Grant Development Program

Empowering faculty to pursue high-impact scholarship is a stated goal of USD’s Lighting the Way to 2030 strategic plan. Seeking extramural support can be an important, if not critical, component of scholarship yet formal training in grant writing is often neglected. The USD Provost’s office is launching an exciting opportunity called the Grant Development Program. The program is designed to guide and support faculty in all aspects of writing and submitting extramural proposals. The program targets faculty, or a team of faculty, who are new to grant writing or those who have yet to be successful with past submissions AND have identified a relevant funding opportunity. Limited pre-application assistance in identifying funding opportunities is available (see Application Components section below). Participating faculty (or team of two faculty) will receive a stipend of $3,000. The formal program will run from January-June 2026. As a condition of the program, participating faculty are expected to submit a proposal to their target sponsor within one year of the program’s end (i.e. by May 31, 2027). Interdisciplinary initiatives are strongly encouraged.

The application deadline is November 14, 2025. Applicants will be notified in mid-December.

The USD Grant Development Program seeks to:

• Provide a six month structured grant development experience that will enhance a faculty member’s chances of success in securing extramural funding in both the near and far term.
• Improve faculty grant writing skills through internal and external consultation.
• Provide comprehensive support for pre-proposal activities including: ideation, budget construction, writing feedback, collaboration structuring, and strategy development.
• Facilitate connections with both internal and external stakeholders in order to increase the chances of success.
• Lower both internal and external barriers for writing, navigating compliance/administrative aspects of the funding process, and submitting a proposal.

Eligibility

• Open to all tenure and tenure-track faculty.
• Candidates must identify both the target funding organization and a specific solicitation, inside that organization, and include the information in their Grant Development Program application.
• Participating faculty are expected to submit a completed proposal to the targeted organization/solicitation within one year (i.e. May 31st 2027) of the program’s end.
• Priority will be given to faculty who have not submitted an external grant or those who have submitted but have been unsuccessful.
• Interdisciplinary activities are especially encouraged.
• If a team approach is envisioned, the program will support two faculty members from the team. In this configuration, the stipend will be split between the two faculty.

Application Components

• A brief CV (single combined CV if applying as a team) (upload as a pdf).
• Up to two page project summary describing the core aspects of the project, the participants in the project, where the work will take place, and any other special considerations (upload as a pdf).
• A brief statement on the interdisciplinary nature of the project (if relevant).
• A brief statement indicating your funding history while at USD (if applicable).
• An identified funding agency where a finalized proposal will be sent within one year of completing the program.
• An identified specific solicitation (web link) where a finalized proposal will be sent within one year of completing the program. If assistance is needed to identify opportunities, please reach out to Provost Faculty Fellow Peter Iovine (piovine@sandiego.edu) in advance of the deadline.