Grants: A Teaching Learning Circle

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Grants A Teaching Learning Circle

• Zhiyue Bo, Tim Franz,
• Karen Junker, Kris Neslund,
• Dave Pate, Cynthia McCloskey

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Purpose

• Investigate best practice systems of grant
  seeking in support of academic programs and
  research activities
• Propose an academic grant support system for St.
  John Fisher College which facilitates successful
  academic grant activities with a focus on faculty
  development (teaching, scholarship, service)

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Activities

• External survey
• Internal survey
• Presentations by some of our own successful grant
  writers
• Revision of Guidelines for Grants Manual
• Website development
• Grant Support Proposal

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External survey

• Fifteen invited participants, including
• Some of our typical peer institutions (e.g.,
  Nazareth, Niagara)
• Some other four-year colleges known for getting
  grants
• Ten responses (67.7 response rate), nine of
  which provided useable information

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Survey ResultsA Typical Grants Office

• Was primarily the result of an administrative
  decision
• Is small
• Has between 1-2 full-time employees (M 1.89)
• Has between 0-1 part-time employees (M 0.67)
• Although this varies some, the full-time
  employees are typically professional while the
  part-time employees are sometimes administrative.
  
• Reports to
• Academic Affairs (44.4)
• Advancement (55.6)
• Subscribes to IRIS, SPIN, or COS

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Survey ResultsGrant Getting

• Typically
• Send out 42.3 grant applications per year
• Includes proposals to non-governmental sources,
  such as foundations (89)
• Have a 41 estimated success rate
• Typically receive an estimated 1,687,500 in
  grant funding per year

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Survey ResultsGrant Support Services

• The typical office
• Has a budget of between 2,000 and 50,000 to
  identify grant opportunities (M 8,650)
• Has no budget for assistance with writing grant
  proposals (89)
• Provides
• Identification of funding sources
• Assistance in writing grant proposals
• Workshops for interested faculty
• Sometimes provides
• Post-award accounting

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Survey ResultsCollege Policies

• In the participating colleges, release time is
• Permissible and encouraged (67)
• Permissible but discouraged (22)
• Not permitted (11)
• For those that allow release time, the maximum
  amount allowed is typically handled on a
  case-by-case basis

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Internal Survey Part 1

• Presentations by some of our own successful grant
  writers
• Carol Freeman
• Dianne Cooney-Miner
• Summary of institutional factors
• Support, incentives, infrastructure
• Summary of Suggested Faculty Activities
• Handout
• Facilitator Cynthia McCloskey

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Internal surveyPart 2

• Survey sent to all Project Directors with recent
  grant activities
• Currently at Fisher
• 15 academic grants
• 8 Project Directors
• Discussion of results Dave Pate

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Data Analysis Conclusion

• The number of grants at Fisher is small in
  comparison to other Colleges/Universities
• Episodic grant seeking forays can yield sporadic
  successes, but are not in the Colleges overall
  interests.
• Fisher needs to establish an organized process of
  support for academic grants in both the pre-award
  and post-award phases
• Resource development for faculty

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ResourceRevision of Guidelines for Grants Manual

• Guidelines Revision Post-SAGE
• Review of revised guidelines
• Handout
• Discussion led by Dave Pate

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Resource Website development

• Developed by Karen Junker Michael Johnson
• Found on Intranet under Campus Resources
• Grants databases IRIS
• Summary Karen Junker

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Grant Support Proposal

• Identify short and long term priorities and
  systematically pursue external grants within a
  multi year perspective

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Resource Grants Office Proposal

• Personnel 1 fulltime professional grants person
  with ½ time administrative assistant
• Salary TBA
• Reports to Provosts Office
• Infrastructure support
• Office space, computer (standard office support)

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Proposal

• Budget
• Personnel salary
• 2000 annually for grant identification (data
  base fees)
• Communicates with Development office
• 2000 annually for grant writing support
• Grant maintenance communicates with Business
  Office

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Grants Office Activities

• Pre-Award
• Post-Award

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Strategic Planning Connection

• Funds to support this ongoing effort have been
  requested, consistent with the following
  objectives
• 1.5.1 Develop fund a coherent faculty
  development program
• 1.5.3 Provide institutional support for
  grant-writing developing academic funding
  opportunities

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Strategic Planning Connection

• Additional Objectives
• 2.1.2 Increase efforts to ensure that
  scholarship, teaching, advisement,service and
  technical innovation are valued, rewarded and
  supported
• 6.1.1 Aggressively pursue foundation and
  government grants for academic program support

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Funding

• A budget request has been made to Strategic
  Planning to facilitate the establishment of a
  grants office at Fisher