Affiliate Faculty Support Fund
The Affiliate Faculty Support Fund is designed to support affiliate faculty engaged in programs of research, scholarly, and/or creative activity. Projects should display potential for having a significant impact on one’s field or chart a new trajectory in one’s scholarly, creative or artistic development.
Office Hours for Writing a Successful Affiliate Faculty Support Fund Proposal
2024 - 2025 Round 2 Office Hours:
Wednesday, January 29, 2025
1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Allendale Campus 049 JHZ (CSCE Conference Room)
Thursday, January 30, 2025
9:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Pew Grand Rapids Campus 297C DEV (Berkowitz Room)
2024 - 2025 Round 3 Office Hours:
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Allendale Campus 049 JHZ (CSCE Conference Room)
Thursday, March 13, 2025
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Pew Grand Rapids Campus 297C DEV (Berkowitz Room)
About the Award
AWARD
Awards of up to a maximum funding of $3,000 are available for student help, supplies, necessary travel for data collection, travel to conferences for non-dissemination activities that are part of a scholarly or creative practice, and other costs of projects (faculty salaries and dissemination costs are excluded). The duration of the grant is up to two years (no extensions allowed unless there are extenuating circumstances). Only one proposal per review cycle, and faculty must have closed previous CSCE grants before funds may be distributed.
ELIGIBILITY
Affiiate faculty members.
DEADLINES
There are three submission cycles per year with deadlines at the close of business (5:00 p.m.) on October 1st, February 1st, and March 15th of each year. If the deadline day falls on a weekend, then the deadline is moved to 5:00 p.m. on the next business day.
- Grants awarded in October will run for two years - November 1 through October 31 of the second year.
- Grants awarded in February will run for two years - March 1 through February 28 of the second year.
- Grants awarded in March will run for two years - April 15 through April 14 of the second year.
How to Apply
APPLY
- Prepare your proposal using the Proposal Guidelines.
- You may also find the Letter of Support template helpful.
- Attend the Office Hours that are held a few times a year.
- Reach out to us with questions.
- Submit your proposal online through MyApps.
REVIEW PROCESS
Affiliate Faculty Support Fund proposals are awarded by a competitive review process. Proposals are reviewed by a committee composed of faculty from several disciplines, and therefore MUST be written to be understood by members of these multi-disciplinary review committees, i.e., an educated lay audience, rather than by narrow specialists in your field.
Criteria used in evaluating proposals include: project justification, significance of project, appropriateness of project design and methods, qualifications of the applicant for implementing the project, probability of achieving project objectives, and appropriateness of the schedule for project activities, if applicable. All of these criteria must be judged in terms of the likelihood that the project will result in recognition for the faculty member, faculty member's department, and the University.
Terms & Conditions / Budget Information
Terms & Conditions
FINAL REPORT
A final report is due upon the conclusion of your project. It should include your goals, how you did or did not meet those goals, how the process went, and any dissemination plans.
Budget Information
Each grant recipient is allocated a budget for their project. This budget is determined by the application process and varies depending on the needs of the research or creative project. Grantees are responsible for monitoring their budget and initiating any payments/reimbursements. We do not order supplies, make travel arrangements, etc.
You may (1) use the CSCE worktags in Workday when creating your requisitions, (2) use the CSCE worktags in Workday when initiating a reimbursement expense report, or (3) work with your Department Coordinator to initiate a department transfer request (a.k.a. Budget Amendment for Organization) through Workday. GVSU's Workday system should allow faculty to make purchases via department Expense Cards, etc., so that the faculty do not need to have out-of-pocket expenses. We will then reimburse the faculty mentor's department from the project's budget.
USING CSCE WORKTAGS IN WORKDAY
Your project may require that a lab order supplies, your department purchase equipment, the grantee have out-of-pocket expenses reimbursed, etc. You will need to process your expenses through Workday and send to the CSCE Worktag. Go to Workday Job Aids & Demo Videos - Finance and follow the appropriate Job Aids. Please use the following Worktag/FDM information:
- FUND: FD100
- COST CENTER: CC0195
- PROGRAM: P22200
- DESIGNATION: DS0297
Please use the "DESCRIPTION" or "MEMO" field to include the faculty member's first and last name, the specific grant, and the grant year. Use the following formatting example: Bruce Wayne CSCE Affiliate Faculty Support Fund 2024-2025 (Round 1)
The awarded faculty's department may also submit a Budget Amendment for Organization in Workday to have your grant funds returned to the department. See the Job Aid for the Budget Amendment for Organization process. Have your department coordinator attach copies of the award notification, processed receipts (i.e. invoices, department purchases, etc.) to the Budget Amendment. Per GVSU policy, any services performed (editing, page publication, transcription, etc.) MUST be paid directly by a GVSU department via an invoice or purchased using your department p-card. Purchase of services using personal credit cards will not be reimbursed.
PLEASE NOTE ALL GVSU PURCHASING POLICIES AND PROCEDURES MUST BE FOLLOWED, INCLUDING:
Frequently Asked Questions
Affiliate Faculty Support Fund FAQs
Please allow up to 30 days from the application deadline for the committee to review your application and for the CSCE Administrative Assistant to prepare notification letters. That is by November 1st for Round 1, March 1st for Round 2, and April 15th for Round 3.
Here are some frequent problems:
- The narrative of the application was not written for a non-specialist.
- The project was not situated in the appropriate scholarly or artistic context (e.g., not including references).
- The application did not follow the recommended format in the proposal guide or contained large passages that were cut and pasted from sabbatical or external grant applications. Successful proposals are clearly written, well-organized, and written specifically for the Affiliate Faculty Support Fund.
- The applicant did not appropriately document the commitment of external agencies or sponsors vital to the success of the project.
- The budget was not sufficiently detailed or did not explain why budget items were vital to completing the project.
- The likely outcomes of the project were not sufficiently explained.
- The applicant did not demonstrate that they have expertise in the methods that they propose using.
- The applicant did not demonstrate they have the expertise (or action plan) to effectively analyze their data.
- The application did not respond to all relevant sections of the application form.
- Other GVSU funding sources are more appropriate for the project.
Seek feedback on your draft application, especially from peers and from people outside of your discipline or field. Some units have formal review committees for CSCE grants. In any case, more eyes on your proposal will help you tell a more compelling story about your scholarly/creative project.
Additionally, the CSCE’s Research and Development committee has one or more members from each college and the library. Many of these committee members are willing to review draft applications, identify potential concerns, and recommend improvements.
If your proposal is not funded, you may request feedback from the committee by sending the Center for Scholarly and Creative Excellence an email. You are also encouraged to seek additional feedback in a 1:1 meeting with the Executive Director of Center for Scholarly and Creative Excellence and/or the Chair of R&D. They will offer suggestions on how to improve or strengthen your proposal for resubmission. Please contact CSCE for more details.
The Committee recognizes and values that CSCE funding can lead to impactful student experiences as well as providing meaningful contributions to a project. However, the primary goal of CSCE funding is catalyze the scholarship and artistic activity of faculty. If a faculty member’s primary goal for a project is to advance student development, they should consider other funding mechanisms, such as the Student Summer Scholars (S3) or Modified Student Summer Scholars (MS3) programs. The most successful grant applications emphasize the scholarly/creative nature and significance of the project, instead of student experiences.
Yes, paying students can be a major (or even the sole) budget item. However, it is incumbent on the applicant to explain that employing students is the best or only way to complete their project. The case for paying students is generally strongest when students are working long hours, have unusual skills or training, or it would be otherwise difficult to recruit student volunteers to contribute to the project.