Grantseekers’ Institutes and Academies

Each Institute or Academy Targets a Different Funding Stream and/or Field of Study

Emory NSF CAREER Proposal Academy

Ten-Week Proposal Preparation Program Begins May 14

Register by Wednesday, April 23

We invite pre-tenure and postdoctoral faculty whose research is in an area funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to participate in a ten-week “NSF CAREER Proposal Academy” to be held in the summer 2025. The Academy will begin Wednesday, May 14th with subsequent sessions held once a week on Wednesdays until July 16th. The NSF CAREER proposal submission deadline is Wednesday, July 23rd. Each session starts at noon with a 90-minute workshop followed by an optional afternoon of dedicated writing time. Zoom attendance options will be available. 

The Academy is designed to support and guide the development of a highly competitive NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) proposal. Sessions will cover aspects of proposal development from project idea conception to submission, including mentoring/coaching from experienced administrators, faculty, and staff. Participants will also be able to engage in one-on-one consultations and coaching from the Academy facilitators.  Each session will cover one aspect in the process of putting together a CAREER proposal. 

Academy participants should be planning to either submit a new proposal or revise and resubmit a previous proposal for the upcoming deadline of July 23rd or plan to submit in the next few years.

The deadline to register is April 23. 

Register

The NSF CAREER Proposal Academy is presented by the Emory College of Arts and Sciences Office of Funding Research Support with support from the Emory Center for Faculty Development and Excellence. 

The intended audience for the CAREER Academy is pre-tenure faculty and postdoctoral researchers. 

Grantseekers’ Institute for Humanities and Humanistic Social Sciences Scholars

Applications will reopen for this institute in 2025-26.

Faculty in humanities and interpretive social sciences fields university-wide are invited to apply for the Center for Faculty Development and Excellence’s Grantseekers’ Institute, a semester-long introduction to the culture and practice of external funding idea and proposal development in these fields. Previous program participants have successfully applied for National Endowment for the Humanities, Fulbright, American Council of Learned Societies, National Science Foundation, and American Academy of Religion funding, among others, for their work. 

The program will consist of six group sessions – all via Zoom. Participants are also paired with a faculty mentor and are expected to schedule two one-on-one consultations for individual feedback on a proposal idea or draft. 

Develop a proposal as you go

Participants are expected to begin the program with a potential project for possible external funding to develop during the course of the institute.

Topics to be covered

  • Clarifying Your Project
  • Identifying Potential Funding Sources and Determining “Fit”
  • Ensuring Emory Support
  • Reaching Out to a Potential Funder
  • Developing a Budget for your Grant
  • Writing Your Proposal
  • NEH Program Officer Visit: Workshop, Mock Grant Review Panel, Individual Consultations

Goals

To help humanities and interpretive social sciences fields faculty

  • understand grants culture in academe,
  • become familiar with the processes and support structures at Emory,
  • develop a proposal draft. 

Format

Combination of Zoom workshops and individual mentoring/proposal feedback

Schedule

Six Fridays throughout the semester. All group meetings via Zoom.

  • Session 1
    Clarifying Your Project, Identifying Potential Funding Sources, and Determining “Fit”

  • Session 2
    Ensuring Emory Support and Reaching Out to a Potential Funder

  • Late Sept/early Oct – First individual mentoring consultations: idea development feedback 

  • Session 3
    Writing Your Proposal, Part 1
    • Typical grant process 
    • Parts of a proposal
    • Goals, objectives, rationale, and outcomes
    • Writing competitive one pagers
  • Session 4
    Developing a Budget For Your Grant
  • Early November ­– Second individual mentoring consultations: proposal draft feedback 
  • Session 5
    Writing Your Proposal, Part 2
    • Writing competitive literature reviews
    • Writing competitive project plans
    • Writing for reviewers and funders
    • Read and discuss examples of funded proposals
  • Session 6
    Mock Review Panel

Requirements

  • Applicants must submit a short (500 words max) description of a project for which they would like to seek funding. If they have a possible funding source in mind, they should include that information. 
  • Applicants must be able to attend most of the sessions, especially the Oct 11 and Nov 15 sessions on “Writing Your Proposal.”
  • Participants will be expected to develop a draft proposal during the course of the institute.
  • Participants are responsible for contacting their assigned mentors during the course of the program to schedule their individual consultations and sending their mentors a draft of a project description and proposal a week in advance of their conversations.
  • This program is open to all faculty and postdoctoral scholars.

Contact

Please contact Allison Adams, director for scholarly writing and research, CFDE, for more information: aadam02@emory.edu.