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Career Development and Writing Support Grant

Recognizing the long-term impacts of the pandemic on faculty career advancement and research and writing productivity, the Office of the Provost has established a new grant program in 2022-2023. Faculty can apply for a grant of up to $5,000 toward the career development program, writing support program or other service of their choice that best supports research or creative work recovery.

Examples of potential career development and/or writing supports could include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Fees for participation in a faculty career development program, such as the Faculty Success Program (a 12-week virtual program) or the Teaching Toolkit Program (a four-week virtual program), run by the National Center for Faculty Diversity and Development (NCFDD)
  • Developmental editing to help you resolve conflicting feedback, refine your thesis, work through writing blocks, or restructure writing; professional copy editing for a manuscript or professional indexing for a book; or academic coaching for a specific goal, such as identifying new research or book projects, or project planning and productivity for a specific research/writing/creative project or for an already-planned research leave
  • Funding to facilitate travel to an academic conference, or to meetings with grant program officers or scholarly/creative collaborators
  • Training for communicating research, such as presentation skills or public speaking, to support the release of a new publication

Faculty are responsible for selecting their own program, coach, or other professional service. Contact faculty@northwestern.edu for a list of recommended providers.

Eligibility

Full-time, benefits-eligible regular faculty are eligible to apply.

Grant Criteria

Proposals will be judged on the potential impact of funding on the applicant’s stated goals and on recovery from COVID-19-related disruption to their research, and their promotion progress (for tenure-line and non-tenure-line-eligible faculty).

Grant proposals will be reviewed by a selection committee composed of Office of the Provost representatives. Priority consideration will be given to applicants whose research has been significantly disrupted due to primary caregiving responsibilities during the pandemic.

Faculty may not receive a COVID-19 Research Recovery Grant and a Career Development grant in the same year.

Funding

Funding is limited to up to $5,000 and a budget justification will be required in the application. Grants funds will be paid into faculty discretionary accounts during FY23. Funds must be used by Aug. 31, 2024. Faculty who are selected for a grant are responsible for engaging providers and arranging their own payments to said provider(s).

This funding is intended to supplement and not supplant funding available from other sources such as department travel allotments, start-up packages or deans awards.

Reporting

All grantees must provide a brief written report on the usage of funding by Sept. 30, 2024.

Application Materials

All proposals should be submitted using the online proposal form, which requires:

  • Name, department(s), school(s)
  • Statement of Funding Impact and Budget: Explain why you are requesting funding and how the funds will be used to support recovery of your research or creative work. Include how you will use the award to mitigate impacts and disruption caused by COVID-19 and support your progress to promotion and/or to tenure, or otherwise support your career development. Indicate your specific goals and services requested. (300 words maximum)
  • Budget Worksheet: Fill out and upload the budget worksheet to the online proposal form. If you are uncertain of the exact price a coach, editor or indexer will charge, please estimate.

Deadline

March 1, 2023.

Questions

If you have questions about the grants, including eligible expenses, please email faculty@northwestern.edu.