GameAbove Faculty Professional Development and Innovation Fund

Purpose and Nature of the Award

The purpose of the award is to facilitate faculty professional development and innovation through a broad range of activities, including but not limited to:

  • reassigned time from teaching for scholarly, creative, and innovative endeavor;
  • conference presentations;
  • travel;
  • hiring of research assistants;
  • purchase of special equipment or supplies for teaching, scholarly, research, creative, or innovative activities;
  • development of a grant proposal for external funding; and
  • similar or related academic activities.

Special emphasis is given to innovation, such as the application of newer techniques and technologies for creating mental health programs for immigrants, providing special workshops for parents with autistic children, or working with students, parents, teachers, and community leaders in addressing drug addiction.

Ordinarily, the awards will be kept small so that more faculty members can benefit. Newer and untenured faculty members are especially encouraged to apply to this program. All applicants are also encouraged to seek matching funds from other internal and external sources.

Timeline

Applicants must adhere to internal deadlines. After submission, proposals may not be altered in any way.

Submission of proposal: now through March 31, 2020.

Written award decision notification by April 15, 2020.

Submission Procedure

  • Login to EMU's proposal submission portal with your EMU NetID credentials.
  • Enter your application information in the required fields.
  • Upload your proposal. Proposal elements should be pdf files. Proposals may not be altered in any way after they are uploaded to InfoReady Review.

Proposal Elements

  • Narrative: Page limit is one (1) (Include description, timeline, project goals, funds needed, and how the funding will enable the goals).
  • Biosketch: One paragraph on a separate page.
  • If Human Subjects or Animal Care & Use approval is needed and has been granted, please submit a copy of approval at this time. If not yet granted, a copy of approval must be placed on file before funds can be released.

Evaluation Criteria

  • Innovative project (e.g., development of an innovative resource; development of an interdisciplinary team; development of innovative teaching methods; the application of newer techniques, technologies, or programs.)
  • Project is new to EMU (includes all recent faculty hires) or a new area of interest to the faculty member
  • Project will likely result in a dissemination of scholarly/creative activities and/or externally sponsored scholarly/creative activities
  • Well-conceived plan and feasible goals
  • Funding is needed for project completion
  • Budget (e.g., SS&M, release from teaching [use $1,275 per credit hour], hiring student research assistants, and conference travel) is consistent with achieving the stated project goals
  • Overall benefit to the applicant and to wider EMU community

Special Considerations

  • We anticipate funding approximately 10-15 awards ($3,000-$5,000 each).
  • We encourage the submission of innovative projects from faculty teams. Teams can submit project budgets proportionately larger than the standard award budget. (For example, a two-person team might reasonably submit a project budget ranging from $6,000-$10,000.)
  • We encourage the submission of innovative longer projects that extend beyond one funding cycle (for example, 2019-2020 and 2020-2021). Moreover, faculty may submit extended-project budgets proportionately larger than the standard award budget. (For example, a two-year project might reasonably include a budget ranging from $6,000-$10,000.)
  • We encourage revision/resubmission of unfunded proposals from previous funding cycles.

Requirements of Award Recipients

In accepting funding for a proposal, the recipient agrees to submit (at the close of the semester following the conclusion of the award period) a final report (maximum two pages) to the Associate Provost and Associate Vice President for Graduate Studies and Research with copies to the awardee's department head and dean. Faculty with overdue reports are ineligible for internal funding.