Professional Development Fund for Lecturers

The Professional Development Fund Pool is open to all Unit 18 non-Senate faculty (lecturers and other instructors covered by the Unit 18 contract) with teaching appointments on the UC Merced campus. Grants are available for teaching, research, and scholarship.

Please submit all application materials to:

Professional Development Committee
c/o
Will Seng,  hseng@ucmerced.edu
Petia Gueorguieva, pgueorguieva@ucmerced.edu, AOB, rm.181
5200 N. Lake Ave.
University of California
Merced, CA 95343

Criteria for Grants:

Grants will be awarded for proposals including but not limited to:

--travel expenses related to teaching, research, or other scholarly endeavors,
--membership for professional associations and organizations
--seminar/workshop/conference/studio attendance fees,
--academic training (for example, taking courses related to teaching responsibilities at UCM),
-- research expenses,
--software and hardware for use in research and/or teaching (including in special cases the purchase of books, films, or software in preparation for teaching assignments) which remain University property, and
--course relief. (Only continuing appointees may apply for course relief and the cost should include benefits.)

The Committee also welcomes collaborative proposals, including but not limited to projects linked to courses taught by more than one instructor, shared research endeavors, and collaborative presentations. It is the committee’s hope to encourage creative project proposals and to distribute awards broadly within the university community. Therefore preference will given to applicants who have not received large awards in the last two years. Proposals requiring staff support salaries or course relief should be reviewed in advance with the Academic Personnel Office (APO).

Historically, grants have ranged from approximately $50 to $1,000, depending on the nature and scope of the proposals. Larger grants are designed to fund projects that are wider in scope, requiring more extensive funding, as well as more extensive research and travel. Smaller grants are designed to fund projects and scholarly endeavors or requisitions more limited in scope.

The committee is not able to fund the following:

--projects aimed primarily at supporting student work or creating new opportunities for students;
--projects that cannot demonstrate an ultimate beneficial impact on pedagogy and/or the educational mission of the University;
--projects that mainly benefit or involve institutions other than UCM (e.g., covering tuition fees for a one year professional degree course at Oxford University);
--projects that seek funding for the production or promotion of publications (e.g., covering the costs for printing a book or reader, holding a reading in a bookstore in Chicago, etc.);
--technical support materials that could be funded by other campus resources;
--incomplete or late submissions.

-------------------------------------------------