Please follow these steps to begin the process of your award application:
The first step is to identify the focus of your project. Once you have a project plan, write a brief concept paper that explains your project and how you would like to complete it. Set up a meeting with your dean or division head to talk about your project.
The dean or department head will talk about how it fits the mission and strategic initiatives of MSMU and review the following questions with you:
If the answer is “no” to all of the above questions and the dean is confident it matches the Mount’s strategic initiatives, you then notify the grants manager and you may proceed with the grant application.
If the answer is “yes” to any of these questions, the dean advocates with the provost on your behalf. The provost will share the grant proposal with the president’s cabinet if necessary.
Faculty members may request course release as part or all a research-related grant proposal, in accordance with sponsor guidelines. The request must be made through the Department Chair and with approval of the Chair, Dean and Provost. Approval is made on condition that the release is properly budgeted for and will only be granted if an award is made.
Different granting organizations use different methods for calculating course buyout or release rates (e.g., a fixed amount, a formula based on salary, or open-ended). From the university’s perspective, the grant is advantageous if it at least covers the cost of staffing the released course(s) at the adjunct/overload rate (plus benefits and administrative costs).
The university will work according to the expectations of granting agencies and expects that faculty will normally apply for the maximum amount allowable for release time under the terms of a grant. If the grant at least covers the minimum cost of replacing the released course-load, the university will keep the faculty member at full annual salary and benefits. If a faculty member performs work on a sponsored project in addition to his or her normal duties at the college during the academic year, he or she may draw overage compensation.
The first priority of grant funds intended for release time is to provide high-quality replacement of course instruction necessitated by reassigned faculty time. Funds equal to the cost of the adjunct or replacement instructor (salary and benefits) will be transferred from the grant to the Provost’s Office to allow for this. The second priority is to support academic research and the initiative of academic administration. Assuming the first priority is met, deans should have broad discretion to approve courses releases in accord with this policy. A third priority is responsible resource stewardship. In general, when grant rewards are intended to support faculty research, any unused funds beyond adjunct replacement costs should be transferred to “rollover” accounts under appropriate academic control and should not automatically revert to unrestricted university funds at the end of a fiscal year.
It is possible that the university may approve a course release even when grant funds provide less than the minimum (break-even) expected amount (in which case the university would be supplementing the grant). For instance, faculty requesting course buyouts as part of a larger grant proposal should be aware that their granting agency may limit the amount of salary support that can be requested (for example, the NSF allows no more than 2 months’ salary equivalent in the budget). There may be instances when the size of the overall grant and the prestige of the award (for example, the NSF-STEM award), or some other benefit of the research effort, would encourage the university to offer a faculty member a course release even if the grant is structured such that a grant fund request is not permitted at the level that fully supports a course buyout. In such cases, the faculty member should consult with his or her chair, dean, and ultimately the provost to determine how the university may support these efforts.
In special circumstances, and at dean’s discretion, a faculty member may be able to buy out release time with personal funds (i.e., not using grant funds) but because this lacks some of the tangible and intangible institutional benefits of securing outside grant funds and recognition, this is not actively encouraged by the university.
The course buyouts discussed here are distinct from other forms of supplemental faculty compensation, like summer grants/summer salary that are not addressed in this document.
At this point, you should complete the intent to seek external funding form. It’s important to keep the grants manager informed if you plan to apply for a grant. This ensures that we are not competing against each other for funding from a specific foundation. It is also critical that you discuss this with your dean or department head to know that the resources are there to support your project.
It is important to remember to write the grant specifically to what the agency or foundation wants to fund. Keep it basic and simple. It does not need to be an elaborate project to get funding. Most agencies would rather see a smaller project that is well done than to try to take on too much and have poor results to show for their investment.
NSF proposals require a data management/sharing plan as part of the proposal process. A good starting point can be found at dmptool.org. The DMPTool provides detailed guidance and links to general and institutional resources and walks a researcher through the process of generating a comprehensive plan tailored to specific DMP requirements.
Some foundations begin with a Letter of Inquiry (LOI) before inviting a full proposal. The LOI is essentially a “snapshot” of the full grant application, usually detailing:
Many private foundations and federal agencies have strict guidelines on how their grants may be used, as well as reporting requirements to ensure that their funds are being used for the correct and agreed upon purposes.
Fellowship applications that will be paid directly to a faculty member (rather than the institution) do not require budget or proposal approval prior to submission. However, given enough advance time, the grants manager is available to help you with your proposal and budget, and happy to serve as additional readers. We would like to know about your fellowship submissions as we track pending fellowship applications internally and report awarded fellowships to the faculty and include them in our online award archives.
As the grant application nears completion, an internal routing form will be circulated with a project summary and budget attached. This is to ensure that everyone is aware and onboard with the application. The routing form requires the signature of the principal investigator (PI), the dean or department head, the vice president for business and finance and the grants manager. The most important piece of any submission is following the guidelines precisely. For all deadlines, you must allow enough time for the internal routing form to be endorsed. You cannot submit your proposal until this process is complete. Begin this process early!
An important part of the application process is developing the right budget. Reneé Hill-Goodson is the advancement services coordinator in our Office of Advancement. She is responsible for the financial management of grants and can help you with developing the budget during the application process through the closing reports. Please contact her early in the process to begin developing a budget.
A PI should review the faculty grants budget guide for more details.
The grants manager is available to give your proposal a final review when you are ready for submission and all approval signatures have been obtained on the Final Proposal Check form. Depending on funder requirements, either the PI or the Authorized Organizational Representative (grants manager) will submit the proposal. Be sure you read the guidelines carefully to know who should submit the proposal.
The grants manager is required to submit proposals that require institutional endorsement. Most proposals to government agencies and research proposals to foundations require institutional endorsement.
The grants manager will also assist faculty with proposals to other organizations that do not require institutional endorsement and are submitted by faculty as individuals (e.g., fellowships). If the grants manager should submit the proposal, you are welcome to set up a time to submit together or you can forward your completed package to our office.
The grants manager can provide the College's EIN and D-U-N-S number if necessary. You must turn in the internal routing form even if the College Authorized Organizational Representative is not required for submission.