Internal Funding Opportunities
This is not a complete list of the internal funding opportunities available at the University of South Alabama. Our primary responsibility is to publish opportunities from the Office of Research and Economic Development, but for other units we can only list what we are aware of. Contact the Dean's office to get a complete list of internal funding available in a given unit. You can also check InfoReady to find Faculty Opportunities from units across campus, although this is not necessarily comprehensive.
To see what kinds of projects our programs have funded in the past, visit the Award Announcements page.
If you are new faculty and/or have never applied to our internal funding programs before, we suggest that you take our 45-minute virtual process workshop, which will familiarize you with our services, the programs, and the Cayuse platform that is used for submission. Send an email to request access.
Additionally, we offer virtual office hours for faculty who have questions about the programs or about applying. These are typically held on the first Wednesday of the month at 4pm. Contact us for registration information.
NOTE: Effective October 1, 2019, all newly-awarded internal funding for ORED programs that allow no-cost extensions are limited to one six-month request. Funds remaining unused after 18 months will revert to the Office of Research and Economic Development.
Office of Research and Economic Development
DESCRIPTION: The Research and Scholarly Development Grant (RSDG) Program has been created to provide tenure and non-tenure track faculty with funding to help build their research and scholarly careers. RSDG grants are intended to stimulate interactions across disciplines, departments, colleges, and programs. The funding is designed to facilitate preliminary data collection or planning efforts to assist in the development of competitive proposals that will attract external funding. Each RSDG proposal is required to demonstrate how funding for the project will lead directly to external funding requests.
DEADLINES: Pre-proposal deadline: Tuesday, October 1, 2024 at 11:59pm; invited full proposals due Monday, December 16, 2024 at 5:00pm.
FUNDING AMOUNT: Awards range from $15,000 - $25,000. $125,000 has been allocated for the 2024-2025 Program.
ELIGIBLE EXPENSES: The award funds are to be used to:
- Provide seed funding for new research projects
- Provide resources for planning and executing a major grant submission
ELIGIBILITY: The current program guidelines reflect the eligibility criteria for individuals with "Instructor" titles. As of the 2018-19 competition, faculty in the College of Medicine are no longer eligible to apply in the Principal Investigator role.
PROGRAM GUIDELINES: 2024-2025 Program Guidelines. See the guidelines for detailed information about the process and application and submission requirements.
PRE-PROPOSAL: Applicants desiring to submit a full proposal are required to submit a pre-proposal in InfoReady. After a review process, applicants will be notified whether they are invited to submit a full proposal.
FULL PROPOSAL APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS: Applications must be submitted in InfoReady. Administrative approvals will be handled using Cayuse SP. See the Application Guidelines (downloadable above) for an Appendix on using Cayuse to route full proposals.
DESCRIPTION: The Faculty Development Council Grant Program (FDCGP) provides funding to facilitate research, scholarly and creative productivity to increase awardee competitiveness for extramural grant funding. Faculty who are in the initial stages of conducting a research, scholarly and/or creative project, expanding the scope/aims of an existing project, and/or conducting additional experiments or other activities that will address reviewer/editor comments before resubmission to an external funding agency or publisher are strongly encouraged to apply.
DEADLINES: Monday, February 17 2024 at 5:00pm.
FUNDING AMOUNT: $35,000 will be allocated for this program in fiscal year 2024, with individual awards limited to a maximum of $5,000.
ELIGIBILITY: Full time, tenure track and non-tenure track faculty of any academic rank, in continuous appointments, are eligible to apply. NOTE: Applicants to Faculty Development Council programs must select either the Fellows track or the Grant track. Applicants should NOT apply to both programs.
PROGRAM GUIDELINES: Updated for Fall 2024. FDCGP Application Guidelines. See the guidelines for detailed information about the process and application and submission requirements, including appendices that contain a walkthrough for Cayuse SP and an application checklist.
APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS: Applications must be submitted through InfoReady. Administrative approvals will be handled using Cayuse SP. See the FDCGP Application Guidelines (downloadable above) for an Appendix on using Cayuse SP to route proposals.
DESCRIPTION: This program supports faculty research efforts on social justice in the following areas: social stratification, environmental justice, and health disparities These awards should be considered seed funding to facilitate pilot data collection or other activities that will position the applicant for a competitive application for external funding.
DEADLINES: Monday, March 17, 2024 at 5pm.
FUNDING AMOUNT: $30,000 has been allocated for this program, with individual awards limited to a maximum of $10,000.
ELIGIBILITY: Full-time faculty in continuous appointments in any department, regardless of tenure track or rank, are eligible to apply. Both single investigator and collaborative proposals will be considered. Principal investigators may submit one application to the program. Faculty who have active internal awards from the Office of Research and Economic Development are not eligible to apply as a principal investigator.
PROGRAM GUIDELINES: Updated for Fall 2024. Please see the full program guidelines for a detailed description of the program.
APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS: Applications must be submitted through InfoReady. Administrative approvals are handled online using Cayuse SP. See the Application Guidelines (downloadable above) for an Appendix on using Cayuse to route proposals
DESCRIPTION: The Seed Grant to Support the Arts and Humanities (SGSAH) Program will provide funding to help support Arts and Humanities faculty research and scholarly activities. The purpose of the program is to assist faculty in building their careers and contributing to their disciplines by exploring new scholarly, creative, and research activities.
DEADLINES: Continuous.
FUNDING AMOUNT: $25,000 will be allocated annually for this program, with individual awards limited to a maximum of $2,500. NOTE: As of 9 Sep 2024 we have $3,020 remaining in unawarded funds. This means we could fund one more proposal in full and up to $520 for an additional project. Given the time needed for the review process, we will open applications for FY2025 on September 16, 2024.
ELIGIBILITY: Faculty in the departments of English, Communication, Modern and Classical Languages and Literature, History, Philosophy, Music, Theatre & Dance, and Visual Arts in the rank of assistant, associate, and full professor, (without regard to tenure status) are eligible with the exception of persons known to be in their last year of employment. Applicants are REQUIRED to complete an online process workshop for submitting an internal funding application. Contact resdevlearn@sydotnet.net to request to be added to the Canvas course. Frequency of award is limited to two awards within a three year period.
PROGRAM GUIDELINES: Guidelines for FY2024.
APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS: Applications must be submitted through InfoReady. Administrative approvals are handled online using Cayuse SP. See the Application Guidelines (downloadable above) for an Appendix on using Cayuse to route proposals.
DESCRIPTION: The Faculty Productivity Grant program (FPG) provides concentrated time for faculty to generate pilot or preliminary data that will enhance their competitiveness for a major grant or contract.
DEADLINES: October 1 and February 1, annually. This competition will be held each semester contingent on the remaining funds. E.g. if a competition is held in the fall and two or fewer awards are made, the competition will be open again in the spring. However, if a competition is held in the fall and three awards are made, the competition will not open again until the following fall.
FUNDING AMOUNT: $10,000 is allocated annually for this program. Award amounts are determined based on the reimbursable cost of an instructor to cover the faculty member’s course, up to $5,000, which can fund two to three course buy-outs per year.
PROGRAM AND APPLICATION GUIDELINES: Program guidelines (updated Fall 2024). Please see the full program and application guidelines for a detailed description of the program. NOTE: the application process for this program has changed from previous years, and is now being conducted in InfoReady.
DESCRIPTION: This award supplements institutional start-up funding to incentivize the recruitment and hiring of a tenure or non-tenure track faculty member who will impact the growth of USA’s research enterprise. Funding can be used to purchase equipment, to support graduate students or post-doctoral fellows or hire technical support, and other critical components needed to establish a laboratory and/or team at the University of South Alabama.
FUNDING AMOUNT: For 2024, $100,000 will be allocated for this program, annually. The award must be used exclusively to supplement university and/or college/school funds committed as part of a start-up package for a new faculty candidate. This award is made on a first come, first served basis. If an annual award is not made, funds will be carried forward to the next academic year.
ELIGIBILITY: The candidate must have a record of consistent funding for research and/or scholarship, an extensive publication record reflecting his/her discipline standards and a record of transferring research and scholarship into new technologies or to practice. The individual must be able to demonstrate that he/she has strong potential for garnering extensive research support from external sources of funding. Eligible candidates must:
- Have the capacity to build a strong team of researchers across disciplines and potentially across institutions;
- Be amenable to an A/B salary plan (combination state funds and external funds);
- Be able to transfer grants/contracts or have pending awards with sufficient funding to cover the “B” portion of an A/B salary plan;
- Be able to generate sufficient funding to cover at least one graduate student by the second year of their graduate program;
- Demonstrate that the research focus area should be able to maintain funding for an extended period of time (i.e. of interest to sponsors/national priorities).
APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS: An application, consisting of the candidate's CV and a request letter describing the candidate's eligibility in detail, must be submitted by a Dean directly to the Vice President for Research and Economic Development.
DESCRIPTION: The Faculty Development Council Fellows Program (FDCFP) has been created to provide junior faculty with a structured, incentivized framework for developing a significant proposal for external funding or prestigious fellowships. The broader goal of the program is to support outstanding faculty who have a future as accomplished grant seekers and mentors to faculty who are their juniors.
DEADLINES: THIS PROGRAM IS ON HIATUS FOR 2023-24.
FUNDING AMOUNT: $20,000 was allocated for this program in fiscal year 2023, with individual awards of $5,000.
ELIGIBILITY: Full-time tenure-track assistant professors in continuous appointments and in good standing are eligible to apply. NOTE: Applicants to Faculty Development Council programs must select either the Fellows track or the Grant track. Applicants should NOT apply to both programs.
PROGRAM GUIDELINES: FDCFP Application Guidelines (FY2023). See the guidelines for detailed information about the process and application and submission requirements, including appendices that contain a walkthrough for Cayuse SP and an application checklist.
APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS: Applications must be submitted through InfoReady. Administrative approvals will be handled using Cayuse SP. See the FDCFP Application Guidelines (downloadable above) for an Appendix on using Cayuse SP to route proposals.
Institutional approval of ORED-sponsored internal funding programs is handled through Cayuse SP:
- Faculty Development Council Fellows
- Faculty Development Council Grant
- Research and Scholarly Development Grant
- Seed Grant to Support the Arts & Humanities
- Social Justice Research Initiative
Download a PDF with guidelines for using Cayuse SP for proposal routing for these programs. (NOTE: these are the same instructions included in each program guidelines document.)
ORED internal funding program applicants can download this PDF checklist to use prior to submission.
Post-award change requests for ORED internal funding programs must be submitted through InfoReady. This includes no-cost extensions, rebudgeting, rescoping, and requests to relinquish an award.
No-cost extensions (NCEs) are no longer granted for the Seed Grant to Support the Arts & Humanities except in the event of COVID-related issues. For other programs, NCE requests must be received 60 days prior to the end date of the award. Effective October 1, 2019, all newly-awarded internal funding for ORED programs that allow no-cost extensions will be limited to one six-month request. Funds remaining unused after 18 months will revert to the Office of Research and Economic Development.
See the guidelines for requirements on other types of requests.
Internal Funding from Additional Units
The USA College of Arts and Sciences offers several research and travel grants. For additional information about these programs please see the program guidelines (scroll to the bottom of the page for Arts and Sciences College Funding Sources).