The following goals (related to support for CC faculty's scholarly work and creative production) have motivated my recent enhancements to the services I offer. As grant writing is an exercise in making goals explicit, I thought it might be valuable for CC faculty to better understand the goals behind my office's work. We received some feedback on these goals as part of the May 2021 Faculty Survey, but I will always be happy to receive ongoing questions, suggestions and feedback. ~ Tess Powers, Director of Faculty Research Support

GOAL #1: for all faculty to be familiar with their key external funders. For any given faculty member, it may make sense to apply for external funding only once every several years.  Therefore, it is important for faculty to know funders’ deadlines & expectations well in advance so that faculty can choose to apply or choose not to apply, as their interest and circumstances allow.

GOAL #2: for all faculty to be familiar with the benefits of applying for external funding, including developing clarity on their scholarly agenda, gaining perspective on their research and creative production through reviewer feedback, better articulating their scholarly goals to educated non-specialists, strengthening future internal proposals, strengthening relationships with other CC faculty and strengthening their professional network.

GOAL #3: for all interested faculty to have an “External Grant Plan,” to be initiated in after our first one-on-one conversation. The goal of this document is to capture the role external grants could play in an overall professional development plan for the next ~5 years.

GOAL #4: for all interested faculty to be familiar with the resources available internally to support their success, including being familiar with internal financial sources and policies, being familiar with the services and programming Tess provides, being familiar with the Pivot grants database, and being familiar with which CC colleagues may be available as a resource.  

GOAL #5: for all interested faculty to be familiar with resources and opportunities available externally to be successful, including webinars and grant workshops offered by target funders, opportunities to serve as a grant reviewer, the availability of successful sample proposals, information on grants awarded to ~100 peer institutions, and external colleagues with expertise.

GOAL #6: for all interested faculty to feel excited by the prospect of success, for faculty to know that they have prepared well and that the external grant or fellowship will be recognized and appreciated internally by peers, their department, and college leadership. And finally, they will know that they will be supported on the post-award side in managing the grant.