Resources for New Faculty

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.