Faculty Development Award

• Monday, August 26, 2024, 3:00-4:00pm CDT, Zoom
  • Faculty Development Award for Professional-Track Faculty Information Session
  •  Session is intended for professional-track faculty, staff contacts and administrators.
• Tuesday, September 3, 2024
  • Application Portal Opens
• Tuesday, October 1, 2024, 5:00pm CDT
  • Application Portal Closes
  • Late applications will not be accepted.
• Wednesday, December 18, 2024
  • Decision notifications distributed.

To be eligible to apply for an FDA, there are a core set of eligibility criteria required across all Colleges/Schools (CSUs). After listing the core eligibility requirements below, more information is presented to clarify the details about requirements. To be eligible to apply for an FDA, the professional-track faculty member must:

1. Hold the rank of assistant professor (or lecturer), associate professor (or senior lecturer) or full professor (or distinguished senior lecturer) in the relevant professional-track title series.
   • Each College and School will specify how (and if) they might prioritize faculty applicants in the different professional-track title series (instruction, practice, clinical, research, lecturer) who are eligible for the FDA,
2. Have served as a UT Austin employee with a 50% FTE (or higher %FTE) role as a professional-track faculty member in both the fall and spring terms during each of two consecutive academic years immediately preceding the year of application for the FDA at UT Austin.
   • For employees who hold a staff and faculty appointment, the faculty appointment must be at least 20 hours a week (50% FTE).
   • An employee who held a 75% FTE professional-track faculty appointment in the fall and a 25% FTE professional-track faculty appointment in the spring would not be eligible for the FDA. Similarly, an employee who held a 100% FTE professional-track faculty appointment in the fall and a 0% FTE professional-track faculty appointment in the spring would not be eligible.
   • The two years of service prior to the FDA application year must be at UT Austin – faculty cannot elect to combine service from a prior institution for the FDA.
3. Be serving as a 50% FTE (or higher %FTE) professional-track faculty member in the fall and spring terms during the academic year of the FDA application at UT Austin,
4. Have met or exceeded expectations in their annual review during the two most recent academic years in service at UT Austin preceding the application for the FDA, and
5. Wait at least two academic years after a prior FDA has concluded to be eligible to apply for the next FDA (see timing example in Table 5).
6. Faculty whose primary appointment is in the Jackson School of Geosciences or the Dell Medical School are not eligible to participate in the UT FDA program.

Note that each College/School might have additional eligibility criteria and might have certain criteria they use to prioritize FDA recipients. See UT FDA Guidelines and College/School-specific FDA Guidelines for further details and examples. However, any CSU-specific requirements, prioritizations, and/or criteria that are discrepant with the core FDA criteria and requirements and/or with applicable state and federal laws will be considered void.

Also note that a small number of CSUs also offer CSU versions of UT’s FDA (termed a CSU-FDA). The same rules apply about timing eligibility for receiving a UT FDA whether the first FDA was a CSU-FDA or a UT FDA.

• The FDA can be used to cover professional development activities during a period lasting not more than two years.
• The earliest that an FDA’s activities can start would be the summer of the academic year of application.
  • For FDA applications reviewed in fall 2024, the two-year period for the FDA activities can start as early as summer 2025 and no later than summer 2026.

Note that applicants must have received approval from their supervisor in support of the timing of the FDA activities that they are requesting before submitting their FDA application for review.

The total budget for each FDA applicant’s proposed activities cannot exceed $10,000. Applicants should not feel like they must propose a budget that uses up the maximum budgetary limit ($10,000) allowable per individual for the FDA. 

The UT FDA Guidelines provide very specific details about allowable activities. Applicants must review the Guidelines to understand the details about the broad categories of allowable expenses that are listed below:

• Summer salary
• Conference attendance
• Workshop participation
• Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities expenditures
• Additional Teaching Expenditures  

Some Colleges / Schools might offer use of the FDA money to support a course release for professional development effort during a fall or spring term. If a course release is allowed in a College / School then the applicant must receive approval for the request from their supervisor (e.g., department chair, dean) and the timing (fall or spring) of the release before submitting their FDA application.

The application materials will be gathered using a centrally hosted system and require the inclusion of

• Short CV (not longer than 4 pages), and an
• FDA Proposal that includes
  • Abstract (100 words maximum) that briefly summarizes the purpose of the proposed FDA. The Abstract should not use unnecessary or undefined acronyms and should include the following information:
    • The faculty development activities to be supported by the FDA
    • Benefits and anticipated impact of the FDA on the:
      • Faculty member’s professional development and on the
      • Faculty member’s department, CSU, and/or the university.
  • FDA Proposal (not longer than 2,000 words) that describes and justifies the proposed FDA and associated activities, the location where the faculty will do the work during the FDA, details about how the FDA activities will contribute to the candidate’s professional development and impact on the faculty member’s program, department, and UT Austin;
  • Itemized Budget that must include allowable items and costs with a total that sums to not more than $10,000. For summer salary, the rate and duration should be specified and note that the cost of fringe benefits does not need to be accounted for when budgeting for salary;
  • Bibliography (optional, not longer than two pages); and
  • Additional CSU-Specific Materials (if relevant – see College/School Guidelines).

College/Schools’ FDA Review Processes

Each College/School (CSU) has defined formation of the membership of their FDA review committees. The CSU’s review committee makes recommendations to the relevant CSU’s dean and the provost to whom the president has delegated the authority for the purpose of FDA approval. See CSU-specific Guidelines for details about their review committee’s process and procedures.

Unbiased Review

The reviews and recommendations must not be positively or negatively influenced by a candidate’s race, color, religion, national origin, sex (including pregnancy), age, disability, citizenship, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. The Provost’s Office should be consulted if any reviewer expresses a favorable or unfavorable recommendation that could have the appearance of being influenced by any of these immutable characteristics (e.g., a reviewer states a need for more FDAs to be offered to professors of a particular race, gender, etc.).

FDA Award Report

Within six months of completion of FDA-related activities, the faculty member must submit a report documenting FDA activities and products (where relevant) and the impact of the FDA on the faculty member’s professional development. A failure to submit the report by the deadline will make the faculty member ineligible to receive another FDA. Note that additional follow-up information might be requested to assess the effectiveness of the FDA program.

Download the FDA Award Report template (PDF).