Sponsored Projects Administration kicked off September with the inaugural year of SPA Colloquia, a series of faculty learning sessions addressing various topics related to grant seeking and the external funding enterprise on campus.
The one-hour session in Bracken Library on Friday, "Faculty Success Stories: Pathways to Funding Success," featured faculty panelists and SPA personnel within a moderated Q&A format.
Faculty members Paul Gestwicki (Computer Science), Janay Sander (Educational Psychology), and Stephanie Simon-Dack (Psychological Science) discussed how they achieved funding success to support their projects.
Faculty members Paul Gestwicki (Computer Science), Janay Sander
(Educational Psychology), and Stephanie
Simon-Dack
(Psychological Science) discuss how they achieved funding success to support
their projects on Friday in Bracken Library.
Simon-Dack
discussed how she was able to receive federal funding for the Department of
Psychological Science at Ball State after a resourceful and collaborative
experience with SPA.
"I attached myself to Sponsored Projects Administration like a leech," Simon-Dack said. "It was about networking and allowing myself to be guided by people who knew how to do it."
Some
attendees of the session asked panelists how they were able to effectively
manage their time between grant seeking, teaching, and research throughout the
academic year.
"I relied heavily on faculty mentors and you will realize that people in your department and others on campus want to help each other," Sander said. "You have to keep your scholarly work as your focus and keep your mind on the bigger picture."
Gestwicki
discussed how he was able to authentically combine immersive learning with the
funding he received in the Department of Computer Science.
"I had these ideas of things I wanted to do and I knew I couldn't do them the way I imagined them without external funding," he said. "The fact that my personal joy comes from doing immersive learning and I can get funding to do so is a great combination."  |
| Campus Liason Stanley Geidel introduces faculty members Paul Gestwicki (Computer Science), Janay Sander (Educational Psychology), and Stephanie Simon-Dack (Psychological Science) to attendees of the session on Friday in Bracken Library. |
Attendees of the session took away several major themes related to the grant seeking enterprise:
- Start small - Don't expect to get big funding right away
- Grant seeking is an iterative process and a learning experience
- Collaborate with SPA, other faculty, and students on campus
- Time is everything - plan ahead and plan strategically
- If it does not tie to your work, it is probably not fund worthy
- Stay focused on your scholarly work while effectively managing your time
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