The deadline for applications is a minimum of 2 months before your travel date or project start date.
Go to Form
Click the "Go to Form" link above
to enter your information.
FINE PRINT about FPDF
Guidelines and Procedures for 2009-10
Faculty development is defined as activities that serve your continuing growth as a teacher, scholar, and contributor to a liberal arts college community. You may request funds for research expenses; travel to research sites; professional conferences and workshops; pedagogical and course development; additional training; and purchase of materials needed for teaching and research. (Requests for supplies that are typically obtained through other means, such as through departmental budgets, will not be approved, nor will journals or books.) The FPDF not only supports ongoing research, but also may be used by faculty who wish to develop new teaching materials and methods, or who need to develop new skills and expertise (consistent with the College’s academic mission). If faculty have start-up funds designated for research travel that would normally be covered by FPDF, they should expect to use those funds before applying to FPDF.
Eligibility: All teaching faculty (term and tenure-track appointments), including those on regular leave, are eligible to apply to the Fund. For colleagues on part-time teaching appointments, support will be pro-rated according to FTE status. Colleagues who have received funds from endowed chairs, or enrichment funds from other College sources, will not be eligible for FPDF.
Funding: Currently, $2,000 is the working figure for full-time faculty that may help you shape your request(s) and allow those overseeing the budget to gauge needs and expenses. It is not, however, intended to suggest that $2,000/year of development funds has been set aside or will be approved for each faculty member. Each application is reviewed separately and the actual total amount approved per year may be lower than $2,000. Within the maximum allocation for the fiscal year, up to $150 may be requested for payment of membership fees to professional organizations.
Recognizing that going to conferences is an important aspect of one’s professional activity, but also recognizing that funds are limited and need to be used for an increasing number of professional development opportunities, proposals for travel that include paper, poster, or artistic presentations, serving as discussant, or chairing sessions, will receive greater priority and greater levels of funding than those that do not. Support for travel to meetings at which faculty do not engage in such activities (do not appear on the program) are limited to $650.
If the funds cannot be utilized in the manner for which they were approved (e.g., the conference is canceled, the research assistant is never hired), then they may not be used and are made available again to all faculty. Please contact the office of the Dean for Faculty Development & Research if your project or travel is canceled. If you want to use money for any reason other than that for which it was approved, you must submit another FPDF proposal.
Application Procedures: The deadline for applications is a minimum of 2 months before your travel date or project start date.
An application form is available on the web from the Academic Affairs web page under the Faculty Research & Development selection. After you are notified via the web that you have "successfully" submitted the application, you will be asked to print the form which will need to be submitted to the DFDR (in Old Chapel) before the appropriate deadline. When available, program descriptions for workshops and short courses should be appended to the application. Note that processing of requests will not begin until the printed copy is received in the DFDR office.
When filling out the application form, and trying to estimate food expenses, you can use links from the Academic Affairs (Faculty Research & Development section) web page to access governmental websites to view per diem rates for both the continental U.S. and foreign cities. If you are submitting receipts you can be fully reimbursed for all meal receipts; if you are being reimbursed using per diem rates, the maximum amount allowable is based on federal guidelines for the specific city/state or city/country where you are traveling (using the website information). Reimbursement for food and lodging while conducting research is held to a maximum of $1500 per month.
Booking air travel: Please check the College Handbook pages regarding Travel Policies. The policy is currently located at: http://www.middlebury.edu/about/handbook/general/misc/travel.htm.
Reimbursements: All requests for reimbursement should be sent to Nancy Vizvarie, Assistant to the DFDR (in Old Chapel 107). The use of the activity code is an important feature for FPDF grants, so please include the activity code (provided in your approval letter) on all charges or vouchers.
Research and travel
expenses should be submitted on a pink voucher after completing your trip or project. Please be sure to attach original receipts and verification (including itemized food and lodging receipts). A voucher and worksheet may be found from the Academic Affairs web site, Faculty Research and Development page.
If you are requesting payment of membership fees to professional organizations, you do not need to fill out an application form; instead, fill out a pink voucher. If you have not paid the dues yet, you can submit the voucher filled out to the organization and include the membership/renewal form. If you have already paid the dues, send the voucher filled out for reimbursement and include a receipt or canceled check. Memberships may be reimbursed in a given fiscal year up to a total of $150 and this amount is considered to be a part of the fiscal year maximum funding allowable.