Conduits Program

The dollars awarded through this program should be a conduit or springboard to assist a faculty member in becoming more competitive in external grant competitions or to continue previous research or scholarly/creative activity. This program may provide up to $2,000. Awards would be made after careful review of the proposer’s justification. Proposals may be reviewed for the plans to leverage the dollars into further funding, the anticipated planned outcome, evidence of scholarly/creative output from previous funding, or the building on and continuation of previous scholarly/creative work. It is anticipated that awards would be made within 14 days of receiving a request. Travel not supported by the Center for Faculty Excellence or the faculty member’s home department could be funded under this program, for example, travel to a Federal funding agency to discuss a research idea or proposal or funding opportunity.

All full-time university faculty members holding academic rank, excluding those currently holding administrative appointments above the level of department head, are eligible to apply.

This program will accept applications through the fiscal year. However, most funding decisions will be made during the first four weeks of the fall and spring semester.

1. All requests should be accompanied by the Conduit Program Request Form.
2. Actual request are limited to two pages, single-spaced with at least one-inch margins top-bottom and left-right. Font size should be easily readable, e.g., Arial 11 pt or Times New Roman 12 pt.
3. The request should include at a minimum a description of the work, a justification and/or rationale for the request, plans for leveraging the dollars, if applicable, the contribution to the discipline or field of study, and amount of funding requested.
4. Recipients must provide a report of the research/creative activity funded through the Conduits Program by the end of May of the fiscal year in which they were funded. Failure to provide a report of activity could jeopardize future funding in the Conduits Program.
5. Submission of requests for the Conduit Program should be done via electronic mail and sent toJudy Calmes( ). Department head and dean support of a request is required. Department Heads and Deans can simply forward faculty requests via e-mail to the Office of Research and Graduate Studies along with their approval.

NOTE: Conduits funding cannot be used for salaries or wages.