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

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.

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 awarded 25 grants. We wish them every success with their upcoming projects. 

Recipient Project Title award Amount
Tosin Adebayo, Department of Communication Studies To Disclose or Not: Nigerian Girls' Stories of Sexual Violence $5,820
Saradha Ananthakrishnan, Department of Speech-Language Pathology & Audiology
Unraveling New Insights in Central Auditory Processing using Machine Learning
$5,960
Vicky Cai, Department of Educational Technology & Literacy
Developing an Instructional Unit on Robotics to Improve Pre-service Teachers' Computational Thinking and Self-efficacy in Using Robotics Technology
$5,090
Ryan Casey, Department of Chemistry
Are Brood X Cicadas a Source of ""Forever Chemicals"" to the Terrestrial Environment?
$6,000
Jonathan Hensley, Department of Political Science Amici Curiae Briefs and the Changing Role of Religion in the United States, 1969-2020 $5,730
Laura Hicken, Department of Music Gaze Behavior and Verbal Assessments of Music Teachers Watching Music Performances $6,000
Eric Karikari, Department of Communication Studies Communicative Dimensions of Resilience: Constructing Normal in Constant Turbulence $5,993
Casey Keck, Department of Speech-Language Pathology & Audiology What's ""the tea?"": A scoping review of social competence assessment after adolescent traumatic brain injury $6,000
Sya Kedzior, Department of Geography & Environmental Planning Diversity, inclusion, and equity (DEI) initiatives in environmental NGOs of the Chesapeake Bay region $4,900
Steven Kimble, Department of Biological Sciences Population genomics of the Maryland state-endangered Northern Map Turtle $6,000
Ashley King, Department of Speech-Language Pathology & Audiology Subjective Visual Vertical Judgement in Patients with Chronic Visual Motion Sensitivity $5,958
Nicolas Knuth, Department of Kinesiology Evaluation of Metabolic Hormones Related to Metabolic Adaptation and their Association with Weight Loss in Postpartum Women $5,949
Ming Li, Department of Health Sciences Perspectives towards Genetic Testing among Young Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders $5,996
Juan Liu, Department of Mass Communication Examining the Effects of Repeated Exposure to COVID-19 Misinformation on Risk Perception, Vaccine Hesitancy and Health Protective Behaviors $6,000
Pamela Lottero-Perdue, Department of Physics, Astronomy & Geosciences Using a Simulated Environment to Practice Diagnosing Perceived Social Loafing in Design Teams $5,985
Susan Mann, Department of Dance Museum of Accidents $6,000
Alison McCartney, Department of Political Science Connecting High School and College Civic Engagement Education $6,000
Chelsea McClure, Department of Secondary & Middle School Education Integration of Guardian-Teacher Conference Simulations into Teacher Candidate Education Programs $5,400
Vicki McQuitty, Department of Elementary Education Preparing Writing Teacher for Multilingual & Bidialectal Children $5,400
Wendy Nelson, Department of Physics, Astronomy & Geosciences New Ideas on the Formation of Old Rocks Beneath Baltimore $5,982
Jinie Pak, Department of Computer & Information Sciences Examining the adoption and use of mHealth from a lens of user empowerment $5,000
Nancy Siegel, Department of Art + Design, Art History, Art Education Susie M. Barstow: Redefining the Hudson River School $6,000
Nirmal Srinivasan, Department of Sociology, Anthropology & Criminal Justice Contributions of Attention and Working Memory to Speech Understanding $5,965
Ronnie Wang, Department of Computer & Information Sciences Blockchain-Empowered Secure and Efficient Decentralized AI Systems $5,914
Bo Kyum Yang, Department of Health Sciences Psychotropic medication adherence in Medicaid-insured adults treated by nurse practitioners and physicians  $6,000

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 Towson.

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 send their documents to  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.

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 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.

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