Context:

Six Goals for Faculty  These goals provide context for the training and services I provide. ~ Tess Powers, Director of Faculty Research Support

1)    Faculty Development Programming:

• Grant programming (in-house): Several new training opportunities were developed and offered last academic year. In order to build on these developments, in the 2021-2022 academic year Tess will be offering a 4-session series that provides a deep dive into the grant planning process, several one-one-one planning sessions as well as several “à la carte” opportunities to learn about particular topics and funders.
• Since May 2020, Tess has been on the multi-institutional leadership team that developed 5 webinars (to date) featuring a panel of winners from small liberal arts colleges who won highly prestigious fellowships (ACLS, NEH Fellowship, Ford Foundation, CAREER, Guggenheim) – recordings available: Advice on Key Funders page
• As of March 2021 the College has added an online grants course (“Essentials of Grant Proposal Development”) to our institutional membership in CITI (Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative), which is accessible to all CC faculty/staff/students. Some modules are useful for all divisions, but many are geared for the natural sciences (about 5-10 hours of programming).

2)    Outreach:

• Tess is available to support the tenure-track hiring process by providing a one-on-one, non-evaluative 30-minute meeting with candidates. A list of discussion topics is available. Suggestions welcome.
• Tess is organizing “Irons in the Fire” just prior to faculty meetings

3)   Faculty Planning: Once faculty take the “Grants Orientation” (see "in-house" programming above) Tess meets with faculty to discuss their ~5-year External Grant Plans (EGPs), based on a completed What Is My Top Priority Questionnaire. EGPs are based on templates she has created for Creative Production, Humanities, Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences. The long-term goal is for every faculty to know what their funding options are, years in advance, so that they can make the decision to pursue external funding or not, as circumstances allow.

4)   Grants Infrastructure – Seeking Funders: Several years ago the College purchased access to the Pivot Grants Database. Tess has developed “curated lists” of funding opportunities for each department as well as some curated lists for targeted applicants such as new faculty and diverse faculty. In Fall 2018 she created three curated lists for students (on research opportunities, for stellar students, for recent grads, etc.) The “Day 3” training (see "in-house" grant programming) focuses on learning tools and resources to expand one’s funding landscape.

5)   Grants Infrastructure – Seed Funding: Since the SEGway program was launched in Fall 2014 as a result of the Faculty Scholarship Action Team’s recommendations, we have made 94 awards to 57 faculty members. In addition to supporting travel to grants conferences and investments of time in serving as grant reviewers, 41 were in the traditional “seed funding” category to provide bridge funding to external funding. (Eight recipients of SEGway support have received ~$1.8 million in external funding to date.) Through the “institutional track,” we made 15 awards recognizing faculty who invested considerable time in institutional grant proposals. We made three “stipend supplement” awards of $4000 each to faculty who received grants of less than ~$25,000.

6)   Grant Activity: Over the last 10 years, ~18 proposals have been submitted each year (of all 183 proposals, ~23% in the humanities, ~23% in the social sciences and ~54% in the natural sciences) of which ~36% have been funded. Tess covers the variety of ways she supports the application process in the “Grants Orientation” session.

7)   Grant Recognition: Recent grants are typically announced to the CC community via an article on the CC webpage, and through the President’s announcement page shared prior to the faculty meeting. In December, we will re-initiate an annual Grants Recognition Reception for all faculty who have either submitted a proposal or are thinking about future grants and fellowship applications.

8)    Post-Award Support: We currently have 26 active research grants and fellowships (5 in the humanities, 4 in the social sciences and 17 in the natural sciences) representing about $3.8M in research funding. The faculty member, his/her staff assistant, Tess and Lori Cowan in Finance work together to support post-award spending and compliance expectations. Please see the College's Grants Manual and the Research Compliance resource page for more.