Each year, Evergreen provides funding to regular faculty to pursue research and creative projects. Sponsored Research awards are competitive; in some years the college is able to fund only a quarter of the proposals it receives.

Funding is awarded in three categories:

1. Research Awards involving paid leaves which may not exceed one quarter in the regular academic year or two months in the summer.

2. Seed Money to develop projects or professional agenda which are meritorious but not far enough along to be competitive for funding from within or without the college.

3. Grants-In-Aid to support an ongoing professional agenda that has already been judged from within and without the college to be of high quality. Grants-in-aid may be used to purchase materials needed for research, attend professional meetings, publish scholarly work, and pay for other requirements to advance a faculty applicant's professional endeavors. An application for a research award or seed money may request a portion their award in grant-in-aid funding if needed to complete the scope of a proposed project.

Sponsored Research applications are due in the Academic Grant's office (Library 3705) by 5 p.m. on the fourth Friday in October. The provost announces the upcoming competition and deadline each September.

Eligibility

• All regular members of the faculty (including library faculty) are eligible for sponsored research awards. Visiting, adjunct, and administrative faculty are not eligible.
• There is no relationship between eligibility for professional leaves and eligibility for Sponsored Research, as described in the United Faculty of Evergreen collective bargaining agreement. While a person could not hold both leaves simultaneously, they could be held consecutively.
• A person is not eligible for paid leave or summer salary support from Sponsored Research funds for more than two consecutive years, nor for more than three such leaves in a five-year period.
• Paid leave will not be granted for the sole purpose of completing advanced degree requirements.

For complete eligibility requirements and award limitations, please refer to the chapter 15 of the collective bargaining agreement.

Application Procedures

Applicants for Sponsored Research funds must submit the following:

• A two- to three-page letter including at least the following:
  • Statement of the proposed activity.
  • Purpose and scope of activity.
  • A broad statement of the author's professional agenda showing how the proposed activity fits into that agenda.
  • Benefits expected from the activity in light of the faculty member's strengths and weaknesses.
  • Detailed plans for carrying out the activity.
  • Dates and length of salary/leave requested.
  • A statement of how the proposed absence might affect the curriculum, if applicable.
• Two letters of support which speak directly to the scholarly or creative merit of the proposed activity.
• A current curriculum vita.
• Information concerning other sources of expected remuneration for the proposed activity, if any.
• Reports from all previously funded Sponsored Research awards at Evergreen.

Submission Guidelines

Applications may be hand delivered to the Academic Grant's office or sent by email to sponsres@evergreen.edu. Letters of support may be submitted by the applicant with a proposal, or the letter writer may send a letter directly to the Academic Grants office or the above email address. We ask that the subject line identify the message as a support letter and name the faculty applicant(s).  All documents sent by email should be in a Microsoft Word or Portable Document Format (.pdf).

Selection Process

A faculty committee, selected from across planning units by the Agenda Committee, studies the proposals and selects the recipients. Proposals are evaluated based on the following criteria:

• Thoroughness of proposal.
• Merit of proposed activities.
• Extent to which these activities will improve the faculty member's professional competence in scholarship at TESC.
• Extent of the apparent benefits of the proposed activities to the college's curricular offerings, academic resources or administrative services.

General Considerations

Paid leaves financed by Sponsored Research funds may only be used in support of professional activity other than teaching, and must have the highest sort of merit which the college demands of itself. The professional activity or scholarship, however, could be about teaching or pedagogy (and should be expected to enhance one's teaching), but the expectation is for a product additional to one's own teaching activity.

Given the size of TESC and the constraints on faculty staffing patterns, however, it will not be possible to ignore completely the impact of a faculty member's absence for leaves proposed during the regular academic year. A report on the previous use of any Sponsored Research money is required as part of any Sponsored Research application.

Click here for a listing of past Sponsored Research recipients.

For more information, contact John McLain, Academic Grants Manager, ext. 6045.