Academic Research Council (ARC) Grant

ARC Grant AY 2025-26

Deadline #1: Friday, April 4, 2025 (4:30pm)

Deadline #2: Friday, November 7, 2025 (4:30pm)

Funds must be used between July 1, 2025 and June 30, 2026

The Academic Research Council (ARC) grant has been established at the College to be used by successful applicants to support scholarly projects or contributions to a culture of creativity, innovation, and intellectualism that positively impacts the learning experience of students and of the College community. See below for more details on how to apply for an ARC grant or how to serve on the Council.

Overview

The ARC grant is awarded twice annually with deadlines in April and November of each year.One proposal will be awarded in each of four categories based on strength of proposal in comparison with competing proposals in that category. If no proposal in a given category satisfies criteria the committee can elect to not name a winner for that category (satisfying criteria is defined as a combined score of 12 or higher with no 0s in any rubric dimension). Up to three wildcard awardees may be selected by the committee coming from any of the four categories based on strength of proposal in comparison with all remaining proposals which did not win their category. Committee can elect to not name all three wildcards if proposals do not satisfy criteria. In the event that no proposals are submitted in a class, the wildcard limit will not be increased by one to offset the absence. ARC grant proposal PI will identify category for consideration in the application form (see “Application Packet” dropdown below for details).

The four categories of research are Action, Classical, Experiential, and Discovery. Action research describes research into new facets of learning or learning methods to be completed in the classroom or with FSW students as part of the faculty's instructional role in an effort to pilot or clarify pedagogical or learning support pathways. Classical research describes the classical or typical academic research where the PI is seeking to add to generalizable knowledge in the field of study which can be applied in other settings. Experiential research describes research that might be considered classical (social research) in the sense that it is seeking to add to generalizable knowledge in the field of study but it is conducted on FSW students or the FSW community. Discovery research describes research in which some travel may be required to extract rare, unusual, or otherwise isolated data such as oral histories or archived manuscripts that will add to generalizable knowledge in the field of study.

All ARC recipients must present through FSW’s Center for Undergraduate Research and Creativity (CURC) and should be in contact with the Center for presentation planning.In addition, Action research grant recipients are also required to provide a findings report to the appropriate departments of FSW which can benefit from the research. Classical, Experiential, and Discovery research grant recipients are also required to submit for an academic publication or present at a regional or national conference within 18 months of award kickoff meeting.

ARC Grants do not award release or reassigned time, sabbatical, or travel funding for conferences related to the products of the research. The maximum allocation for travel-related line items (i.e., flight, hotel, per diems) is $2500 and international travel is only available to faculty already on continuing contract. Any travel in excess of this amount will be the responsibility of the PI. Award amounts can vary slightly based on need. Expenses incurred in excess of the awarded amounts are paid by the individual or through other funding sources. Each award package will include $1250 in addition to proposal request by applicant in the event of publication costs incurred by manuscripts related to research as outlined in the applicant's proposal. These funds are only transferred to the awardee project should the need arise and can only be used for publication costs for an academic journal.

Eligibility, Deadline, and Review Process

Only FSW full-time faculty members with a minimum of two years FSW full-time service may apply for the ARC grant. Individuals may apply once a year if funded, but may re-apply during the same academic year if funding on initial proposal has been denied.

The application must be submitted via email to the Office of Sponsored Programs & Research before 4:30pm on the deadline date in order to be considered for ARC review. Deadline dates for upcoming application rounds are always listed at the top of this page. Time permitting, applications will be reviewed for completeness and suggestions made, if requested.

The completed application form must be signed and approved by the Dean of the applicant's school. The Dean must sign-off that the methodology of the proposed research complies with the policies and practices of the department, that equipment requests (when made) meet needs of the department, and that the proposal has been reviewed and is approved by the Dean.

The ARC will score each proposal using the ARC Grant Evaluation Rubric associated with the category and will make recommendations to the VPAA's Office. The committee reserves the right to recommend proposals at higher or lower than requested funding levels. The VPAA's Office will make the determinations of the final awards. Proposals are blind reviewed.

Application Packet

Applicants for the ARC grant are encouraged to read through the ARC Grant Evaluation Rubric (PDF) prior to completing the application process and are reminded that strong proposals are those which impact FSW student learning experience through creativity, innovation, and intellectualism.

The application packet must include the below materials.

  1. Cover Page (page 1 of application form linked here) {Chair/Dean approval signatures required for this}

    1. Title of Proposal
    2. Principal Investigator (PI) Faculty Member, School or Division, Job Title or Titles
    3. PI's email address and telephone number
    4. Project period of the proposal
    5. Amount of funding requested
  2. Project Budget (pages 2 and 3 of application form (PDF)) and pages 4 and 5, if travel and equipment are required)

  3. Project Narrative (as word or PDF file)

    1. Introduction and Background

      1. Goals and significance
      2. Timeline

    2. Research Design

      1. Research question and hypothesis
      2. Purpose statement - explains the final conclusions the research study hopes to reach
      3. Any rival explanations to research

    3. Research Methodology

      1. Type of research
      2. Outline of methods
      3. Data collection
      4. Evaluation/outcome measurement
    4. Future Research - Include potential avenues for external funding

Completed applications must be emailed directly to Joseph van Gaalen, Office of Sponsored Programs before 4:30pm on the deadline date in order to be considered for ARC review.

Council Members by Academic Year

The Council is a nine-member panel comprised of two ex-officio members serving to facilitate and coordinate on behalf of the Council, and seven voting members. The seven voting members include one voting member from each of FSW's five schools, an academic dean, and a representative from FSW Libraries. Voting members serve a 3-yr term and can be retained on an annual basis beyond the term if no replacement from their representative area steps forward. Preference for members is given to former ARC recipients. The Dean (supervisor in the case of FSW Libraries) will select if two or more candidates request Council membership from the same area. If you intend to apply for an ARC grant, you cannot serve on the Council.

Sample Successful Grant Proposals

To assist potential ARC Grant proposal writers, below is a short list of successful ARC Grant proposals. Please keep in mind that the ARC forms and procedures are constantly updated so not all areas may be compatible. However, because content sections tend to be consistent over time, these may be helpful to ARC Grant writers.