Resources for New Faculty

A revamped CRADLE XI will be announced in spring of 2025

The program to develop proposal-writing skills is the Creative Research Activities Development and Enrichment (CRADLE). Up to 9 fellows participate for two years. Preference is given to applicants entering years 2-5 of a tenure-track appointment.

CRADLE aims to develop competitive external proposals that support multiyear research projects and creative activities. Fellows receive assistance from a consultant to improve their grantsmanship and to articulate a 5-year career plan that incorporates proven strategies for developing and funding superior research and creative activities.

For more information, please visit the CRADLE website.

Researchers who are not signed up for the full program can still participate in the seminars:

Winning Grants Seminar Part I, How to Find- and Win- Government Grants

This half day seminar will focus on the government grants marketplace and how your faculty and staff can locate the federal and state grants that are right for their research/projects. Throughout the seminar participants will be provided with pro-active, time saving techniques to make grantseeking more controllable and successful.

Seminar participants will learn where the money is, how much, how funding decisions are made, and what a winning grant proposal looks like. Seminar participants will also learn how to:

• develop fundable ideas
• use a project planner spreadsheet to develop a budget and cash forecast
• research government grant opportunities
• make pre-proposal contact with the Feds
• prepare a grant winning federal application by applying techniques to improve proposals before submission

Winning Grants Seminar Part II, How to Find- and Win- Foundation and Corporate Grants

This half day seminar will focus on the foundation and corporate grants marketplace and how your faculty and staff can locate private foundation and corporate money to fund their research/projects. Throughout the seminar participants will be provided with pro-active grants tips and strategies to achieve grants success.

Seminar participants will also learn how to:

• decipher the private grants marketplace (where the $ is and how much)

• develop fundable ideas
• research foundation and corporate funding sources
• use federal funding to win private funding
• utilize advocates to make grantseeking more efficient
• harness community involvement and support
• Contact private funders using webbing and linkages to increase success
• implements ways to improve their proposals before submission
• write a compelling letter proposal

Help with clarity of presentation, organization, expression of thought; not technical help on technical content of proposal. This is another free resource (to our faculty) provided through ORSP. The person who provides this service is Dr. Julie Edelson, who has a PhD in Comparative Literature and has extensive experience editing proposals of Wake Forest faculty.

We have two sets of people to assist with proposal preparation and submission. There are Grant Contracts Managers (GCMs) on campus, who assist in the preparation and maintenance of proposals/grants. The GCMs primarily assist with budget preparation and ensuring that that all required components described in the federal agency guidance or foundation guidance are included in the final proposal. GCMs are assigned to all academic departments in the College of Arts and Sciences. Some GCM’s may support the faculty in more than one department. To find the GCM assigned to your department, please see this website.

In addition, proposal submission assistance is available in the central ORSP office. There are several members of that office who can provide support but the primary contact is Stephen Williams. His email is williasl@wfu.edu, and his phone number is 336.758.4909.

Internal funding opportunities are comprehensively summarized at this website. External funding sources can be found by searching two different databases that the university has subscriptions to: SPINPlus, which has mainly governmental sources and Foundations Directory Online. SPINPlus can be accessed using your Wake Forest University username and password. Foundations Directory Online (FDO) has a large database (140,000) of foundations worldwide that provide funding for a broad range of activities. Roughly 80-90% of Foundations do not have webpages, so such a database is potentially very useful in finding these foundations.

To access FDO, please contact Stephen Williams in the ORSP office. Stephen’s email is williasl@wfu.edu, and his phone number is 336.758.4909.

To see funding opportunities for junior (Assistant Professor, untenured) faculty please see this list on UC Berkeley’s Sponsored Projects website.

This is a fund established to help our faculty publish in open access journals. Publications that are open access have 60% more citations (on average) than those behind a paywall. Faculty are eligible if they do not have external funding to publish their work. Cost-shared among three parties: Department, ORSP, and ZSR Library.

For more information, contact Molly Keener, Director of Digital Initiatives & Scholarly Communication, at the Z. Smith Reynolds Library.

The Provost’s Fund for Faculty Travel provides supplementary travel support for faculty participating in an academic conference, a diversity and inclusion event, or other select professional events by presenting or discussing a paper/film/project or chairing a session. The intent of the fund is not merely attendance at a conference.

The ORSP website has a variety of online resources that you can access anytime.

There are various internal funding opportunities, some related to established Centers, some in the Dean’s Office, etc. Two mechanisms that are funded out of the Provost’s Office (ORSP):

• Pilot Research Grants (PRG). Two deadlines: Fourth Friday in September and in January.
• Collaborative Pilot Grants (CPG). One Deadline: Fourth Friday in January.

For additional help and information, contact Rebecca Alexander, Associate Dean for Research and Community Engagement.

Brief summary of internal resources.