The Office of Sponsored Programs and Research (OSPR) administers applications to the internal grant funding program of the Faculty Development and Research Committee.
Faculty Development & Research Committee Grants
FDRC Application Cycle: Closed
The next application deadline will be the first Thursday of the spring 2024 semester.
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
The link to the FDRC Application Form will be posted when the next competition opens. Please review the program guidelines and application instructions carefully to prepare your materials.
- FDRC Guidelines (PDF)
- FDRC Application Instructions (PDF)
- FDRC Budget Template (XLSX), for planning purposes only
For more information about the program and application process, please review the FDRC Award Presentation (PPTX).
Meet the FY23 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
Who is eligible to apply for an FDRC award?
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 Towson.
Is there a limit on the number of FDRC awards I can apply for/receive?
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.
When is the application deadline?
The regular FDRC application cycle requires applicants send their documents to ospr AT_TOWSON no later than 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.
What is the award amount?
The committee will award up to $6,000 for approved projects.
What is the project period?
July 1 - May 31
Other project periods will be announced via the OSPR Newsletter and TU Today as additional resources are made available.
Can I pay myself using an FDRC award?
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.
What are eligible expenses?
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.
What are ineligible expenses?
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.
How do my co-investigators and I "certify and approve" the application for routing? Do I have to do anything to get my chair/dean's approval?
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 p.m. 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 p.m. 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.
Are there additional guidelines I should be aware of?
Yes! Please make sure to read the full FDRC Guidelines (PDF) carefully before preparing and submitting your application.
