Faculty Development & Research Committee Grants

The Office of Sponsored Programs and Research (OSPR) administers applications to the internal grant funding program of the Faculty Development and Research Committee.

FDRC Application Cycle: CLOSED

FY26 applications will be due on the first Thursday of the spring 2025 term.

The FDRC awards provide funding for faculty members to further their scholarship, advance their research, develop material for publication, and/or support the development of scholarly projects that may garner external funding support. While publication may not occur during the project period, evidence of scholarship as defined by the candidate’s college PTRM document must be a long-term goal of any project.

It is your responsibility to submit a complete proposal that adheres to the guidelines. As such, it is critical that faculty members review the application instructions and guidelines carefully. The FDRC has decided that it will not review proposals that do not confirm with the guidelines including the submission and certification deadline. Drafts can be emailed to the OSPR for early review at least 24 hours prior to the deadline for completeness and formatting; however, OSPR staff cannot be responsible for incomplete or non-compliant submissions.

Application Process

A link to the online application will be posted when the next deadline is announced. Please review the program guidelines and application instructions carefully to prepare your materials. Contact for questions or assistance. 

For more information about the program and application process, please review the FDRC Award Presentation (PPTX).

Meet the FY24 FDRC Award Recipients

Congratulations to the awardees! The program is a competitive one and this year the committee reviewed 44 applications and awarded 26 grants. We wish them every success with their upcoming projects. 

Recipient Project Title award Amount
Vanessa Beauchamp, Department of Biological Sciences Quantifying the Effect of Planting Configuration on Success and Habitat Quality Associated with Urban Forest Plantings $5,981
William Bologna, Department of Speech-Language Pathology & Audiology
Positioning Strategies of Hearing-Impaired Listeners
$6,000
Katherine Brewer, Department of Nursing
A Study Exploring Institutional Trust and Betrayal, Burnout, and Well-Being Among Healthcare Aides
$5,998

Suzhen Duan, Department of Learning Technologies, Design & School Library Media

Designing an Intervention to Enhance Underrepresented Students' STEM Identity
$5,972
Diana Emanuel, Department of Speech-Language Pathology & Audiology Leaving the Profession of Audiology: An Exploratory Analysis. Part 2 $4,956
Rachel Gordon, Department of Finance The Influence of JV Partners on Firm ESG Practices $5,220
Yifan Guo, Department of Computer & Information Sciences Towards Robustness Against Backdoor Attacks in Federated Deep Learning $5,616
Pamela Hickey, Department of Elementary Education Surfacing Teacher Candidates' Pedagogical Choices in Writing Conferences with Linguistically Diverse Students $5,600
HaeDong Kim, Department of Family Studies & Community Services Predictors of On-Campus Mental Health Service Utilization Among College Students: Demographic and Familial Factors $5,999
Kalin Kirilov, Department of Music CD Album "Digital Accordion and Balkan Music" $6,000
Amy Sowder-Koch, Department of Art+Design, Art History, Art Education Metal Finds from the Stoa Terrace, Sanctuary of the Great Gods, Samothrace (Greece) $6,000
Wassila Lalouani, Department of Computer & Information Sciences Anomaly Detection in Intelligent Transportation Systems $5,999
Qing Li, Department of Learning Technologies, Design & School Library Media Virtual and Augmented Reality: What Do Preservice Teachers Think? $6,000
Michael Masatsugu, Department of History Buddhist Revival and Cold War Diplomacy, 1947-1955 $6,000
Davi Mazala, Department of Kinesiology Evaluating the Effects of 6 Months of Kettlebell Training on Muscle Function and Levels of Inflammatory Cytokines in Older Individuals $5,779
Sarah Oliver, Department of Political Science Explaining the Political Participation of Transgender Americans $5,940
Karen Oslund, Department of History Life and Death in the Arctic: Whaling Shipwrecks and their Afterlife $2,623
Salvatore Pappalardo, Department of English Literature at the Crossroads: Sicily and the Arab-Italian Mediterranean $5,920
Chhayakanta Patro, Department of Speech-Language Pathology & Audiology Physiological Markers and Perceptual Consequences of Cochlear Synaptopathy in Tinnitus Patients $5,964
Enakshi Roy, Department of Mass Communication Fact Checking and Debunking Hoaxes in India: an Ethnographic Investigation into the Routines and Practices of Factcheckers $5,892
Wonjin Sim, Department of Psychology How Does Online Therapy Work for Asian Americans?: The Benefits and Challenges of Online Counseling Services and their Impact on Self-Disclosure and Communication with Therapists $5,996
Banghee So, Department of Mathematics Introducing a Novel Multi-class Classification Algorithm, SAMME.C2, and its Python Package $4,620
Ana-Maria Soto, Department of Chemistry Characterizing Riboswitches from Mycobacterium Tuberculosis $6,000
Zosha Stuckey, Department of English Historical Fiction Book Project: Gay, Jewish, and Caught in the Crushing Grip of Baltic Fascism $4,054
Christopher Vardeman, Department of Mass Communication Investigating Consumer Responses to Visuo-Textual Stimuli in Memetic Advertisements $5,994
Wendy Whitner, Department of Health Sciences Pilot Study Assessing the Use of Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) Technology as an Innovative Approach to Teaching Healthcare Waste to Healthcare Professional Students $5,994

FDRC FAQs

FDRC awards are available to any full‐time faculty member (tenured and tenure-track, clinical, lecturer, visiting). Distribution of the award is dependent upon continued employment at TU.

Applicants may not have an active FDRC award at the time of proposal submission and may receive no more than two awards every five years.

The regular FDRC application cycle requires applicants submit their application form by 1 PM on the first Thursday of the spring semester.

If additional resources are made available, a second funding cycle will be announced via the OSPR Newsletter and TU Today.

The committee will award up to $6,000 for approved projects.

July 1 - May 31

Other project periods will be announced via the OSPR Newsletter and TU Today as additional resources are made available.

The PI is eligible to pay themselves a maximum faculty summer stipend of $4,000. 

Because FDRC grants limit faculty compensation to the summer months, applications submitted for additional deadlines may not include any stipend payments to faculty members.

Awards may be used to cover project‐specific reimbursable, state‐allowed expenses such as travel for research purposes, services, materials, equipment (as appropriate), and student wages.

Project expenses must be explained in the budget justification. Special care should be taken to justify items such as computers, laptops, and iPads. The budget justification should explain why the equipment is needed and what will happen to the equipment when the project is complete.

Funds may not be used to support conference attendance. This includes conference travel, registration, and any other conference-related costs. Travel requests should be justified in terms of the benefit of the trip to the project.

On the day of the deadline, OSPR will initiate a proposal in Kuali Coeus. Once initiated, you and your co-investigators will receive a system-generated email from Kuali no later than 5 PM on the day of the deadline. There will be a link in the email that takes you to a page with five certification questions for you to complete as soon as possible. OSPR cannot start the approval process until the questions are answered.

After you submit your answers, OSPR will initiate routing. You and your co-investigators will receive a second system-generated email from Kuali prompting you to follow a link to a page for you to approve your application. Your approval is your second and final required action. Both actions must be completed by 1 PM on the day after the deadline. 

Once you complete your approval, the proposal will move into your chair and dean's queue. They will have seven (7) days after the deadline to complete their reviews and approvals. No action is required on your part for this step in routing.

Yes! Please make sure to read the full FDRC Guidelines (PDF) carefully before preparing and submitting your application.