The Faculty Fellows in Community Engagement Program is designed to support, strengthen, and formalize community engagement for faculty collaborator groups who develop and integrate publicly-engaged activities with teaching and scholarship for the public good.  Funding is intended to support proposals that collectively address a community identified need and actively include community partners in the ongoing co-learning and co-production processes.

Meet the current and past Faculty Fellows!
►  Current Cohort
►  Past Cohorts
 

GOALS FOR THE FACULTY FELLOWS PROGRAM

  • Expand our circle of partnerships and build collaborative communities of faculty, staff, student, and partners who work on shared interests.
  • Explore and develop theories and practices of community-engaged scholarship.
  • Gain an understanding of ethics and practices of sharing and co-creating public knowledge and disseminating the findings.
  • Potentially experiment with expanding our collaboration with other institutions of higher learning in the region and beyond.
  • Expand the circle of community-engaged scholars.


WHO CAN APPLY
The 2025 application portal will open on October 2, 2024 and application materials are due by Sunday, November 24, 2024 at 11:59pm.

GO TO APPLICATION

The Faculty Fellows will be selected from an application pool of UW Tacoma faculty who:

  • Have an interest in current and future community engagement activities. Applications are encouraged by any faculty member interested in community engagement on campus, regardless of their level of prior experience with community engagement work.
  • Are willing to organize and manage the activities related to the project. 
  • Hold a full-time faculty position at UW Tacoma.  Effective Autumn 2021, this includes those with Teaching Faculty titles.
  • Have at least one faculty leader (who must be based at UW Tacoma) plus one additional higher education collaborator, who can be any UW or non-UW faculty or staff member.  Applications which have more than two faculty collaborators are highly encouraged.
  • Have a deep commitment to ethics of engagement.

FUNDING AND TIME COMMITMENT

  • Each submitted proposal is eligible for an award of up to $10,000.  
  • Funded project details are to be added into Collaboratory (UW Tacoma's community engagement database). 
  • Include an itemized budget and include funding support for community partners.
  • If applicable, budgeted salaries must include the benefit load rate and can only account 25% of the total budget.  
    • Note: Awards cannot be used for salary or excess compensation if the awardee is on a paid professional leave (e.g. sabbatical, leave of absence). Some exceptions apply; refer to UW Academic Affairs for policy on paid professional leave and additional compensation (Period Activity Pay & One-Time Payment) .
  • The time commitment is one calendar year -- January 1-December 31.  In the Winter quarter following the end of the funding cycle, each Faculty Fellows group will give a public presentation about the year’s activities.  OCP will coordinate this event at a date/time that all Faculty Fellows and their community partners are available.
  • Awards cannot be used for course releases.
  • These are State funds, and must follow ALL UW spending policies and procedures.

APPLICATION PROCESS

  • October 2024: Call for applications
  • November 24, 2024 @ 11:59pm:  Application deadline
    • Helpful tip: Your application and budget must be approved by the head of your unit (e.g., Dean, Vice Chancellor) and the budget coordinator. 
    • Allow at least one week (5 business days) for them to review your budget and application.
    • Suggested date to send your application for their review is November 15, 2024.
  • December 2024:  All complete applications will be reviewed by selection committee.
  • Complete application includes:
    • Application Form
      • Helpful tip:  View a copy of the application questions. This document is for reference only and intended to help you prepare the information that will need to be entered onto the application form.
    • Budget
      • Helpful tip: View sample budget spreadsheets here.
      • Helpful tip: Create your budget by using this template. 
    • Review of proposal & budget by the head of your unit and budget coordinator.
    • (Optional) Community partner letter/statement of support
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q:  How many collaborators are required to be involved? And, can my project/activity have two faculty co-leaders who share the lead role?

A:   Yes. Our criteria stipulates the need for at least 1 faculty lead for each project/activity plus 2 other collaborators (1 faculty or staff + 1 community partners).  However, there can be more than 1 faculty lead if the project is structured in that way. Remember, faculty collaborator groups need to identify the name(s) of at least 1 community partner, the name of at least 1 faculty lead, and the name of at least one faculty or staff collaborators. Faculty and staff collaborators can be from UW or another college or university.

Example 1:  1 faculty leader, 1 faculty collaborator, 1 community partner
Example 2:  2 faculty co-leaders, 1 community partner
Example 3:  1 faculty leader, 1 staff collaborator, 1 community partner

Q:  Can the award funds be used to pay faculty?

A:  It depends on when the pay takes place (e.g. summer quarter or during regular academic year) and why compensation is justified for the project/activity. We recommend that you contact OCP to discuss the details about this before you submit your application. However, we encourage applicant groups to prepare their budget requests based on the type of support needed, whether it be as compensation or as reimbursement for approved expenses (e.g. travel, materials, training, supplies, etc.).

Q:  Do I have to have experience with community engagement and partnership development in order to apply?

A: No. We encourage applications for projects from faculty collaborator groups to are interested in developing their projects/activities with community partners. The intent of the program is to foster and support new or continuing community engaged projects.

Q:  Who should I contact if I have questions?

A:  If you need help filling out your application or budget, or have questions, please email ocp@uw.edu or call 253-692-4527.  You can also contact any OCP staff and faculty directly.

Q:  How will the award decisions be made?

A:  OCP will have a selection committee consisting of 3-4 members (plus OCP staff) who will review each complete application in full and meet to discuss each application. Selection committee members will base its decisions on the stated award criteria and qualifications.

Q:  Can faculty from other UW campuses or other colleges/universities be a part of the faculty collaborator groups?

A:  Yes, but the lead faculty member must be from UW Tacoma.