Fort Valley State University has launched a new initiative aimed at encouraging faculty to conduct competitive research and creative projects.
 
The President's Research Enhancement Program will award faculty mini grants that must be used as seed money to develop a proposal, which can be submitted to a federal, state or private funding source for other grant opportunities.
 
FVSU president Dr. Paul Jones is reinvesting up to $200,000 to launch the program focused on supporting faculty efforts to compete for external grants.
 
"This is an important initiative designed to ignite faculty innovation, creativity and problem solving, three things that are vital for all institutions of higher learning," Jones said. "We look forward to the research that will be prompted by this program and we will continue to find creative ways to support our FVSU researchers."
 
Jones said the initiative will be spearheaded by Dr. Chanta Haywood, vice president for the Office of External Affairs and Dr. T. Ramon Stuart, provost and vice president for the Office of Academic Affairs.
 
"This is an exciting time for the dedicated faculty at FVSU to increase research FVSU and to build upon our strong research history," Stuart said. "The PREP will help FVSU cultivate new scholars and allow our seasoned scholars to explore new research initiatives."
 
Stuart said priority for funding would be given to proposals submitted by emerging scholars. Awards will be up to $5,000 per academic semester, but will not exceed $10,000 in an academic year. Faculty will use the funds to devote time to writing grant proposals that target research that addresses issues facing Middle Georgia in particular, the state and the nation and for projects that target student enrichment, community service and volunteering and soft-skills development for the purposes of retention.
 
Haywood is thrilled about the impact of this program beyond FVSU. She says "the outcomes from these projects will ultimately result in more external funding to university.  The research produced will also give FVSU and its outstanding faculty more state, regional and national exposure. This is exciting because as corporations, agencies and private organizations see the breadth of issues being examined at FVSU, our potential for partnerships increases."  

The deadline to apply for is Nov. 1, 2016.
Awardees will be announced on Dec. 15, 2016.
Proposal guidelines will be distributed on campus on Sept. 2, 2016.

For details, contact Dr. Chanta Haywood at [email protected].