Funding Opportunities
College Funding
Updated 9/25/2024
Wake Forest College provides funding to support and enhance the professional activities and growth of teacher-scholars. Development funds are organized to support the various phases of project development and completion. Please see descriptions below to discern the fund most appropriate to the needs of your project. Awards from all funds are competitive.
Proposals are reviewed twice annually (once per semester) by a Faculty Funding Committee appointed and chaired by the Associate Dean of Faculty. Award announcements are typically shared within one month of the submission deadline. Proposals for projects involving travel should therefore be submitted by the deadline preceding the intended travel. Special consideration between deadlines will be for NEW OPPORTUNITIES only.
Before submitting, please read the Helpful Hints section.
All proposals for Archie, Faculty Development, Summer Research Awards, Book Development Grants, and Research & Publication Funding must be accompanied by a supporting statement or letter from the department chair.
Faculty seeking to present their scholarship at professional conferences should use funding from the following sources in the following order:
- Departmental Faculty Development Funds
- Provost’s Travel Fund
- College Faculty Development Funds
Typically, these funds should be adequate to support travel to give 2-3 conference presentations per academic year, depending on the cost per trip. Requests to fund conference travel in excess of these norms will be considered only when the conference presents an exceptional opportunity. Faculty should be selective in considering which conferences and symposia will be most valuable for them to attend. Faculty wishing to attend a conference at which they are not presenting original work, chairing a session, or serving as respondents may seek reimbursement for 50% of the related travel. This guideline applies whether funding is sought at the departmental, College, or Provost’s level.
Deadlines
SPECIAL CONSIDERATION:
For new opportunities brought to your attention after a regular deadline, with travel prior to the next regular deadline, submit your application with your own and your chair’s rationale for special consideration outside the regular funding windows. You must note the date you were notified of the new opportunity. This does not allow for missing the deadlines outlined below.
The Fall 2024 deadline for Archie, Faculty Development, and Research & Experiential Learning applications:
Monday, October 7, 2024
The Spring 2025 deadline
for Archie, Faculty Development, and Research & Experiential Learning applications as well as Summer Research proposals:
Friday, February 14, 2025
Other funding requests are accepted on a rolling basis.
All applications should be
submitted electronically to
Leigh Anne Robinson
with application, CV, and any supplementary documentation combined into a single PDF.
The Archie award provides support for primary research and research travel domestically and internationally in the College. Archie funding is typically used to support extensive research to be conducted either over the summer or during a paid Reynolds or Junior research leave.
The Book Development grant is to provide supportive, critical feedback and publication advice during the book manuscript preparation and pre-submission phase. Faculty members may apply to bring a top scholar, book editor, or series editor to campus to workshop book proposals and chapters of work in progress, and to provide mentoring on publishing in the discipline. Departments or groups of scholars from sub-disciplines may also consider inviting scholars or editors to campus to provide a Q and A session on publishing in the discipline and to provide a group workshop on selected book proposals and sample chapters. Guest scholars and editors must be traveling from within the continental United States. Award funds are available to pay for transportation, room, board and honorarium for the visiting scholar or editor. Grant proposals must include the book proposal(s), a sample chapter, a summary of the progress on the manuscript to date, the name and CV of the proposed scholar or editor, a summary evaluation of what qualifies the person to provide expert critical feedback on the proposed project, the applicant’s CV, and a detailed budget.
The College Course Enhancement Fund is provided to assist faculty members with expenses associated with regularly scheduled fall or spring classes. Funds may be used to offset expenses that enhance students’ academic experience in the classroom through travel, admission and performance fees, or other academic-specified activities. Funds may not be used as an honorarium. Proposals will be evaluated on a rolling basis until funds are exhausted.
The Faculty Development Fund is designated to support projects or activities that will enhance teaching or contribute to the development of a scholarly or creative research project. Professional memberships or subscriptions will not be supported by this fund. Activities that are supported by Faculty Development Funds include, but are not limited to the following:
- Conference travel (preference is given to those presenting scholarly or creative work or participating in the conference program)
- Workshops or symposia: support for acquisition of specialized skills or knowledge of new methods, theories or technologies that will enhance teaching research or creative activities
- Conferences or workshops to enhance student-centered teaching in the disciplines
- Activities to support or enhance collaborative or interdisciplinary teaching content or research
- Support for linking teaching, scholarship, or creative activity to public engagement or community partnerships.
The Faculty Development Fund for Visiting Professors is designated to support activities that will enhance your teaching and/or contribute to your professional development. Proposed activities must occur while you are employed by Wake Forest University. Activities that are supported by this Faculty Development Fund include, but are not limited to the following:
- Conference travel (preference is given to those presenting scholarly or creative work or participating in the conference program)
- Conference, workshop or symposia attendance: support for acquisition of specialized skills or knowledge of new methods, theories or technologies that will enhance teaching activities
The Faculty Development Fund for Part-Time Faculty is designated to support activities that will enhance your teaching and/or contribute to your professional development. Proposed activities must occur while you are employed by Wake Forest University. Activities that are supported by this Faculty Development Fund include, but are not limited to the following:
- Conference travel (preference is given to those presenting scholarly or creative work or participating in the conference program)
- Conference, workshop, or symposia attendance: support for acquisition of specialized skills or knowledge of new methods, theories or technologies that will enhance teaching activities
The Teacher-Scholar Fund for Faculty Research and Experiential Learning is designated to support activities that take an innovative and creative approach to merging faculty research and creative activities with experiential learning outcomes for students. Please note: This fund does not support stipends to faculty for planning or executing experiential learning in their courses.
Before applying to this fund, please look at the following funds for eligibility:
- The Course Enhancement Fund, for projects that are intended to enhance course activities and do not involve faculty research.
- The Faculty Development Fund, for projects intended to support faculty development without a course tie-in.
- [For Humanities Faculty] The Humanities Institute, which has several types of funding for community based and student-faculty collaboration.
- The URECA X Fund, which offers individual students a stipend to partner with a faculty member on research and creative activities.
Interested applicants are encouraged to reach out to the Associate Dean of the Faculty to ensure these funds will be appropriate to the project they envision. Applications will be reviewed with the regular faculty development funding deadlines, and priority is given to projects that do not have access to other funding avenues. This funding program aims to discover unmet needs, so we will entertain all reasonable proposals. Some activities that could be supported by the Teacher-Scholar Fund for Faculty Research and Experiential learning include:
- Community based research projects organized through a course
- Support for linking teaching and scholarship/creative activity to public engagement or community partnerships
- Ongoing faculty research projects that involve a cohort of students or a course-based component
Criteria:
- Project has clearly articulated research and pedagogical outcomes
- Project aligns with the teacher-scholar ideal
- Application demonstrates that it is not eligible for other intramural sources of funding
Eligibility:
Open to faculty all five divisions of the College, permanent and visiting faculty.
As a collegiate university dedicated to the education and mentoring of its students, Wake Forest University promotes and fosters exceptional faculty-student engagement. The dedicated teacher-scholars at Wake Forest take this commitment seriously and thrive on their engagement with students.
The Faculty-Student Engagement Fund provides funding for faculty members who host undergraduate students outside the classroom. Active undergraduate faculty may request up to $125 per class or $8 per student, whichever is less. Lower division advisers may request the use of these funds to treat their advisees once per semester.
To request funding, please submit this application to Leigh Anne Robinson in the Office of the Dean of the College prior to expenditures; expenses made before notification of award will not be reimbursed.
Note: the Provost’s Faculty-Student Lunch Program has been discontinued.
Please apply for General Discretionary Funding for projects that are not eligible for existing funding sources. Before applying to this general fund, please look at the following funds for eligibility:
- The Course Enhancement Fund: for projects that are intended to enhance courses.
- The Faculty Development Fund: for projects intended to support faculty development.
- Additional Funding Opportunities through the Office of the Dean of the College
- For Humanities Faculty: The Humanities Institute
- Funding Opportunities through the Office of the Provost
The Research and Publication Fund supports costs associated with the publication of faculty scholarly or creative activities. The fund may be used to offset the cost of obtaining permissions, reproducing photographs or other images, transcribing interviews, or, occasionally, of indexing. The fund may not be used to pay for editors.
The Summer Research Award, a highly competitive award, will be made available to a maximum of three (3) faculty members per summer. The College awards committee will select awardees based on the merits of the project, which may be conducted on or off the Wake Forest campus. The successful applicants will receive funding in June. Projects must be in advanced stages of development and execution to be considered. Applications must include: a project prospectus summarizing the project and explaining its significance to the field; a copy of the manuscript or project in its current state; and an explicit research plan and timeline for completing the project during the summer months. The summer research award is intended to recognize the promise and importance of advanced research and to provide unencumbered research time in the summer to focus exclusively on completing a significant project. Faculty members holding this award are ineligible for summer teaching or other university-related activities that would divert time and attention from completing the research or creative project.
The URECA Fund for Facilitating Faculty-Student Scholarship provides support to faculty who wish to engage Wake Forest undergraduate students in their scholarly pursuits during the academic year, within the context of individually mentored projects such as directed readings, independent study, or Honors thesis projects. To qualify, the project must be directly mentored by a Wake Forest faculty member, and the student must receive academic credit for the scholarly endeavor.
It is not the purpose of this fund to provide monies for coursework that is part of a faculty member’s regular teaching load, or that is a required part of the curriculum for any major, minor, or program. Support for such regular coursework should be provided by the department or program. Applications for support will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Learn more and apply via the URECA Center website.
In the spirit of promoting undergraduate mentored scholarship, the URECA Center invites departments and programs to request up to $200 per department/program per year to facilitate events that showcase research and creative projects. Departmental representatives are asked to submit a brief (one paragraph) request with budget and expected number of participants to Monae Merck. Requests will be considered as they are submitted.
Helpful Hints
FROM THE FACULTY FUNDING COMMITTEE
The Faculty Funding Committee is made up of one regular faculty member from each division and advises the Associate Dean of Faculty on funding decisions submitted at the October and February deadlines. In other words: the people reading your application are a lot like you — and so when we read applications, we are generally reading them in the same way you might read applications.
We have come up with the tips below from the experience of actually going through applications, so everything we recommend here derives from specific issues that have arisen during our deliberations. Our goal is to support faculty research as fully as our funds allow. Following these tips will help us say yes to fully funding your project!
Make sure you are applying for the right fund. The Archie Fund is “for primary research and research travel domestically and internationally in the College.” This is narrower in scope than the Faculty Development Fund, which can be used for a variety of professional purposes, including conference presentations, workshops to acquire specific research or pedagogical skills, support for engaged research or teaching, and collaborative research or teaching efforts.
Make sure that you have already used your department funds and the Provost’s Fund for Faculty Travel. The Provost’s Fund, $2,000 per person per year (first-come-first-serve), can be used for conference travel and, if your chair vouches for you, “other non-conference research-related travel.” The Archie and FacDev funds require that you have already used up department and Provost’s funding sources. Also, make sure you explain on your Archie/FacDev application that you have already used those funds, or that you have requested them and have included them in your budget on this application. Otherwise, we may award you $2,000 less than you are requesting, on the assumption that you have $2,000 available from the Provost’s Fund.
Do not simply dump a proposal you’ve written for another application into this one. We love learning about your research and creative activities, but if you just give us your entire project/book proposal/grant narrative, we will have difficulties identifying the specific purpose you’re requesting funding for. Instead, tell us what you’re requesting funds for and how that thing will benefit your larger project. Telling us why the activity you want funded is important, that’s helpful, too.
Answer all the questions on the application. If you are not filling out one of the items, simply explain why not.
Be specific. This is true for your budget — tell us where you are going, how many days/nights, how your transportation expenses break down — as well as for your project description. It also goes for your past funding: don’t say “multiple years” of funding for a range of dollar amounts, but tell us the actual years and actual amounts funded. Even better, give us a short (few words) description of what the funding was for and what the outcomes were!
Make sure your budget adds up. If you have indicated that you’ve requested Provost’s Fund support for this project, add a line into the budget to account for that money, so that the “Total Requested” line in your application equals the actual amount you are requesting from us.
Make sure to include your CV. Remind your chair that your CV needs to be included when they forward on your application. (Also, ask your chair to read the Tips for Chairs, below!)
Your letter of support is crucial for our evaluation. If you don’t write a thoughtful letter, we have a much harder time judging the merit of the project.
Please check one of the three boxes on the form (“fund,” “partially fund,” or “do not fund”).
Please include the applicant’s supporting materials when you forward them on (CV, conference program, etc.). Every applicant must submit a CV, so every application will include at least one supporting material. Please combine the application and the supporting materials into one pdf.
If your department/program is submitting more than one application total, we ask that you write to the Associate Dean of Faculty to rank the applications from highest to lowest priority for funding. (If you yourself are an applicant, you don’t need to rank your own application.) We evaluate applications on merit above all, but if we receive more meritorious applications than there are funds available, we have to decide how to apportion those funds, and your input will be extremely helpful.
Travel forms, including permission to travel internationally, are provided on this site. Remember, international travel requires that forms be submitted one month in advance of the travel.
Visit the Travel Guidelines and Policy website for updated information on the financial decision process related to international travel.