Faculty Development Award

Overview

The Faculty Development Award (FDA) is intended to recognize excellence in professional track faculty and to provide resources to support professional development of mid-career and senior professional track faculty. 

Allowable Expenses

The FDA offers each recipient up to $10,000 to support faculty development activities. Approved activities and expenditures include:

• Summer salary for the faculty awardee as long as:
  • The percent effort of the faculty member for the summer of the FDA cannot exceed a total of 100% across the three summer months (*please be advised that holding concurrent assignments, such as summer teaching assignments may impact the award amount; the combined assignments cannot exceed a total of 100% across the three summer months)
  • Salary is used to support faculty development-related activities during the summer of the award
• Conference participation or other professional development activities
• Course development activities
• Research activities

Award Timing

• FDA funds are distributed to awardees during the summer term of the same academic year as the application period (e.g., if applying in Fall 2022, FDA funds are awarded for Summer 2023).
• Funds must be expended within one year of the award start date.

Submissions

Applications can be submitted September 2 - October 3 via the Provost's website.

Updated Guidelines can be found here:

FDA Guidelines_COLA.pdf

Criteria and Application Materials

Core Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants must hold the rank of associate professor of instruction or professor of instruction or equivalent when applying. Eligible professional track title series include instruction, practice, lecturer, clinical, and research series. Instructional titles will be prioritized.
• Applicants must have been employed as a benefits-eligible professional track faculty member at UT Austin in at lease one of the fall and spring terms during at least six different academic years before the first FDA and in between FDAs. 
• Applicants must have been employed as a benefits-eligible professional track faculty member at UT Austin in at least one o the fall and spring terms during each of two consecutive academic years immediately preceding the start of the summer of FDA. 
• Applicants must have met or exceeded expectations in their annual reviews during at least three of the most recent academic years in benefits-eligible positions at UT Austin preceding the application for the FDA. 

Application Materials

• Short CV (limit: four pages)
• FDA Proposal that includes:
  • Abstract (limit: 100 words) that briefly summarizes the purpose of the proposed FDA. The Abstract should not use unnecessary acronyms and should include the following information:
    • The faculty development activities to bo supported by the FDA
    • Benefits and anticipated impact of the FDA on the:
      • Faculty member's professional development, and on the 
      • Faculty member's department, college, and/or the university.
  • Faculty Development Proposal (limit: 2,000 words) that describes and justifies the proposed FDA and associated activities, the location where the faculty will do the work during the FDA, details about how the FDA activities will contribute to the candidate's professional development and impact on the faculty member's program, department, and UT Austin. 
  • Itemized Budget that must include allowable items and costs with a total that sums to not more than $10,000. For summer salary, the rate and duration should be specified.
  • Bibliography (optional; limit: two pages)