Faculty Research Grants

The Standard Research and Travel Funds Program is open to all continuing members of the faculty associated with the departments in the Humanities Division and to members of the library staff who hold faculty appointments.

The College provides faculty members with annual funding to support their scholarly work. These funds may be used to directly support your research, scholarship, or creative activities that promote your intellectual enrichment and allow you to become a more effective scholar. They may also be used to support attendance at professional conferences or other travel related to one’s research.

Tenure-track and non-tenure track continuing faculty members (as defined in the Faculty Handbook) receive a total of $5,000 of standard research and travel funds in each fiscal year (July through June). Faculty head coaches, faculty librarians, and visiting faculty members receive $2,000 in each fiscal year. Faculty members with remaining start-up funds or endowed research funds from the College are not eligible for the standard research and travel funding.

The assistance of the Colby College Research Funding should be acknowledged in any publications that result from the work accomplished. Faculty are encouraged to give an oral report on campus about the work facilitated by these funds. Division lunches and departmental colloquia provide good opportunities for such presentations.

These funds may be used for research expenses including equipment, materials and supplies, consultation with experts in a particular field, editing services, costs for having specific procedures, analyses, or services performed by outside experts that are essential to completion of the research project, hiring Colby students as research or technical assistants during the academic year, and rental of space or costs for using facilities at off-campus laboratories.

The funds may also be used for travel expenses when travel is necessary to carry out a research project, to collaborate with colleagues at (or from) other institutions on research projects, or for upgrading research skills or background in the faculty member’s areas of scholarship. The funds may be used to cover expenses of attending a professional conference, including registration fees, travel, lodging, and meals.

When using funds for travel, the reimbursement rates for travel expenses and the appropriate reimbursement claim procedure may be found in the document entitled “Reimbursement Handbook” which is downloadable from the Financial Services – accounts payable page. Please note that if receipts are not submitted within 30 days of completing your travel, federal law states that your grant must be treated as part of your taxable income.

These funds may be used for purchasing highly specialized books, specialized computer hardware or software needed for research (and unavailable through the budget of ITS). Such books, hardware and software should be ordered through the Colby Library or ITS and must be catalogued as library acquisitions or property of the College. Apparatus and equipment purchased with research funds are the property of the College and must remain at Colby if the faculty member’s employment with the college terminates for any reason.

When submitting invoices for payment, or submitting receipts for reimbursement, please use the following account numbers in Workday.

Cost center = CC20004 (Faculty Funding and Support)
Activity = AC1002 (Faculty Professional Travel and Research)
Assignee = ASxxxxx (enter your own individual assignee number)

It is the responsibility of each faculty member to track carefully all expenditures and not to exceed the allocated amount. Available funds unused in one fiscal year may not be “rolled over” into the next year.

Supplemental Grant Application Deadline: February 28th

To support research projects that require resources beyond the standard funding (e.g., international travel, specialized equipment), supplemental research grants are available on a competitive basis. All continuing faculty (except those with remaining start-up funds) are eligible to submit applications for supplemental grants. These should be very strong and focused proposals that significantly advance the long-term scholarship capability of a faculty member. Supplemental grants should have the potential to fundamentally transform the level or area of the applicant’s work. Applications for supplemental funding made in consecutive years must be especially compelling.

Supplemental grant applications will be initially considered by the Grants Committee of the academic division with which the faculty member is associated. The division Grants Committee is composed of all the department chairs within the division, and is convened by the Division Chair.

The Interdisciplinary Studies (IDS) Grants Committee accepts proposals from faculty members with a full or joint appointment in an IDS department, or who are significantly involved in an IDS department. IDS grant proposals must be interdisciplinary in nature and the proposed projects must clearly cross disciplinary boundaries.

After applications have been considered by their respective division Grants Committees, the Division Chairs will then meet together with the Provost to make the final decision on which proposals can be funded.

The maximum amount for a Supplemental Research Grant is $3,000 for the year. The amount of supplemental funding that each person is awarded will depend upon the funds available, the number and quality of proposals submitted, and the scholarly and creative work originating from Colby College research support during the prior five years. It is the responsibility of the grantee to track carefully all expenditures and not to exceed the grant award.

All applications should be emailed as a single Portable Document Format (PDF) file with the filename YourLastName-23SuppGrtApp.pdf to the email address indicated below:

• Humanities: [email protected]
• Interdisciplinary Studies: [email protected]
• Natural Sciences: [email protected]
• Social Sciences: [email protected]

Please organize your proposal into the following sections (in the specified order):

1. Title of the Proposal
2. A listing of any previous Supplemental Research Grants you have received from Colby during the past five years, any current external grant support, and any products that have resulted from this support (e.g., publications, presentations at professional meetings, etc.).
3. A brief description of efforts you have made over the last few years to secure external funding. Possible examples might be consulting with the Office of Grants and Sponsored Programs or submitting grant proposals to the NSF or NEH.
4. A description of the work to be accomplished with this grant support (two-page limit). It is usually helpful to provide some brief background information explaining how the proposed project is linked to previous work. Describe what you propose to do, what methods you will employ, and the possible significance of the results. How does the project fit into the overall scholarly vision of your career? Why is it not possible to carry out this work using the $5,000 of standard research and travel funds. For interdisciplinary proposals, clearly indicate how the project crosses disciplinary boundaries.
5. The total amount of funds you are seeking and an itemized budget.
6. In addition to all of the information included above, please include your CV here.

Proposals that do not meet the stated formatting guidelines will not be accepted.

The deadline for 2023-2024 Supplemental Grant Applications is February 28, 2022. Notification of awards will begin by March 31, 2021. The budget cycle for the 2023-2024 Supplemental Research Grants is July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024.

Questions regarding the application process should be directed to your division chair:

1. Humanities: Tanya Sheehan
2. Interdisciplinary Studies: Adam Howard
3. Natural Sciences: Kevin Rice
4. Social Sciences: Neil Gross

Please click here to download the instructions for the research grant application.

Please contact the Chair of the Humanities Division, Tanya Sheehan, with any questions.