One of the core missions of the Provost’s Office is to support Wake Forest University faculty in their research and scholarly endeavors. We’re more than just supporters; we’re collaborators, dedicated to providing the necessary resources and tools that catalyze breakthroughs. In support of this mission, a number of funding opportunities are available through the Provost’s Office.
The Provost’s Fund for Academic Innovation is designed to promote innovation in the curriculum or the learning environment.
This fund places special emphasis on new or creative ways to use the curriculum or the learning environment to advance Wake Forest’s three core academic priorities: (1) building the best faculty of teacher-scholars in the world, (2) bringing the right students and mix of students to Wake Forest and supporting them appropriately while they are here, and (3) creating a vibrant campus with the kind of intellectual climate that capitalizes fully on our many opportunities for faculty-student engagement.
Specific guidelines and the application for the Provost’s Fund for Academic Innovation may be found online and should be submitted to Christina Soriano, Vice Provost for the Arts & Interdisciplinary Initiatives.
Deadline(s): October 1 and April 1.
The Provost’s Fund for Academic Excellence provides 2:1 matching grants of up to $10,000 for endeavors that showcase and reinforce Wake Forest’s teacher-scholar ideal.
Priority is given to proposals that facilitate cross-disciplinary intellectual engagement between faculty and students and those that recognize the academic excellence of our faculty and develop scholarly themes and emerging academic and pedagogical issues. Funding can be spread over one or two years. The fund will provide a match for speakers, workshops, artists-in-residence, tutorial grants and conferences that facilitate intellectual community at Wake Forest University by supporting research, teaching, curricular development and/or creativity.
Specific guidelines and the application for the Provost’s Fund for Academic Excellence may be found online and should be submitted to Christina Soriano, Vice Provost for the Arts & Interdisciplinary Initiatives.
Deadline(s): October 1 and April 1.
Provost’s Grant for Academic Excellence provides 2:1 matching grants up to $1,500 that support small scholarly, pedagogical and creative efforts that facilitate academic excellence and intellectual community at Wake Forest University. Faculty are invited to submit a 2-page proposal that: describes the actual project and its intellectual significance; details anticipated participants and commitments already secured; and explains goals and expected outcomes. The proposal must be signed by the dean and the applicant’s chair if submitted by a College faculty member. There is no deadline for this application process; awards will be made on a rolling basis. For more information contact Christina Soriano, Vice Provost for the Arts & Interdisciplinary Initiatives.
Deadline: Rolling
The Vibrant Campus Fund will provide 2:1 matching funds of up to $5,000 for speakers, artists, or performers whose visit to Wake Forest will help foster a vibrant campus and facilitate the intellectual and creative community at Wake Forest University.
Any event supported by this fund should be open to students, staff, faculty, and the larger Winston-Salem community.
Specific guidelines and the proposal request may be found online. To submit a completed application, please contact Christina Soriano Vice Provost for the Arts & Interdisciplinary Initiatives.
Deadline: Rolling
Funds for International Scholars
Limited funding is awarded for the fall and spring semesters to support linkages between Wake Forest University and International Scholars. These linkages may include invitations to international scholars for presentations, lectures, short research projects, or other types of collaboration.
Funds for an International Conference
Limited funding is awarded for the fall, spring or summer to support an international conference or colloquium. The event should focus on global issues, bringing together scholars with an interdisciplinary and international perspective. The funds are intended to defray administrative and logistical costs associated with hosting the event, exclusive of accommodations and transportation for participants.
Deadline: October 23 (for Spring, Summer or Fall 2024)
These are single investigator funds for up to $20,000 and the primary purpose is to provide the scholar with support to gather preliminary data to make an external proposal competitive. Proposals are reviewed by the Research Advisory Council, a group of faculty from each Division in the College as well as representatives from each professional school and the Graduate School.
Deadline(s): 3rd Friday in October and 3rd Friday in April
Collaborative Pilot Grants (CPG)
One call for proposals per year, at the beginning of March. These are multi-investigator funds for up to $30,000 and the primary purpose is to provide the scholars with support to gather preliminary data to make an external proposal competitive. This must include a collaborator from the Medical School or from outside of WFU.
Intercampus Collaborative Grants (ICG)
One call for proposals per year, at the end of June. These are multi-investigator funds for up to $25,000 each from the two institutions ($50,000 max in total). The primary purpose is to provide the scholars with support to gather preliminary data to submit a competitive external proposal. This must include a co-PI collaborator from Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist (Winston-Salem or Charlotte). Each co-PI (one per campus) can receive up to $25,000 from their institution.
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.
Awards are available to all full time faculty in all schools and colleges. Approval by the department chair or dean is required.
The department chair or dean may recommend use of these funds for other non-conference research related travel. Faculty members will be required to provide a brief description of research related travel.
This is not a competitive fund and every effort will be made to reimburse eligible expenses. To ensure that funding is available, faculty should submit the appropriate Provost’s Fund for Faculty Travel Form (College and Library) or Provost’s Fund for Faculty Travel Form (Professional Schools) to the Office of the Provost by March 1. Faculty will be notified by March 15 if funding is not available. Submissions received after March 1 will be subject to funding availability.
Since this is supplementary travel support, departmental funds should be exhausted before requesting funding from the Provost Office. The Provost’s Fund for Faculty Travel is limited to $2,000 per academic year for College and Library faculty. Faculty in the professional schools are eligible for a match of up to $1,500 per academic year.
Deadline: March 1
The Slavery, Race, and Memory Project is a project designed to guide the research, preservation, and communication accurately depicting the institution of slavery in the United States, and the University’s relationship to slavery and its implications across WFU’s history. The aim is to learn from the full truth of our past, take action to address past and present inequities in our community, and make our learnings available to other institutions and the public. The project aspires to be an intensive and sustained effort involving a series of conferences, public conversations, national speakers, artistic and cultural performances.
Faculty Course Enhancement Grant
The SRMP will award grants to support University faculty to enrich existing courses that examine universities and their relationship to slavery and enslaved persons. These grants will also support courses that examine the role that universities played during the Jim Crow era and relationships between universities and their neighboring communities in the modern era. These grants will be available to faculty in the College or our Professional and Graduate Schools. Course enhancements might include travel to a historical site, funds for a special speaker for a course, tickets/transportation to off-campus events, etc. Course enhancement grants may not exceed $750.
Campus-wide Engagement Grant
The SRMP will award grants for students, staff, and faculty to develop and host programs, mini-symposia, lectures, and other opportunities on campus related to the mission of the project. The goal would be to spur collaborative, interdisciplinary projects that would pilot new ways of integrating scholarly research related to slavery, race, and memory into campus life and culture, as well as inspire more students and faculty to become interested in these subject areas. Campus-wide engagement grants may not exceed $1000.00.
Please note: Applications must be received 4 weeks prior to event and/or program date to be considered.
T-CART (Technology-engaged Creative Activity, Research, and Teaching) includes two annual grants: the Summer Technology Exploration Program (STEP) grant, which supports faculty looking to incorporate technology into their curriculum and the WakerSpace Faculty Fellow grant, which will be awarded to Faculty to explore technology that exists in the WakerSpace. Both grants provide funding for faculty to explore technology that enhances the teaching and learning process.
A summer stipend up to $2,500 for faculty and an additional technology fund up to $1,000 can be requested. Some examples of technology and supply expenses could be, but are not limited to; hardware, software, and materials. Evaluation of STEP proposals will be carried out by faculty from the Committee on Information Technology, with input from Information Systems. Evaluation of WakerSpace Faculty Fellow proposals will be by current and previous WakerSpace Faculty Fellows and the Director of the WakerSpace.
Submit this form by Friday, February 17, 2023. Grant recipients will be announced by Friday, March 3, 2023.
If you have any questions, please contact Brianna Healey, healeyb@wfu.edu.
Program for Leadership and Character Grants
The Program for Leadership and Character offers four sources of funding for faculty and/or staff efforts to support WFU students’ development as leaders of character. These programs include: 1) Departmental Grants; 2) Course Development and Redesign Grants; 3) Travel for Interdisciplinary and Community Engaged Learning (TICEL) Grants; and 4) Co-Sponsorships.
Departmental Grants
Departmental grants fund creative faculty and staff efforts to provide leadership and character development opportunities to students and/or develop their own expertise as character and leadership educators. Major gifts from the Lilly Endowment and the Kern Family Foundation fund this program.
Who may apply: faculty or staff from WFU departments, programs, centers, etc.
Grant amount: up to $3000 per year
Course Development and Redesign Grants:
Course Development and Redesign Grants compensate faculty for spending significant time during their summer breaks to 1) deepen their expertise in character-development pedagogy and 2) generate a new course or revise an existing course to better support students’ growth as people and leaders of character. Grant awardees attend a 3-day in person summer workshop hosted by the Program for Leadership and Character in partnership with the Center for the Advancement of Teaching. In the weeks following the workshop, grant awardees give and receive peer feedback for their character development learning outcomes, assessments, and activities before submitting a syllabus and final grant report in late summer. Grant awardees will also have an option to participate in a year-long community of practice for character education (participation is a benefit but not a requirement of the CDRG program). Applications are encouraged from faculty who wish to approach character-development from a variety of disciplines, professions, traditions, or perspectives. Applicants who received grants last year may apply again, though priority will be given to first-time applicants. Major gifts from the Lilly Endowment and Kern Family Foundation fund this program.
Who may apply: Any WFU faculty
Grant amounts:
- $1000 for redesigning an existing course to incorporate a character-development learning outcome, a learning assessment, and learning activity
- $4000 for new courses the central focus of which is character-development or character-based leadership development
Travel for Interdisciplinary and/or Community Engaged Learning (TICEL) Grant
The Travel for Interdisciplinary and Community-Engaged Learning Travel (TICEL) Grant funds course-based travel for students in the professional schools. The ultimate goal of the TICEL grant is to educate professionals who recognize complex social problems in their communities, feel motivated to address those problems, and possess the professional and personal competencies to address them. These problems–like high maternal mortality rates, economic immobility, food deserts, etc.–transcend any one profession’s normal institutional scope (i.e. the court system for attorneys, healthcare systems for physicians, congregations for clergy). Resolving them requires collaboration across professions. Hands-on, experiential learning activities beyond the classroom setting can support students’ development as leaders with collaborative problem-solving capacities. However, these learning experiences can be expensive, involving costs for transportation, lodging, food, etc.. The TICEL grant exists to offset the cost of these learning activities for WFU professional and graduate students. Faculty apply for funds to cover expenses resulting from students’ travel (including the faculty person’s own travel expenses). These funds can be paid to students in the form of stipends (as a form of financial aid) or can be used to pay directly for the costs of learning activity (for instance, paying for hotel rooms during a weekend trip). A major gift from the Kern Family Foundation funds this program.
Who may apply: faculty in the WFU professional schools (law, divinity, business, medicine and/or engineering) and graduate schools
Grant amount: up to $1000 per student for up to 30 students per year
Co-Sponsorships
Co-sponsorships fund creative faculty, staff, and student efforts to provide leadership and character opportunities through conferences, speaker series, and other events. Major gifts from the Lilly Endowment and the Kern Family Foundation fund this program.
Who may apply: Faculty in the Wake Forest Schools of Business, Divinity, Law, and Medicine, the Department of Engineering, and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Grant amount: $250-$1000
Wake Forest has internal funding to support: exploratory research to compete for external grants, proposal writing, publications, conference travel, travel to a special resource (library, museum, collection, etc.), community engagement, exploration of new teaching ideas and methods, undergraduate research fellowships, as well as other scholarly endeavors.
Wake Forest provides access for its faculty and staff to two funding database search engines: SPINPlus and Foundations Directory Online. We also provide links to Proposal-Writing Resources, and provide a list of Current Funding Opportunities. Links to important Federal Grant Information are also provided.
Funding Resources
The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs offers a variety of services to assist in the pursuit and management of funding opportunities.