Faculty Awards and Funding

Awards

Each year the School of Graduate Studies accepts nominations for the following awards to recognize outstanding faculty in the areas of scholarly activity and graduate education.

  • 100 Scholars Research Award: This award is designed to recognize exemplary research or creative activities of a tenured faculty member.
  • Distinguished Graduate Faculty Award: This award is designed to recognize a faculty member who is engaged in the graduate education enterprise as an outstanding teacher, mentor, and scholar.
  • Academy of Outstanding Mentors: This Academy recognizes graduate faculty members for exemplary mentoring activities well beyond good classroom and laboratory instruction or research supervision of graduate students.
  • Wachovia Award: This award recognizes faculty and/or graduate students for research related to environmental concerns for the region served by the University.

Other Sources of Faculty Funding

Harkrader Family Foundation Research Awards

Harkrader Family Foundation Faculty Research Awards are meant to enhance the research enterprise at Appalachian State University by involving graduate students in faculty research. Applicants should address how their project will achieve this goal by using these funds as a way to enable graduate students to be an integral part of a research project. Funding will be available beginning January 16, 2024 and must be spent by October 6, 2024. This award is administered by the Cratis D. Williams School of Graduate Studies with generous funding from the Harkrader Family Foundation. For the 2023-24 cycle,  6 awards of up to $2,000 each will be made. Tenured and tenure-track faculty members and full-time instructor-rank faculty members who supervise graduate students are eligible to submit proposals. Applicants may be listed on only one proposal under review. This award may be used to fund research supplies, equipment, or services (e.g., data sets); compensation for subjects; allowable travel for purposes of gathering data, consulting archives, and accessing collections; assessment for programming; or collaborating with colleagues when necessary. This award may NOT fund faculty, staff, graduate or undergraduate student salaries; conference support; purely instructional projects; or food/drink/entertainment expenses. Proposals should show a clear plan for how graduate student(s) will be involved in the research project. Proposals with an emphasis on healthcare or workforce development will be given preference for funding.

Deadline to submit a proposal for the 2023-2024 application cycle: Friday, November 17, 2023

Awardees will be notified by no later than January 8, 2024. For additional information, please contact Marty Hall: hallml4@appstate.edu or 828-262-2693

Graduate Research Associate Mentoring (GRAM) Program

The School of Graduate Studies accepts proposals from faculty for funding to support a graduate research associate (GRA) to work on a faculty member's research project. GRAs receive an annual stipend of $14,000 for 600 hours (20 hours a week on average) of work on the research project during the academic year.  See the GRAM page for more information.

University Research Council Grants

The University Research Council advises the Dean on research related activities at App State. The Council accepts proposals from faculty for funding to support the conduct of research / creative activities each semester. See the URC page for more information.

Board of Trustees Faculty International Research Travel Grants

These awards provide travel funds for faculty members whose research projects require travel outside the United States. The goal of the program is to support international research at App State. Proposals for research in both basic and applied/professional fields are welcome. Applicants must agree to deliver a public presentation about the research project to a public audience that will include members of the Board of Trustees. See the URC page for more information.