Career Development Awards
Awards Overview
Career Development Awards are designed to help faculty increase their exposure to colleagues at other institutions who can be collaborators and role models while introducing outside scholars to faculty at Drexel. Social networks are increasingly important and funding agencies are increasingly interested in projects that demonstrate multi-investigator, interdisciplinary endeavors. Building such a team, and developing a history of working together, can be invaluable for junior faculty or mid-career faculty moving in a more collaborative direction or beginning a new research area. This program provides funding for Drexel faculty to develop networks, nationally or internationally, with colleagues whose work complements activities at Drexel.
Drexel's Career Development Awards program has been featured in the following articles:
Call for Proposals - Career Development Awards
Proposal deadline extended to midnight on Thursday, February 28, 2019.
The Office of Faculty Advancement is pleased to announce the eleventh round of awards to help pre-tenure tenure-track faculty members increase their exposure to colleagues at other institutions who can be collaborators and mentors. Such connections can be extremely important to academic success as they can bring diverse perspectives to campus and help develop collaborative and interdisciplinary projects.
Drexel’s Career Development Awards provide up to $6,000 for early-career, tenure-track faculty to develop mentors or networks, nationally or internationally, to create long-term collaborations. Tenure-track faculty members who will be reviewed for tenure after June 30, 2020 are eligible to apply. Projects that foster advancement of faculty members in diverse or underrepresented groups are especially encouraged. No funding is available for course release, and projects involving animal or human subjects must have prior approval by either Drexel’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) or Drexel’s Institutional Review Board (IRB). The award period is July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020. Awards will be announced in April 2019.
Possible Initiatives Include (but are not limited to):
1. Establishing a new relationship with a mentor or team of mentors, with whom the applicant has never worked, from outside Drexel who will agree to provide mentorship and training. Funds could be used to bring the mentor(s) to Drexel to conduct a seminar or give a talk, and for the Drexel faculty member to travel to the mentor(s) campus to do the same.
2. Organizing a working group of collaborators from different institutions to visit Drexel concurrently to discuss a potential collaborative research project and offer a panel discussion, seminar, or half-day symposium for faculty, graduate students and post-docs.
3. Creating a quarterly seminar series on a specific topic and bringing a series of speakers to Drexel, with plans for future possible collaborations as part of each visit.
4. Developing a faculty initiative on diversity or equity issues, either multi-disciplinary or in a single discipline, hosting at least one national speaker at Drexel, and developing a plan for collaboration to create a research study, publication, new course, or funded project application.
Proposals should describe the goals of the project, provide a clear plan for how the funding will be used, and give the expected measurable outcomes with a plan for assessment. Measurable outcomes might include published papers, conference presentations, educational materials, curriculum design, or especially, grant applications. A proposal template is available on the Office of Faculty Advancement website as well as the application portal.
We encourage applicants to plan and justify their budget carefully, using the sample budget templates available on the Office of Faculty Advancement website a well as the application portal, and to request only the amount of funding appropriate for the plan. Budgets that include evidence of cost-sharing from the department or college are especially encouraged.
Application Requirements
Proposals should follow the proposal template and include a 1-2 page (max) description of the career development plan including an assessment strategy with measurable outcomes, a budget in the recommended format with justification and cost-sharing (if any), a CV, a letter of support from the applicant’s academic unit leader (e.g. department chair, head, or associate dean), and a brief letter of support from the potential mentor(s) or collaborator(s) if any are involved in the project. If speakers will be invited to the university, a brief letter or email indicating their willingness to participate is required.
Procedure for Submission
Proposals are due by midnight on Thursday, February 28, 2019.
Proposals should be submitted electronically through the Drexel University Funding Portal. Applicants will receive a reply acknowledging the proposal submission within 2 business days. If such a receipt is not received, applicants should contact the office no later than March 6, 2019.
Reporting for Awardees
Awardees are required to submit brief quarterly reports to the Office of Faculty Advancement. The report should review progress, provide updated budget information, and give assessment data. Within sixty days of the end of the approved award period, the recipient must provide a final report to the Office of Faculty Advancement and must complete a brief survey. The report should provide a brief description of the impact of the funding on the career of the award recipient and how the funds were spent. Expected outcomes should be listed and matched with actual outcomes. In addition, CDA awardees will be contacted for follow-up annually.
Review Procedure
A panel of senior faculty members will review the proposals. Criteria will include the potential to have a significant impact on the career of the faculty applicant, impact at Drexel, the proposed measurable outcomes, and evidence of support by the applicant’s own department and the mentors involved.
Contact
Questions may be directed to the Office of Faculty Advancement at ofaawards@drexel.edu.
Applicant/Awardee Resources
Proposal Template
Applicants must use this template for preparing their proposals. For questions regarding this template, please contact ofaawards@drexel.edu.
Career Development Awards Proposal Template
Sample Budget Formats
Please note that categories and amounts shown are samples only. It is the responsibility of the applicant to ascertain costs for all items used in budget proposals by working with department administrators or senior faculty members. Please note that Career Development Award funds cannot be used for alcohol purchases.
Sample Budget Format A - Collaborator(s) from single location
Sample Budget Format B - Collaborators from multiple locations