Enhance External Support that Leads to Faculty Growth and Development and Student Success.
Objective 1.1
Enhance the institution’s culture of seeking external funding through policy changes, education, and increased institutional support.
Strategy 1.1.1: The ASU administration will issue a statement on its commitment to obtaining external funding and its support of those who seek funding to promote faculty growth and development and the success of students.
Strategy 1.1.2: Effective with the adoption of this strategic plan, all advertisements for new tenure-track faculty positions will list grantsmanship as a valued job skill.
Strategy 1.1.3: Deans and chairs will regularly survey faculty members to identify faculty members who are pursuing or planning to pursue external grants and gather information necessary to coordinate these efforts.
Strategy 1.1.4: The Faculty Policies Committee will investigate the need for new policies on university support for efforts to secure external funding and will consider how to integrate grantsmanship into the Faculty Role Model and the criteria for promotion and tenure.
Strategy 1.1.5: Establish new college committees to promote and recommend policies related to scholarships and grants.
- The dean of each college will establish a college Faculty Scholarship and Grants Committee (FSAGC). Each committee will:
- Communicate with the Director of the Grants Office to identify funding sources that support the mission of the college.
- Assist chairs and deans with the implementation of plans to submit grant proposals.
- Mentor faculty for the purpose of increasing grants-related involvement.
- When possible, develop working and drafting meetings with appropriate faculty and others at least one year before a grant proposal is expected to be due.
- Meet with program directors and attend technical assistance workshops for particular grants.
- The college FSAGCs will collaborate to:
- Submit a formal definition of faculty grantsmanship to the Faculty Policies Committee for review and recommendation to the faculty.
- Recommend to the Faculty Policies Committee how to integrate grantsmanship into the Faculty Role model and the criteria for promotion and tenure.
- Advice the VPAA on matters and policies related to scholarship and external funding.
- Identify key personnel to write and submit institutional grants.
Strategy 1.1.6: Create new budgets to support the seeking of external funding and to enhance faculty research and travel that may lead to external funding.
- By the end of fiscal year 2011, establish a university budget of $50,000 that will support efforts to seek external grant funding.
- The Faculty Policies Committee will consider replacing the Faculty Research and Development Committee with two new committees, one to fund faculty research and one to fund faculty travel. These new committees should include faculty from all colleges and should be funded adequately.
- The VPAA will work with the ASU Foundation to provide funds for “start-up” research support and to provide matching funds for grants with a matching requirement.
- New tenure track faculty who have a substantial expectation of pursuing external funding may be awarded “start-up” funds upon being hired in order to assist them in establishing their research programs.
Strategy 1.1.7: The Grants Office will conduct workshops during the academic year for the purpose of educating the university community on the availability of various grants and successful strategies for writing grants. The Grants Office will work with faculty members, chairs, deans, the VPAA and the Center for Teaching and Learning to develop specific focus areas.
Objective 1.2
Increase the annual number of submissions for institutional grants so that by FY2015 the institution submits at least four institutional grants each year.
Objective 1.3
Increase faculty and departmental grant and contract submissions for research, instruction and public service.
Strategy 1.3.1: Measurable goals will be set by deans of colleges and directors of support services units.
Strategy 1.3.2: The Grants Office will hire an external reviewer or consultant, as appropriate and as funds permit.
Strategy 1.3.3: Provide faculty incentives to encourage grant writing.
- Develop incentives, such as course releases, and travel funds to visit program officers, when appropriate, for those who actively seek external grants funding.
- By FY2012, the VPAA will establish a grants excellence program to recognize and reward faculty and staff who successfully submit proposals and receive grants. The Grants Office website will maintain and publish the list of faculty and staff who receive grants.
- Develop and implement a procedure of salary sharing that allows the portion of salary compensation generated from a grant to go directly to that faculty members’ department or college.
- Use summers to promote grant writing, offering a stipend or salary, when appropriate, to faculty who draft a proposal over the summer and eventually complete it for submission.
- Become a member of the Grants Resource Center (GRC), which provides monthly published information on funding opportunities, consulting and tailoring support, and networking opportunities with funders and research professionals.
- Starting in August 2011, at the beginning of each year, the Grants Office will hold a grants awareness orientation for new faculty members to introduce them to the Grants Office and ASU Foundation staff and services that can help them seek external funding.
Strategy 1.3.4: Increase support for undergraduate research.
- Create scholarships to support students engaged in research.
- Increase funding for student and faculty travel to professional meetings.
- Create a centralized undergraduate research center to:
- Support faculty initiatives to facilitate student research.
- Assist in educating students about and recruiting them for undergraduate research.
- Assess the impact of undergraduate research on student success and retention on this campus.
- Highlight on-going student and faculty research activities by maintaining an information website.
- Centralize and streamline the process for students to obtain support for research, travel and presentations.
- Assist in establishing and maintaining university academic standards with regard to undergraduate research activities and use these standards to maintain quality assurance over the distribution of scholarship funds and faculty compensation.
- Include more research space in plans for future science buildings.
