Minigrant

Minigrants are cash awards given to faculty who have plans for projects that will improve their scholarship and/or enable them to gain knowledge or skills beyond the normal growth expected of faculty in order to improve teaching and support the college's core values. The minigrant should be used to support those projects that are beyond the scope of a department's budget and are too small for external funding. All faculty may apply. Reimbursement is made upon presentation of receipts and corroborating evidence.

Minigrants are limited to a maximum of $2,000 per faculty member per academic year.

Priority will be given to individuals submitting their first requests and individuals whose proposals most clearly meet the additional guidelines set forth below. The actual grant will be contingent upon the committee's recommendation and available funds. When project expenses exceed the size of the award, the committee recommends that the applicant seek other forms of financial support. Please try to apply for minigrants before spending money because FDC cannot guarantee the funding of every proposal.

Funding possibilities for minigrants include:

  • Travel expenses to present a paper (or the equivalent) at a recognized professional meeting
  • Purchase of research materials or equipment that are not typically purchased by the college or department and that are essential for the individual's scholarly project
  • Purchase of teaching materials that are not typically purchased by the college or department and that will be used to improve the pedagogical quality of one or more courses
  • Travel expenses to a conference, workshop, or training program
  • Costs incurred by a faculty member whose manuscript has already been accepted for publication

How to Apply

Submit application form as an electronic file to the committee chair (bill.bauer@marietta.edu). If your application includes materials that can not be sent in an electronic format forward 10 hard copies to Luding Tong, c/o Modern Languages Department (if sent through campus mail) or Thomas 308 (if hand delivered).

Failure to follow the proposal format or guidelines may exclude the applicant from being recommended for funding. If time permits, promising proposals that need more work will be returned to the applicant for revisions.

Criteria for Selection

There are generally too many qualified projects for the limited funds available for faculty development. Therefore, FDC has developed the following guidelines to allow it to determine priorities of qualified projects.

Strengthening Factors As Opposed to . . .
Projects linked to the College mission and Core Values Projects less clearly linked
Publication in a juried venue Self - Publication
Chairing a session or a panel, or being a presenter at a conference Attending a conference as a participant or as a self-selected presenter
Serving as an officer of the hosting group at a conference Attending the event without holding an office
When better teaching is the goal, learning and techniques beyond the normal growth expected of faculty Revising existing courses or developing courses as part of the faculty member's routine responsibility
New projects Projects that have received repeated FDC funding without evidence of progress (Faculty needing long term funding for the same project are encouraged to seek external funding)
Projects part of a clearly delineated, long-term faculty development plan Projects unrelated to the faculty member’s other activities
Projects identified by the chair as supporting the goals of the department Projects of interest to the faculty member but considered by the chair as unrelated to the plans of the department
A record of submitting required reports of development funds A record of not submitting required previous faculty reports
Proposals demonstrating commitment to the project Proposals not demonstrating such commitment
Projects involving students collaboratively, with a clear indication of faculty development Projects involving student research but with little or no faculty development

 

Notes

  1. In the past it has not always been possible to fully fund all minigrant requests. If your minigrant proposal is only partially funded, remember that if you save your receipts you can apply to the Provost for reimbursement for un-funded expenses at the end of the academic year.
  2. In an effort to promote efficient use of Faculty Development funds the committee has decided to place a $500 limit on reimbursement for domestic airline tickets. The committee surveyed ticket prices for travel to destinations throughout the contiguous 48 states and found that tickets for most destinations could be purchased for less than $400 as long as reservations were made three weeks in advance. It was possible to find airline tickets to all major cities for less than $500. Based on these findings we feel that this limit is reasonable and hope that it will encourage applicants to plan early so they can obtain reasonably priced transportation. Exceptions to this limit will be considered by the committee on a case by case basis.