Our Academic Affairs office recently started a similar program.  Faculty submit a request (indicating their research idea and the sponsor they'll be sending the proposal to, accompanied by approval by the chair) and the Deans Council reviews and selects.  There is probably some consideration of equitable distribution across colleges, but the impact on teaching and the ease of finding adjuncts (no small feat in a rural area) comes into play and so there's no rule that the number of releases be the same for each college.  It is way too soon to tell how this will work out, but I understand where Spanky is coming from and thus expect very mixed results.

So far, I've seen one proposal actually go out the door and it was well-written but not funded.  This investigator just got an internal seed grant and will now collect more pilot data and reapply for the external grant per the suggestion of the program officer.  I believe, in time, she will be successful at the federal level.  But she is one of our very motivated faculty and is passionate about her research.  Would she have submitted the proposal had she not had release time?  Most likely, although it may have taken her another six months to get it ready for submission.

The second proposal is in production right now...and the sponsor the PI selected (without my input) gives nice $200K grants that emphasize collaborative research but has a funding rate of only about 2%.  The PI is a new faculty member proposing research in a new area without any collaborators.  I think he should be looking for a small starter grant, but, unfortunately, he's now committed to this very competitive sponsor.  Latest statement was, "Well, I've got to send something in since I got my course reduction send a proposal to this sponsor."  I think this PI is conscientious enough to give it his best effort, but I think I have a pretty good guess of what the outcome will be.  This emphasizes the need for either a required consultation with the sponsored programs office before request submission or enough flexibilityy to allow changes after the reality check.  (Yes, I know chairs and deans should be providing some guidance, but small institutions that are just now getting into the research game often have chairs and deans who have little sponsored programs experience.)

However, despite these apparent shortcomings and questionable return on investment, I do see the other side of the coin.  If you want to increase research and sponsored programs, faculty have to perceive that there is institutional support and that their efforts in pursuing external funding are valued.  This is particularly true in institutions with a historical teaching emphasis and heavy teaching loads.  If you don't have programs that at are intended to stimulate and/or reward research and sponsored activity--like seed grants, course releases, summer compensation, funding to attend sponsor workshops, and/or return of a portion of indirect, and, of course, the tools needed like funding databases and a decently staffed sponsored programs office to assist, it's hard to get faculty to even talk about writing proposals, let alone get them excited enough to actually do it.

Barbara H. Gray
Director of Sponsored Programs & Research Aministration
IRB Administrator, IACUC Administrator, and ICAPP Liaison
Valdosta State University
1500 North Patterson Street
Valdosta, Georgia  31698

e-mail:            xxxxxx@valdosta.edu
Telephone:   229-333-7837
Fax:                  229-245-3853
Website:        http://www.valdosta.edu/ospra

-----Original Message-----
From: Research Administration List [mailto:xxxxxx@hrinet.org] On Behalf Of McCallister, Mike
Sent: Thursday, September 30, 2010 2:35 PM
To: xxxxxx@hrinet.org
Subject: Re: [RESADM-L] faculty incentives for grant writing

I've never liked this  kind of program, although some of my colleagues will
disagree.  The biggest problem is you are, in effect, paying them to turn
out a proposal that you can't evaluate.  They might try hard, put out a good
proposal and get funded, or they might, and most often, wait until th elast
minute, turn in crap, and get paid anyway.  Have someone do this enouigh, it
guts what on the surface looks like a good idea.

Writing proposals and doing research is the job of a faculty memeber.
Creating the knowledge they teach is part of being a member of a discipline.
Doing this you are paying them twice and likely getting garbage anyway.
It's a bad idea.

spanky

On 9/30/10 2:19 PM, "Donna Berger" <xxxxxx@MARIST.EDU> wrote:

> Hi Everyone,
>
> I am working on an incentive program for faculty to develop grant
> proposals. We are thinking of offering a course release for up to 6 faculty
> members per year (one from each of our schools) in order for them to
> prepare  grant proposals.  Our intent is to stimulate greater interest in
> proposal writing among faculty who have not been active and/or encourage
> collaborative, interdisciplinary proposals.  Our initial thoughts are to
> announce the program and have faculty submit their proposal concepts to a
> panel of reviewers who would select those that are most likely to be
> competitive. Faculty who are selected would then be given release time (or
> possibly a stipend) to develop the proposal. Does anyone offer a program
> similar to this and could you share your ideas with me. Any input would be
> most appreciated. Thank you!
>
> Donna Berger, Ph.D.
> Coordinator, Academic Grants
> Marist College
> Phone: 845-575-3670
>
>
> ======================================================================
>  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")
> ======================================================================

======================================================================
 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")
======================================================================

======================================================================
 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")
======================================================================