Part III. – APPLYING FOR INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL FUNDING | Faculty Handbook

PLU encourages faculty to apply for grants, fellowships, and other funding sources that support professional development. This funding can augment existing programs, create new programmatic activities, bolster institutional capacity, and foster faculty-student scholarship and other types of professional development.

Section 1. INTERNAL FUNDING

Carol Sheffels Quigg Award for Excellence and Innovation
1. Purpose: The Quigg Award provides support those who demonstrate unusually inventive, original, and creative approaches to advance the mission of the university.
2. Criteria: This mid- to substantial award is granted both in recognition of achievements and in support of proposals that advance knowledge; enhance teaching and learning; build a stronger, more vibrant university culture; improve administrative practice; and/or demonstrate exceptional service to the community. The number and size of Quigg Awards will vary each year and there may be years when no awards are granted. The president of the university may make special discretionary disbursements from the award fund in support of extraordinary accomplishment or need that falls outside of the annual award competition.
3. Eligibility: Any faculty, staff, or student and any campus organization or group may be nominated or may apply.
4. For further details, see the website for the Office of the President’s (www.plu.edu/president/carol-sheffels-quigg-awards/).
Innovative Teaching Grants
1. Purpose: During the academic year the Office of the Provost makes available a number of small grants for the purpose of stimulating teaching and learning.
2. Criteria: These grants are intended to aid the faculty member whose spur-of-the-moment idea or out-of-the-ordinary method promises improved instruction for a specific class or series of classes. Proposals are considered when funds are not otherwise available from departmental, school, or college sources. Furthermore, funds from this source are not for the purpose of providing normal operating services, such as photocopying or administrative work. Nor are they generally intended for the purchase of instructional equipment, nor for the continuation of programs which are currently in place.
3. Eligibility: All tenured and tenure-track faculty are eligible, as are visiting, resident, and clinical faculty.
4. For further details, see the website for the Office of the Provost (www.plu.edu/provost/documents/file-group/awards-grants/).
Karen Hille Phillips Regency Advancement Awards
1. Purpose: These substantial annual awards are intended to enhance opportunities for the professional development of the university’s faculty.
2. General Criteria for Evaluating Applications for Regency Advancement Awards:
  1. The project is clearly and specifically defined.
  2. The nature of the project and the likelihood of its completion bear a justifiable relation to the time period within which it is to be carried out.
  3. The project advances the applicant’s professional growth, the “cutting edge” of the applicant’s discipline, and/or the enhancement of the applicant’s departmental curriculum or quality of classroom instruction.
  4. Priority consideration shall be given to qualified projects for which external funding is unlikely. Faculty members are, however, encouraged to articulate how they have and will leverage funding.
  5. All else being equal,
    1. Only the intrinsic merit of a project or activity, not its total costs, shall be primary and decisive.
    2. Proposals from tenure-track and tenured faculty are favored over those of contingent faculty.
    3. Proposals from tenure-track faculty are favored over those of tenured faculty.
    4. Proposals from faculty who have not recently received a Karen Hille Phillips Regency Advancement Award are favored over those who have received an award recently.
  6. Projects related to sabbatical leave proposals shall not be excluded from consideration on that account, but shall have secondary priority in competition—all else being equal. Faculty who will be on sabbatical are not eligible to receive a stipend for the summer prior to the year during which they will be on sabbatical leave.
  7. More specific criteria may be developed and applied by the dean or faculty of a given school or college.
3. Eligibility: All members of the faculty, as defined by the Faculty Constitution (Article I, Section 1), are eligible.
4. For further details, see the website for the Office of the Provost (www.plu.edu/provost/documents/file-group/awards-grants/).
Wang Center for Global and Community Engaged Education Grants
1. Wang Center for Global and Community Engaged Education Faculty Research Grant
  1. Purpose: These substantial awards are intended to support research conducted internationally by the university’s faculty.
  2. Eligibility: All tenured, tenure-track, visiting, resident, and clinical faculty are eligible, as are associates to the faculty.
  3. Further details and the application can be found on the website for the Wang Center (www.plu.edu/wang-center/faculty-staff/research-grants/#faculty).
2. Wang Center for Global and Community Engaged Education Student-Faculty Research Grant
  1. Purpose: These substantial awards are intended to support research conducted by student-faculty teams.
  2. Eligibility: All tenured, tenure-track, visiting, resident, and clinical faculty are eligible, as are associates to the faculty. Participation of emeritus faculty and members of the PLU staff for mentoring or research purposes will be considered in special circumstances. In determining the allocation of funds, priority will be given to tenured and tenure-track faculty.
  3. Further details and the application can be found on the website for the Wang Center for Global and Community Engaged Education (www.plu.edu/wang-center/faculty-staff/research-grants/#student-faculty).
3. Wang Center for Global and Community Engaged Education Study Away Curricular Development Grant
  1. Purpose: These substantial awards are intended to: provide funding assistance for prospective faculty leaders/directors to conduct site visits to places of interest (domestic and international) to explore possibilities for establishing new programs and make appropriate contacts and arrangements; enhance study away programming, particularly in underrepresented departments and majors; and enable more PLU students to participate in study away by expanding program options available.
  2. Eligibility: All tenured, tenure-track, visiting, resident, and clinical faculty are eligible.
  3. Further details and the application can be found on the website for the Wang Center for Global and Community Engaged Education (https://www.plu.edu/wang-center/faculty-staff/).
For grants administered through a particular school, college, or inter-disciplinary program, contact the relevant dean and/or chair.

Section 2. EXTERNAL FUNDING

Grant Application Procedures
1. In order to facilitate the process, assist in proposal preparation, and to coordinate efforts, it is recommended that early in the formation of the proposal, the author explore the idea with the dean, department chair, colleagues, and the Office of the Provost. Shortly thereafter, one should contact the Office of Advancement and talk with the grants representative. In cases where the proposal has a large, programmatic reach of the grant is broad, and/or if matching funds from PLU will be requested, it is especially important to begin conversations with the department chair, dean, and the Offices of Advancement, Provost, and Finance and Administration early in the process of developing the proposal. To aid in that dialogue, applicants should complete the form, “Notice of Intent to Apply for a Grant,” that helps the author address critical components such as deadlines, matching requirements, and grant implications. At least one week before final submission, a “Grant Approval Form” should be completed. This is an important document that PLU will use once the grant has been awarded to delineate the financial responsibilities and obligations. Both of these forms are available from the website for the Office of the Provost. Obtaining the requisite signatures assures that all relevant officials are cognizant of the grant proposal.
2. Once a proposal is complete and ready to submit, copies must be sent to the Office of Advancement and to the Office of the Provost, and one copy must be retained by the applicant. The Office of Advancement tracks grant applications, so it is most helpful if applicants notify them as to the outcome of the proposal and send to them copies of any acceptance or declination letters. Generally speaking, agencies award the funds with a check that is mailed to the Office of Advancement. Successful applicants need to coordinate with the Office of the Provost to assure that an account number and budget have been established with the Business Office. Doing so promptly enables the Office of Advancement to deposit the funds in the appropriate account.