ACM's Summer Grants Workshop
The Dean of Faculty Office is committed to sending as many faculty to this workshop as are able to attend. We invite you to reach out to Dean Chan and Tess Powers so we can support your application!
[Dean of Faculty ALLFAC message sent March 25, 2026]
Hi Colleagues,
I write to encourage interest in an upcoming ACM workshop focused on grants, proposal development, and dedicated time to think strategically about future funding possibilities.
The workshop is the ACM Grants Lab: A Proposal Writing Accelerator for Scholars and Leaders, to be held at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, from June 23–25, 2026, with the application/registration deadline of Thursday, May 21, 2026.
While all faculty are invited to attend (please do check your calendar!), Tess Powers and I especially invite faculty who expect to be on sabbatical in 2027–28, 2028–29, or 2029–30. Those leaves can create the right runway for a new project, a grant-funded research agenda, a collaborative initiative, or a substantial curricular effort. This workshop could be a very good space to begin shaping that work. And if you are eligible to take a full-year sabbatical in 2027–2028, many funders (Fulbright, ACLS, etc.) will have deadlines in early Fall 2026; the ACM Grants Lab is perfectly timed to help you draft a strong application for a fall submission.
I also want to make an explicit invitation to colleagues in the humanities, social sciences, and interdisciplinary fields. Too often, we talk about grants as though they belong primarily to the natural sciences. They do not--Grants can fund transformative opportunities for humanities, social sciences, and interdisciplinary research, and curricular transformation in departments. This is also well aligned with who we are as a faculty. As an RCU, CC is recognized for meaningful research activity in all divisions, and what makes CC especially strong is how faculty integrate research, teaching, and mentoring.
The grants landscape is also continuing to shift. That is one reason this workshop feels timely: Even if you are at an early stage, this could be a useful moment to start mapping a project, testing a question, or thinking about what kind of funding might be a good match in this evolving grant landscape.
If you are interested, please let me and Tess know soon. Tess can help you think through fit, identify possible funders, and support your application for this ACM workshop.
Best,
Emily
[Dean of Faculty ALLFAC message sent February 18, 2026]
ACM is proud to announce that registration for the second ACM Grants Lab: A Proposal Writing Accelerator for Scholars and Leaders is now open. ACM is delighted to offer this opportunity again to colleagues to prepare them to submit competitive proposals for external funding to support their teaching, research, and campus initiatives. CC faculty who participated last summer reported that the experience was very beneficial.
Dear Colleagues,
You are invited to attend the upcoming Grants Lab: A Proposal Writing Accelerator for Scholars and Leaders hosted by the Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM).
With a mix of practical panels, peer feedback, one-on-one mentorship, quiet writing blocks, and shared meals with colleagues, this retreat-style program offers a rare blend of capacity-building and time to make progress on proposal writing. I believe that you are ideally positioned to benefit from this workshop to advance your scholarly and professional goals.
Registration and Logistics
This in-person event will be held from June 23-25, 2026, at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, IA. Hotel accommodation is provided by ACM.
Please complete this registration by May 21, 2026: https://acm.edu/grants-lab-registration/ (the passcode is 2026COE).
As part of the application process, you will be asked to describe a project you hope to develop during the workshop and to identify potential funders.