Begun in the 1995-96 year as a new faculty support program, this Enhancement
Grant program supports research and creative activities with funds made
available by the Horry County Higher Education Commission and the Coastal
Educational Foundation, Inc. Grants are awarded and administered through
the office of the Provost to encourage projects that show potential for
significant research, scholarly, creative or instructional contributions
and that can serve as the base to acquire additional funding from external
sources.
Professional Enhancement Grants are of three types:
Academic Enhancement Grants: These awards are for research, scholarly,
creative or instructional projects that immediately involve student
participation.
Research Enhancement Grants: These awards are for workshops, research
travel, scholarly, creative projects, equipment, and professional expenses
that do not directly involve student participation.
Proposal Writing Awards: These awards allow a faculty member to write
a grant proposal to a designated external agency.
Enhancement Grants
The purpose of the Academic Enhancement Grant (AEG) and Research Enhancement
Grant (REG) awards is to support faculty members in their development
as teachers, researchers, and professionals in their field. Both the AEG
and REG categories support onsite research, research travel, equipment,
and supply costs. AEG and REG awards do not fund normal
classroom expenses or the purchase of computers.
Academic Enhancement Grants must include direct student
involvement in research or in the use of equipment and supplies purchased
with the award monies. Other benefits to the student body in terms of
later course development and the increased expertise of the professor
are also important factors in awarding these grants.
Research Enhancement Grants do not typically involve
direct student participation. While these activities may not directly
involve students, their end result should benefit both students and CCU
through the increased knowledge and skills of the supported faculty member.
In addition, REGs fund professional enhancement activities that are not
funded by Academic Enhancement Grants including workshops, equipment,
and professional expenses. REG awards do not fund the production of lab
manuals or textbooks for classes.
Enhancement Grant Supported Activities and Guidelines:
Workshops: REGs can be used for attendance at
workshops, seminars, hands-on conferences or training sessions designed
to develop professional abilities or teach new techniques and skills.
Faculty must show a direct relation between attendance and either current
(or planned) research, classroom instruction, or current (or planned)
professional responsibilities. The proposal should include workshop
and materials costs and all travel expenses in the proposal.
Research travel: Both AEG and REG awards can
be used for travel to research libraries, archives, or off-campus research
sites to conduct on site research. Proposals must show evidence of the
appropriateness of the travel and make specific reference to the uniqueness
of materials or resources available at the destination. All travel and
living expenses must be included, as well as any expenses associated
with conducting the research
Equipment: Both AEG and REG awards can be used
for purchase or upgrade of equipment, including software, research materials
and single-user database licenses, excluding computers. All materials
purchased with these funds become property of the University. The proposal
should address housing and access provisions for these materials during
and after the use period. Applications should show their importance
to the current project as well as future uses for research, or classroom
instruction. Funding for single-user licenses for databases are allowed,
but before purchasing all license agreements must obtain approval from
the University counsel and be signed by the president, otherwise the
individual is responsible for all charges associated with the license.
Professional expenses: REG awards can be used for
survey expenses, publication expenses, manuscript preparation expenses,
and exhibition expenses. Survey expenses relate to data collection and
processing. Manuscript publication expenses such as preparing camera
ready work, reprint charges, charges for tables and graphs. Exhibition
expenses such as framing, mounting, transportation/shipping of objects.
Applications must include documents of acceptance for any publication,
manuscript or exhibition expenses.
The following general guidelines apply to all areas of the Professional
Enhancement Grants Program:
Any full-time, tenured or tenure-track faculty member may apply.
Proposals are limited to one per faculty member, even though two or
more faculty members are permitted on the same proposal.
Grant Awards are limited to a maximum of $4,000. Budget requests may
include funds for equipment, materials, supplies, student assistants,
travel related directly to the project, and other justifiable items.
Budgets may also include requests for academic year reassigned time
and/or faculty summer salary stipends. For Proposal Writing and Academic
Enhancement grants there is a maximum of $2500 for the stipend.
In the case of a proposal with multiple investigators, the summer salary
stipend may be divided but may not exceed $2,500. A faculty
member awarded a summer stipend will be limited to teaching one course
during the summer (Maymester, Summer I or Summer II). Research
Enhancement Grants that include extensive time commitments can include
a stipend request of up to $1500. There is no teaching limit associated
with Research Enhancement Grant awards.
30% of the available funding will be set aside for new faculty (i.e.,
non-tenured, tenure-track faculty within their first five years at Coastal);
however, any unused funds will be reallocated to the program budget.
One Proposal Writing Award of up to $4,000 may be awarded for academic
year reassigned time and/or for a summer period during which a faculty
member would write a proposal to a designated external agency for a
specific project which has an excellent opportunity of obtaining significant
funding. If no Proposal Writing Award is granted, the funds will be
reallocated to the program budget.
At least 50% of the available funding will be awarded to tenured
and non-tenured faculty beyond their fifth year regardless of the
outcome of the new faculty and the proposal writing stipulations.
All proposals should describe projects which can be completed prior
to August 15. Grant Awardees will submit a final written project report
and may be asked to participate in the Teaching Effectiveness Seminar
Series at the beginning of the academic year following completion of
their project.
Awards to the same individual are not permitted for more than two
years in succession nor will the same or a strikingly similar project
be refunded for a second year.
Application forms are available in the offices of the Department Chairs
and Deans, and the Office of the Provost, and electronically at www.coastal.edu/forms
(Office of the Provost forms). Note that there are two types
of application forms. One is entitled "Proposal Writing Application"
and should be used to apply for the opportunity described above in number
5. The other is entitled "Enhancement Grant Application" and
should be used to apply for either Academic Enhancement or Research
Enhancement grants. In both cases, applicants should consult the ("Evaluation
Guidelines") at the end of the respective application packet prior
to beginning the preparation of a proposal.
An original and ten (10) stapled copies of a proposal should be submitted
through the Office of the respective department and College Dean to
the FWD Committee by the date established by the call for applications
in that academic year (fall semester). Each College will establish internal
guidelines and internal deadlines relative to preparation and submission
of a proposal.
