complete/submitted.
- The project in this proposal must start within 6 months of the application deadline. For example, for September 15 applications, the project must begin before March 15.
The maximum award is $4,000 per proposal, whether from an individual or group. Faculty are encouraged to explore cost sharing/matching using funds from sources outside of the A&S Dean’s Office for their project: Vice-Deans, the Charles Center, the Associate Dean for DEI, and the CLA will not provide additional support for projects that have already been allocated funds from the FGF.
In some disciplines, external grants are available to support the costs of research activity (summer salary, equipment, student collaborators, etc.). FGF awards are not intended to serve as an ongoing substitute for this kind of external support in disciplines where external funding is typically available, and in which successful applications for external support are an expectation for tenure-eligible and tenured faculty. Requests to the FGF for funding that would typically be provided by external grants will only be considered if (1) they are intended to facilitate future sponsored research activity and (2) include a commitment to apply for external funding that specifies the funding agency and the intended grant submission target date. Departments with external grant opportunities may also support faculty who do not have active grants as they prepare for their next submission. Departmental overhead recovery funds may be used for this purpose.
How to apply
A&S Faculty may submit a proposal for funding using the form provided. A preview of the questions on the Qualtrics form can be found here.
There are four application deadlines:
- September 15
- December 15
- March 15
- June 15
Notification of awards will occur within three weeks of each deadline. Funds become available immediately upon notification.
Off-cycle requests will not be considered. Faculty who do not submit a proposal by a stated FGF deadline but require funds before the next deadline may wish to request support from their department or program.
Proposal evaluation
FGF proposals are evaluated by the A&S Dean Team (including the Vice Deans, Associate Dean for DEI, as well as the Director of the Charles Center) who make recommendations to the Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences. Funding decisions are at the sole discretion of the Dean.
Using your grant
To use your grant, you will work with the fiscal administrator(s) for your department or program identified in the cc list found at the bottom of your award memo. If they have questions, they should contact Kori Varner, Associate Director, Finance & Administration, Arts & Sciences.
Approved proposals will have a deadline by which the funds must be spent. The funds will be available until the deadline, even if the deadline falls in the next fiscal year.
Reporting requirements
Following completion of the project or event, funded faculty are required to provide a report of no more than 400 words that describes the outcomes. A link to a Qualtrics survey will be provided to submit this report. Information about numbers of applications, funding decisions and project outcomes will be reported annually.
