Grantseekers’ Institutes and Academies

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

Grantseekers’ Institute for Humanities and Humanistic Social Sciences Scholars

Call for applications

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. 

Two sessions of this year’s institute will be conducted by with Betty S. Lai,author of the acclaimed The Grant Writing Guide: A Road Map for Scholars (Princeton UP 2023)

The program will consist of six group sessions – all via Zoom – beginning September 6 and ending December 6. 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. 

This year’s institute will also feature an in-person visit with NEH senior program officer Mary Macklem, who will be on campus to conduct a regional NEH application-writing workshop on December 6.  

Deadline to apply is Monday, August 26, 2024.

Apply here

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.

  • Sept 6, noon-1 pm
    Clarifying Your Project, Identifying Potential Funding Sources, and Determining “Fit”

  • Sept 20, noon-1 pm
    Ensuring Emory Support and Reaching Out to a Potential Funder

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

  • Oct 11, 10-11am and 12-1pm
    Writing Your Proposal, Part 1, with Betty S. Lai, author of The Grant Writing Guide: A Road Map for Scholars (Princeton UP 2023)
    • Typical grant process 
    • Parts of a proposal
    • Goals, objectives, rationale, and outcomes
    • Writing competitive one pagers
  • Oct 25, noon-1 pm
    Developing a Budget For Your Grant
  • Early November ­– Second individual mentoring consultations: proposal draft feedback 
  • Nov 15, 10-11am and 12-1pm
    Writing Your Proposal, Part 2, with Betty S. Lai
    • Writing competitive literature reviews
    • Writing competitive project plans
    • Writing for reviewers and funders
    • Read and discuss examples of funded proposals
  • Dec 6: NEH Program Officer Visit with Mary Macklem, Senior Program Officer, NEH Division of Research (Hybrid – both in person and via Zoom)
    • Morning: overview of endowment programs and special initiatives
    • Questions and comment period
    • noon-1 pm: Mock Grant Review Panel
    • afternoon: individual consultations

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.

Application

Apply here

Deadline to apply is Monday, August 26, 2024.

Contact

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

NSF CAREER Proposal Academy

Ten-Week Proposal Preparation Program Begins each May and runs until the submission deadline in late July.  

We invite pre-tenure faculty whose research is in an area funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to participate in a ten-week “NSF CAREER Proposal Academy." The Academy sessions are held once a week on Wednesdays until the proposal submission. Each session starts at noon with a 90-minute workshop followed by an optional afternoon of dedicated writing time. Lunch will be provided for those attending in person. 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.

The NSF CAREER Proposal Academy is co-presented by the Emory College of Arts and Sciences Office of Research and Emory’s Center for Faculty Development and Excellence. For more information, please contact Carol E. Colaninno at ccolani@emory.edu  

Tentative Program Overview  

Session 1

Introductions; NSF CAREER award; NSF’s review criteria

Session 2

Big picture research and intellectual merit; panel of Emory awardees

Session 3

Integrating intellectual merit and broader impacts to develop an educational plan

Session 4

Intellectual Merit: background and significance

Session 5

Getting your proposal submitted: Non-central Research Administration (NCRA) visit, budget, and budget justification 

Session 6

Project Summary

Session 7

Clarity in figures and models  

Session 8

Supplemental documents

Session 9

Revisiting NSF’s two review criteria

Session 10

Writing time 

Submission Deadline 

No session

As described by the NSF, the CAREER Award is the Foundation’s most prestigious and supports early-career faculty who have “the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization. Activities pursued by early-career faculty should build a firm foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research. NSF encourages submission of CAREER proposals from early-career faculty at all CAREER-eligible organizations and especially encourages women, members of underrepresented minority groups, and persons with disabilities to apply.” -from the NSF CAREER solicitation.

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