I think most of the good stuff has been said. But several years ago the Faculty Incentives Committee of our research foundation surveyed the faculty here. There were over 300 responses. Here are the findings in order of frequency. It is important to note that there was agreement on the seven priorities below by active "grant" faculty (those who write proposals and have awards) and inactive faculty who have not done proposals at least recently. For both active and inactive faculty, it is interesting to note that while release time was far and away the top vote getter, inactive faculty rated it higher than active grant faculty. Furthermore, administrators were also sent the same survey, and the priorities were the same.

1. Develop/disseminate a release time policy for engaging in grant writing.
2. Consider grant writing activity in salary reviews.
3. Consider grant writing activity in tenure/promotion decisions.
4. Develop a procedure for providing matching dollars.
5. Provide information on grant opportunities that match faculty interests.
6. Disseminate info about OSP (Office of Sponsored Programs) resources available to support grant writing.
7. Develop procedure for the provision of travel assistance with grant activity.

Two open ended questions were asked to elicit suggestions for additional incentives and how to fund incentives. Here are the suggestions to promote grant writing activity:
1. Salary stipend based on amount of grant.
2. Promote cooperation between OSP, Development Office and grant writing faculty. There may be additional resources available through that exchange.
3. teaching load from 4 to 3 courses/semester.
4. Provide a unit reward for grant writing; department that has the highest morale and can explain their reward system.
5. Time to fill out the volumes of paperwork.
6. Technical assistance from the OSP.
7. Stipend for non-faculty.
8. Summer stipends for grant writing.
9. Grant writing workshop in each college.
10. Allowing faculty to write professional development funds into grants on a regular basis.
11. Publish brochures on the benefits of grant writing for the University, the College, the Department and the faculty member.
12. Provide and encourage grant opportunities for staff that will fund travel opportunities nationally and/or internationally to explore alternative ways of accomplishing university goals.
13. provide incentive share money (small percentage) back to the researcher's research program.
14. Providing both tangible and intangible rewards. E.g.; one intangible is recognition in a research magazine, at award receptions put on by the OSP, at president's or provost's convocation, etc.)
15. More recognition in salary and tenure reviews.
16. Without grant writers, small departments cannot take part.

Then there were suggestions for funding faculty incentives, in no particular order of priority:
1. Overhead -- hold some back for support of future grants.
2. Build incentives into the regular budget.
3. Use academic money that was not spent last year that carried over in the budget this  year.
4. Return a portion of the indirect dollars to the individual writer.
5. Request funds from the research foundation and the OSP.
6. More than one-on-one assistance from the OSP.
7. All seven areas above are important. Need to separate into two categories -- promote vs. reward.
8 [Again] A line item for encouraging grant writing must be created in the [institutional] budget.
9.[Again] incentive share money.

Dolores Brzycki wrote:

In my experience, the incentives that work depend on faculty needs and culture at each particular institution.   What don't the faculty have enough of at your university?  If operating funds are scarce, then minigrants that can be spent on travel or computing equipment can be very popular.  If you are at a teaching institution, release time that enables faculty to work on research should be appreciated.  If support staff is limited, then graduate assistants or access to existing support staff could be valued.  Structures and incentives that encourage peer modeling and support can also work, especially if few faculty are involved in a particular endeavor - whether that is research or some other activity that you want to promote.
 
 
Dr. Dolores Brzycki
College of Health and Human Services
724-357-2088
xxxxxx@iup.edu < mailto:xxxxxx@iup.edu>

    ----- Original Message -----
    *From:* Susan Steiner < mailto:xxxxxx@CGU.EDU>
    *To:* xxxxxx@HRINET.ORG < mailto:xxxxxx@HRINET.ORG>
    *Sent:* Tuesday, July 26, 2005 1:33 PM
    *Subject:* [RESADM-L] Collecting evidence

    Colleagues:
    We have a new president at Claremont Graduate University, who
    would like to know if any of you have data--numerical, anecdotal,
    inspirational, or otherwise--as to whether or not certain
    incentives for faculty to go for extramural funding work better
    than others, e.g.:release time, seed funding, recognition,
    graduate assistant funds, a promotion criteria, etc.?

    Thanks, Susan

    Susan Steiner, Ph.D.
    Associate Vice President
    Research and Sponsored Programs
    150 East Tenth Street
    Claremont CA 91711
    Tel: (909) 607-8069
    Fax: (909) 607-9655

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Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including
subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available
via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists")
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