Mellon Foundation’s CBB Collaborative Faculty Enhancement Grant
Deadlines for 2009-2010: Monday, November 2, 2009; Monday, March 1, 2010

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has renewed the Bates, Bowdoin, and Colby award in Faculty Enhancements to support collaborative faculty professional development initiatives across the three institutions.  More than 100 faculty in 25 groups participated in the first iteration of the grant during 2005-2008. This second award is for $300,000 over three academic years, 2009-2012.  A steering committee composed of faculty from each of the three colleges will coordinate the grant.  Major objectives of the grant are to encourage new and continuing collaborations that promote faculty growth and development, enhance pedagogy, and support and inspire faculty research. Funding is especially designed to act as seed money for cross-campus connections, research, and teaching initiatives that will continue beyond the life of the awards. 

This iteration of the grant welcomes proposals for seminars, workshops, research, and laboratory collaborations, which were successful formats of the of the first round of the CBB collaborative grant, and also invites additional or new models such as team teaching, course development, and faculty-student engagement. The grant supports cross-college groups in four categories that advance faculty scholarship and/or curricular development:  Laboratory Experience, Creative Process, Crossing Boundaries, and Communication.  Suggested guidelines follow.

The Laboratory Experience encourages the hands-on intellectual process, whether the laboratory is a river in Maine, a digital information lab, a scientific research laboratory, or some other venue. The grant encourages models and projects that were successful in the first phase of the grant and solicits cross-college collaborations that explore new ways of thinking about how to extend the concept of what a laboratory is, how to share knowledge, and how to integrate students into laboratory experiences.

The category of Creative Process promotes new ways to explore, think about, and realize the creative act. The grant encourages faculty to reach across disciplines to create conversations and seek diverse venues, such as student residences and the local/regional community, and to create unusual teams of collaborators.  Examples might include combining research and pedagogy, reaching into the digital world to explore new presentation techniques, civic engagement through the arts, and incorporating new media into classrooms offerings. 

The theme Crossing Boundaries is designed to promote cross-college collaborations and investigations beyond single or traditional disciplines. The grant seeks to encourage faculty to explore the interstices between established categories of knowledge, to deepen their knowledge of and commitment to multicultural literacy through new courses, to explore new ways of looking at primary and secondary material, and to promote discussions that cross traditional academic and cultural lines.

In the area of Communication the grant solicits proposals from faculty who seek to study and foster fluency in communication skills.  This category has a special emphasis on visual, linguistic, and information fluency, but does not rule out other methods or models. Collaborations could focus on developing student or faculty skills in information fluency, cutting-edge technology or software important in research and/or teaching in areas such as linguistic fluency, quantitative literacy, multi-cultural literacy, and communicating across differences.

Award criteria:
Proposals are judged based on the following criteria:
Quality of proposal
Degree of cross-college collaboration
Extent of effects on student learning
Potential lasting value of project
Cost effectiveness of budget

Application process:
An application has four parts, explained below.  If you have questions about the application process, please email the steering committee at Mellon_cbb_grant@list.bowdoin.edu or contact Judy Head at jhead@bates,edu , #6067.

A. Application cover sheet.  

B. Narrative:  The narrative part of the proposal should be written so as to be comprehensible to colleagues outside the applicants’ disciplines. The narrative of two to three pages should include
Project description, including a statement of objectives and anticipated outcomes 
Importance to the applicants’ ongoing scholarship and/or teaching
Research venues and travel
Technology needs
Intended guest scholars or speakers
Strategies for evaluation of objectives and dissemination of outcomes
Other funding or applications for other funding.   
A project timetable

C. Current curricula vitae for all participants

D. Detailed budget:  The proposal requires a detailed budget of all expenses for the project, and justification for amounts. To comply with the Mellon grant requirements, please separate the budget into the following six categories.

• Support for faculty—see Information about faculty stipends below (summer stipends, seminar leadership stipends, seminar participation stipends)
• Travel for Faculty (transportation, lodging and meals, entrance fees to libraries, galleries, or archives)
• Guest scholars/speakers (honoraria, transportation, lodging, meals, fees for professional actors or musicians)
• Materials (books, films or musical scores, data sets, assessment tests, laboratory equipment, journals, electronic equipment, computers, still cameras, software programs, supplies for visual and performing arts, other specific materials or supplies)
• Evaluation of objectives and dissemination of outcomes (fees for typing, editing, copying, transcriptions, indexing, illustrations or graphics for journal articles, reproduction costs)
• Other (e.g. wages for student assistants, phone, fax, mail, subject participation, consultant fees and reimbursements).

Information about faculty stipends:
A.  For seminars, workshops, or meetings with similar formats, faculty leaders and associates may receive stipends.  All participants in a seminar will receive up to $100 for each half-day/three-hour meeting and up to $200 for one whole day/six-hours of participation. Associates will be asked to participate fully in all pertinent exercises and readings and to attend all meetings.   

Leaders will be responsible for submitting an initial plan as well as a final report to the steering committee. They will be expected to organize and convene the meetings, select readings or exercises related to the topic chosen and direct at least one session devoted to the topic. Leaders may also invite speakers. A leader may receive up to an additional $1,000, depending on the scale of the project.  If leadership duties are shared, the stipend may be divided among other participants.

B.  For more substantial collaborative faculty research or pedagogical development projects, faculty may work in pairs or larger groups on single projects or around a unifying theme. Funded participants will be expected to meet with their peers and make presentations on campus.  Funds may be used to cover summer stipends of up to $3,000 per person as well as equipment, travel, specialized software, and other expenses. Participating faculty will meet on a regular basis during the academic year, the summer, or both.

Submitting proposals:
All applications must be submitted electronically on or before the appropriate deadline to Mellon_cbb_grant@list.bowdoin.edu.  Submissions must be in a single document in PDF format; no other electronic format will be accepted. For assistance in creating PDF documents, please contact your Information Services Help Desk. Electronic applications will be distributed automatically to all members of the CBB steering committee.

Reports and requests:
Though expenses may be paid at the time they are incurred, the principal contact for each collaborative faculty group must submit a final report to the steering committee before any faculty stipends will be paid. When reporting expenses or requesting reimbursements and stipends, use the Mellon Request Form provided with your letter of award.  The final report must be submitted within two months of the end of the award period. The report should include a brief description of the meetings or seminars held, the collaborative project outcomes (including relevant effects on pedagogy, effects on research or artistic scholarship, and establishment of long-term collaborative connections) and envisioned future collaboration arising from work begun during this project such as possible grant submissions.

9/2009