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, but are not limited to: fees and expenses for conferences/workshops directly related to teaching; innovative classroom technologies; multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, or transdisciplinary faculty collaboration to develop new teaching and learning models/methods/techniques/assessments, or collaborative projects aimed at developing or enhancing departmental/inter-departmental curricula or co-curricula; and honoraria for speakers to enhance campus-wide faculty development and/or teaching and learning. Funding may not be used to reimburse costs already incurred.
Members of the FDC peer-mentor team will review proposals for their relative merits in enhancing teaching effectiveness and student learning. In general, favorable proposals are those that have a substantial number of students whose learning will be positively impacted, can improve long-term retention of learned skills and knowledge, have strategic plans to sustain the proposed project beyond the funding period, and have high transferability of the project outcomes to other departments and/or beyond Furman’s campus. Award decisions will be made on a rolling basis.
Please do not hesitate to contact FDC with questions about these grants and/or the application process.
The Faculty Development Center has exceeded its grant award budget for AY 19-20. We are excited to support our colleagues in teaching and professional development endeavors! Please stay tuned for program changes that will ensure more equitable award processes for future funding cycles.
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. While most faculty members use these awards to attend education conferences and workshops or to significantly revamp or enhance the existing courses or develop new courses taking different pedagogical approaches, the use of faculty research skills, and intellectual curiosity, to study and improve teaching and learning through SoTL (scholarship of teaching and learning), projects is particularly welcome. Additionally, to encourage collaboration, proposals can be submitted individually or as a team. Team proposals will be considered for increased 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 FDC prior to submitting the application and/or indicate how you plan to secure additional funds in the application. For requesting funding to attend meetings of professional or learned organizations, please consult Furman University Policies and Procedures 166.1. Please submit your proposal by filling out the online form. .
Upon completion of the funded project, please submit your 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 exploration of the effective integration of new technologies and/or pedagogies into their teaching 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 such support for more than one semester. If you expect requested funding to exceed $1000, please contact the FDC Executive Director prior to submitting the request and/or indicate how you plan to secure additional funds in the application. Team proposals will be considered for increased funding support up to $5,000. To begin the process, please consult FDC personnel to discuss your proposal or fill out the online form.
These grants are designed to support projects that (1) enrich the creative interests and the professional growth of faculty, (2) are in line with university’s mission and vision and/or meet the institution’s strategic needs, and (3) are not typical teaching and scholarly activities, hence, not eligible for regular 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. However, the open and diverse nature of the grant calls for a conversation with the Dean of Faculty, the Executive Director of the FDC, or the Director of the FDC, so please make an appointment for a discussion before the application process. The award provides support for the activities associated with the project and generally ranges between $100-$1000. To begin the application process, please fill out the online form.
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 efforts to provide faculty with resources to enhance or improve their teaching.
Faculty can apply for up to $2,000 for activities in courses they are teaching currently (Spring of 2018) or in the next academic year (Fall of 2018, or Spring of 2019).
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. The long-term availability of these grants will depend partly on the number and kinds of proposals we receive in this round of funding.
High-Impact Practices in the Classroom Grants
Please contact Beth Pontari if you have questions.