Research and Engagement Academy Curriculum
Purpose and Overview:
The career of a productive scholar is advanced by a clear research agenda, a supportive campus community, and, often external grant funding. Quality research and engagement can also enrich student learning, benefit external partners, and support opportunities for interdisciplinary scholarship. Research, which includes scholarship and creative activities, is highlighted in the University of New Hampshire (UNH) strategic plan, UNH in 2020. To help support faculty success in this area and align with the UNH strategic plan, the Office of the Senior Vice Provost for Engagement and Academic Outreach will offer the Faculty Research and Engagement Academy.
The Research and Engagement Academy is a semester-long program that includes a series of workshops, coaching through the grant writing process, and learning from faculty colleagues about successful strategies with federal agencies and foundations. Each scholar is assigned a scholarly coach who is a senior faculty with a successful track record with external funding and the personal qualities required to work with others. To participate in the Academy a faculty member must be nominated by his/her dean and submit completed application materials. A review panel appointed by the Provost from the New Ventures Fund Advisory Board will review applications and recommend up to 22 faculty to the Senior Vice Provost.
As a result of participation, faculty scholars will write and submit a competitive grant proposal. More information about the Academy can be found at: www.unh.edu/engagement/research
Curricular Elements:
- Six (4-6 hours) workshops over the course of the spring semester
- Interaction with successful faculty on panels and in presentations
- Coaching through the grant writing process
- Proposal planning and review prior to submission
- Interaction with program officers and/or Program Officials
- Opening and closing ceremony/luncheon attended by the provost, deans, chairs, colleagues and family members
- A longitudinal study to assess the impact of programmatic interventions
Scholarly Coach:
A scholarly coach is a senior faculty member with a track record of external funding success and the personal qualities necessary to support and coach a faculty colleague. A scholarly coach has the opportunity to join this learning community of scholars, designed to advance faculty scholarship through external funding opportunities.
A scholarly coach in the Academy should be able to commit to the following:
- Coaching 2 faculty in the Academy through the grant submission process; provide feedback and lend expertise by reviewing (not editing or writing) proposals
- Attend two coaches’ training workshop (4 hours) in December and February
- Attend the opening ceremony/luncheon and closing reception (4 hours) in January and May
- Serve (1.5 hours) on a panel to discuss a topic related to their research in the spring semester
Each Academy scholarly coach benefits from the following:
- An honorarium
- The satisfaction of mentoring less experienced colleagues who are committed to advancing their scholarship through external funding
- The opportunity to join a learning community of academy coaches and faculty
- New research ideas that may be generated as a result of interactions with faculty scholars, other coaches and other faculty in the Academy
Academy Scholars:
The successful faculty scholar should possess and commit to the following:
- An emerging or an established scholarly agenda that will be enhanced by grant funding
- A current project that he/she would like to further develop into a grant proposal
- Demonstrated interest in working with students, with external/community partners; and/or across disciplines
- Actively participating in all Academy workshops and meetings
- Submitting Academy assignments to coaches
- Submitting a competitive proposal to a funding program’s request for proposals (RFP)
Faculty scholars benefits from the following:
- Funds to support a visit to a federal agency or foundation and to help support submission of a competitive proposal ($3000)
- Coaching through the grant writing process
- Opportunity to interact with UNH’s government relations firm and learn about specific on-campus resources that help support proposal writing
- Information from faculty colleagues about successful strategies with federal agencies or foundations
- Interaction with other faculty about how to create a robust and productive scholarly agenda
- Interdisciplinary opportunities catalyzed by faculty interactions across disciplines