Deadlines

• 15 September (for travel in the current fiscal year 1 July - 30 June)

• 15 January (for travel in the current fiscal year)

• 15 April (for travel very early in the next fiscal year)

This fund aims at supporting travel for students and, where appropriate, their faculty and staff mentors, to disseminate their work beyond SU.

Tenured and tenure-track faculty members, 3-year visitors, and academic affairs staff members with faculty rank are eligible to apply once per year. Faculty and staff with endowed funds are ineligible to apply for funding for themselves but they can apply for funding for their students after endowed funds have been used. Students in good standing (not on academic or disciplinary probation) are eligible for support only once across their careers at SU.

• UTA Overview and Policies
• Call for UTA Submissions
• UTA Google Form
• UTA Rubric

Tenured and tenure-track faculty members, three-year visitors, and academic affairs staff with faculty rank may apply for competitive professional development funds for scholarly and academic projects. These funds may be used for any legitimate professional development expense including domestic and international research travel, books and supplies, subvention fees (subject to the Book Subvention Award Policy), journal publication costs, projects leading to permanent and/or public documentation of creative works in the Fine Arts, and other research related expenses. The deadline for the proposals is Thursday, 19 February 2026 at 5:00 pm.

• 2026-2027 Call for Competitive Faculty Professional Development Proposals
• Competitive Faculty Professional Development Google Form
• Publishing Fees Policy – new, as of February 2025 (replaces previous Book Subvention Policy)
• Competitive Faculty Professional Development Rubric — for reference only, to be used by the Awards and Honors Committee

Each tenured and tenure-track faculty member, academic affairs teaching staff member with faculty rank and three-year visitor is eligible to apply for a professional travel award, except for those who hold Endowed Chairs. The categories included in the Professional Travel Award are - a.) special conference participation (up to twice per year), b.) one special conference participation and fees for one professional membership, c.) one international special conference participation, or d.) invited travel-based projects in the Fine Arts. Faculty must choose one of the four options outlined above for the period between July 2026 and June 2027. The deadline for proposals for 2026-2027 travel is Thursday, 26 March 2026 at 5:00 pm.

• 2025-2026 Call for Professional Travel Award Submissions
• Professional Travel Award Google Form
• Professional Travel Award Rubric — for reference only, to be used by the Awards and Honors Committee

The Research Assistantship Program supports faculty scholarship by funding students to assist faculty with research. Faculty may hire more than one student research assistant. We welcome your proposals for how a research assistant could benefit your work. Possibilities include: assistance with literature reviews, laboratory assistance, archival research assistance (for local or digital archives), field work support, qualitative data collection and assistance, such as interviewing or survey programming, assistance with data preparation and analysis, including transcription or coding, assistance with manuscript preparation, including copyediting and indexing, assistance with securing image permissions. Tenured and tenure-track faculty members, three-year visitors, and academic affairs staff with faculty rank may apply. All disciplines are welcome. 

• Research Assistantship Program Call for Proposals - 2026-2027
• Research Assistantship Google Form
• Research Assistantship Program Rubric (2026-2027 Academic Year) — the Awards and Honors Committee will use this rubric when assessing proposals; please consult it before submitting yours.
• Research Assistantship Program: Resources and Materials — processes and procedures have changed for the 2025-26 Academic Year. Please read in full. An overview begins on p. 1, with process and procedures on pp. 3-4

The Supplemental Research Assistantship Program supports faculty scholarship by funding students to assist faculty with research. Faculty may hire more than one student research assistant. We welcome your proposals for how a research assistant could benefit your work. Possibilities include: assistance with literature reviews, laboratory assistance, archival research assistance (for local or digital archives), field work support, qualitative data collection and assistance, such as interviewing or survey programming, assistance with data preparation and analysis, including transcription or coding, assistance with manuscript preparation, including copyediting and indexing, assistance with securing image permissions. Tenured and tenure-track faculty members, three-year visitors, and academic affairs staff with faculty rank may apply. All disciplines are welcome.

• Supplemental Research Assistantship Program Call for Proposals - 2025-2026
• Research Assistantship Google Form
• Research Assistantship Program Rubric (2025-2026 Academic Year) — the Awards and Honors Committee will use this rubric when assessing proposals; please consult it before submitting yours.
• Research Assistantship Program: Resources and Materials, 2025-2026 (please review carefully, as policies and procedures have changed for the current year; includes a link to Business Office procedures)

The Sabbatical Leave Program supports the long-term professional growth of the faculty by funding semester-long leave for innovative, substantial research projects consistent with the faculty member’s plans for long-term professional growth and development. Faculty are encouraged to discuss potential projects with the Dean of the Faculty and their Department Chair well in advance of application. Policies, eligibility, kinds of supported activities, financial considerations, procedures for application, deadlines and timelines are all available in the Faculty Handbook, in the section titled Policies and Procedures for Full-time Faculty Sabbatical Leaves. The deadline for submission of the sabbatical proposal is 9 October 2025 via Google Form. Note: Some deadlines fall as far as two years prior to your anticipated sabbatical leave.

• Regular Cycle Sabbatical Rubric (2025-2026) — the Awards and Honors Committee will use this rubric when assessing proposals; please consult it before submitting yours.

The annual Jones Course Release Sabbatical Program is designed to give tenured faculty with an excellent record of teaching, scholarship and service additional time to conduct their scholarly work. One (1) Jones award will be granted in 2025-2026, for 2026-2027. Unlike regular-cycle sabbaticals, this mid-cycle award is competitive and takes a more holistic view of faculty contributions. Specifically, this award is designed to reward tenured faculty who have achieved excellence and high productivity in research/creative works while maintaining excellence in teaching and service and provide them the opportunity to devote additional time to their scholarly work. Faculty may apply to have a release from one (two-course) semester of teaching responsibility or a release of two courses for the academic year (a 2-1 or 1-2 teaching load for one academic year). Each proposal must provide a justification for the type of course release requested. Jones proposals may include a budget of up to $5,000 for expenses related to the project.

Further details, including eligibility requirements, will be shared via email from the Dean of the Faculty. They include the following: 

1. Eligible faculty members must have tenure and possess the rank of Associate or Professor. Tenured faculty are eligible to apply for these competitive course releases to occur during the 3rd, 4th, and 5th year in their 7-year sabbatical cycle. Please check with Barbara to confirm your eligibility. Faculty can only receive a competitive sabbatical once in between regularly scheduled sabbaticals. Endowed chairs that do not have course releases as part of their appointment are eligible for the course release element of this program. Endowed chairs or holders of term chairs may not, however, request funds to support expenses related to the project.

2. Applications should carefully describe the proposed plan of scholarship and/or creative activity, including expected outcomes. Please follow the guidelines for regular sabbatical applications in the Faculty Handbook. In addition, the narrative needs to convey the timeliness of the project–why now is the optimal time for the research and/or the optimal time considering departmental needs. Applicants also should briefly address their record of excellence in teaching, scholarship, and service.

3. A departmental impact statement, prepared by the prospective awardee’s department chair, should be included. This statement should evaluate the quality of the project and propose the manner in which the prospective awardee’s courses will be replaced, if needed. The department chair should also speak to the applicant’s teaching, research or creative works program and service. If the applicant is a department chair, then the previous chair should write the impact statement. Please note: in general, the University can support no more than two regular cycle or competitive sabbaticals in any given department in any given year.

4. Awardees qualify for a budget up to $5,000. An itemized budget outlining the projected use of these funds should be submitted with the proposal.

5. The awardee must provide a final report on Jones activities. The report is due to Barbara by November 2nd of the next academic year.

The Awards Committee’s assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of each proposal will be forwarded to the Dean of the Faculty, the Vice President for Academic Affairs, and the President for final selection.

For applications, please follow the guidelines for regular sabbatical applications in the Faculty Handbook, in the section titled Policies and Procedures for Full-time Faculty Sabbatical Leaves. The deadline for submission of the sabbatical proposal is 9 October 2025, via Google Form. 

• Jones Competitive Course Release Sabbatical Program Rubric (2025-2026) — the Awards and Honors Committee will use this rubric when assessing proposals; please consult it before submitting yours.

Southwestern values student engagement with faculty in original research and creative works. Two of our most innovative and successful programs, SCOPE and FSP, are now merged into a single, new program: Summer Undergraduate Research with Faculty (“SURF”). For more information about the FSP-SCOPE merger and the rationale, please see the following proposal from the 2023-2024 Awards & Honors Committee.

The SURF program funds faculty-mentored undergraduate research and intensive collaborative projects in all disciplines and from all academic areas. The program pays faculty stipends, student fellowships, student on-campus housing (as needed, for up to eight summer weeks), research expenses, and non-conference travel. 

All proposals must include the following components:

Google Form, which asks for basic project details as well as a single PDF including project narrative, detailed itemized budget, and CV.

• Call for SURF proposals (for Summer 2026)
• SURF Google Form
• SURF Rubric (Summer 2026) — the Awards and Honors Committee will use this rubric when assessing proposals; please consult it before submitting yours.

Link to other faculty awards

Southwestern’s Institutional Review Board for Human Research (IRB) was established to approve research projects involving the use of human participants. The Board exists both because Southwestern wants to ensure that research participants are treated with the utmost respect and safety and because federal law requires that all federally-funded research involving human participants receive Board approval.