The Faculty Development Center (FDC) offers the following grants to faculty members to enhance teaching and learning at Furman University. Expenses that can be covered by these grants may include:
Funding may not be used to reimburse costs already incurred and funds for technology will only be awarded if the product/s strictly adheres to privacy protocols as required by FERPA.
Please note that for AY 20-21, certain types of expenses are not reimbursable, including any that do not adhere to current University health and safety protocols (e.g. conference travel, etc.). In addition, we are particularly interested in funding projects that focus on developing and deploying innovative approaches to teaching, learning and professional development during a pandemic. This might include topics like:
FDC staff will review proposals for their relative merits in enhancing teaching effectiveness, student learning, and or pedagogical innovation. In general, proposals are more likely to receive a favorable evaluation if the proposal articulates:
Award decisions will be made on a rolling basis. Please do not hesitate to contact the FDC with questions about these grants and/or the application process.
These grants are intended to support faculty who seek to enhance teaching effectiveness and to facilitate student learning. Awards provide support for expenses related to teaching development activities and generally range between $100-$1000.
Funds may be utilized to significantly revamp or enhance existing courses or develop new courses taking different pedagogical approaches, to improve teaching and learning through SoTL (scholarship of teaching and learning) research initiatives, or for education conferences and workshops with a direct ink to improving teaching (provided faculty have a plan to disseminate knowledge obtained to the Furman community). To encourage collaboration, proposals can be submitted individually or as a team. Team proposals may be considered for additional funding support.
Please note that these awards are not meant to provide continuous, long-term support beyond the funding period. If you expect requested funding to exceed $1000, please contact the FDC prior to submitting the application and/or indicate how you plan to secure additional funds in the application. For proposals that request funding to attend meetings or professional conferences, please ensure that you have first pursued support available through the Dean of Faculty office if this is applicable. Grants awarded for this purpose will follow guidance provided by Furman University Policies and Procedures 166.1.
Please submit your proposal by filling out this online form. Upon completion of the funded project, recipients are required to submit a post-project report by filling out this online form.
Thanks to the generosity of Mr. Robert H. Buckman and his wife, Mrs. Joyce Mollerup, these grants are designed to support faculty integration of new technologies that enhance and expand pedagogical practice and may take the form of individual or team-based proposals. Faculty may request up to $1000 for individual awards.
Proposals may include purchase of appropriate technology/equipment but are not meant to provide ongoing support or to solely substitute an existing teaching practice (e.g. video technology to record and post existing lectures). Instead, proposals will be funded that request technologies that augment, modify and redefine teaching practice and add capacity unavailable through current Furman enterprise systems (e.g. Moodle, Zoom, Box, etc.). Successful proposals will articulate how the request enhances or transforms a current practice, adds capacity beyond what is currently available at Furman, and how any technology obtained will be maintained over the life of the product.
If you expect requested funding to exceed $1000, please contact the FDC prior to submitting the request and/or indicate how you plan to secure additional funds in the application. Team proposals will be considered for additional funding support up to $5,000. We encourage you to first consult with an FDC staff member to discuss your project idea before submitting a proposal.
These grants are designed to support projects that (1) enrich the creative interests and the professional growth of faculty, (2) are in line with the university’s mission and vision and/or meet the institution’s strategic needs, and (3) are not typical teaching and scholarly activities, hence, are not eligible for regular grant funding. We welcome reflective and impactful, both personally and professionally, applications from individual faculty members. To build community and capacity, we also invite such applications from teams of faculty.
The open and diverse nature of the grant calls for a conversation with the Dean of Faculty or the Executive Director of the FDC, so please make an appointment for a discussion before the application process. The award provides support for activities associated with the project as outlined above and generally ranges between $100-$1000.
In partnership with The Center for Engaged Learning, the Faculty Development Center offers faculty High-Impact Practices in the Classroom grants. These grants are part of our effort to provide faculty with resources to enhance or improve their teaching in ways that build transformative student learning and development. Faculty can apply for up to $2,000 for activities in courses they are teaching currently or in the next academic year. High-impact activities might include a long-term creative project, a sustained service learning initiative, or a community-based learning partnership.
There are a limited number of grants that will be awarded on a rolling basis depending on the merits of the proposal and the extent to which the proposed activities provide students with an impactful engaged learning experience. To read more about the grants, or to submit a proposal, visit here. Please contact Beth Pontari for more information or to discuss a proposal.