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Career Development and Writing Support Grant

The Career Development and Writing Support Grant provides up to $4,000 toward the career development program, writing support program or other service of choice that best supports faculty career development or writing and publication.

Examples of potential career development and/or writing supports could include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Fees for participation in a faculty career development program, such as the Faculty Success Program (a 12-week virtual program) or the Teaching Toolkit Program (a four-week virtual program), run by the National Center for Faculty Diversity and Development (NCFDD)
  • Developmental editing to help faculty resolve conflicting feedback, refine their thesis, work through writing blocks, or restructure writing; professional copy editing for a manuscript or professional indexing for a book; or academic coaching for a specific goal, such as project planning and productivity for an already planned research leave
  • Funding to facilitate travel to meetings with grant program officers or scholarly/creative collaborators
  • Training for communicating research, such as presentation skills or public speaking, to support the release of a new publication

Faculty are responsible for selecting their own program, editor, or other professional service. Contact faculty@northwestern.edu for a list of recommended providers.

Eligibility

Full-time, benefits-eligible regular faculty are eligible to apply. Faculty who won a Career Development and Writing Support grant, an HSSA grant or a Covid Research Recovery grant in 2022-2023 are eligible, but priority consideration may be given to those who did not receive a grant in 2022-2023. Faculty are not eligible to receive both the HSSA grant and a Career Development and Writing Support Grant in the same year.

Grant Criteria

Proposals will be judged on the potential impact of funding on the applicant’s stated goals and their promotion progress (for tenure-line and non-tenure-line-eligible faculty).

Grant proposals will be reviewed by a selection committee composed of Office of the Provost representatives.

Funding

Funding is limited to up to $4,000 and a budget justification will be required in the application. Grant funds will be paid into faculty discretionary accounts during FY24. Funds must be used by Aug. 31, 2025. Faculty who are selected for a grant are responsible for engaging providers and arranging their own payments to said provider(s).

This funding is intended to supplement and not supplant funding available from other sources such as department travel allotments, start-up packages or deans awards.

Reporting

All grantees must provide a brief written report on the usage of funding by Sept. 30, 2025.

Application Materials

All proposals should be submitted using the online proposal form, which requires:

  • Name, department(s), school(s)
  • Statement of Funding Impact and Budget: Explain why you are requesting funding and how the funds will be used to support career development and progress to promotion and/or tenure, or your writing and publication. Please describe your research or creative project, your specific needs for assistance/services, and your intended output (publication, performance, etc.) or career advancement. (300 words maximum)
  • Request for Travel Funds: If you are requesting funds for travel, please note that this funding is intended to supplement and not supplant funding available from other sources such as department travel allotments, start-up packages or deans awards. Faculty with prior access to travel funding from these other sources should explain how and why they will use the career development grant to augment their travel. (300 words maximum)
  • Budget Worksheet: Fill out and upload the budget worksheet to the online proposal form. If you are uncertain of the exact price an editor or indexer will charge, please estimate.

Deadline

January 19, 2024.

Questions

If you have questions about the grants, including eligible expenses, please email faculty@northwestern.edu.