The CoC Research Faculty Advisory Council (RFAC) aims to represent and support a vigorous research faculty community at the College level and across the schools. As part of this mission, the RFAC Professional Development Fund (PDF) was created to provide travel grants to help research faculty attend meetings for professional development, such as visits to sponsors or attending workshops and conferences with a focus on professional development. These funds are intended to enhance opportunities for professional development and are not intended to cover trainings or conferences that are core to an RF’s job responsibilities.
The annual Professional Development Fund is divided into three pools of funding, with application deadlines occurring three times throughout the year. Note that you should apply based on the month that your travel starts.
- Apply by September 10th for travel planned in November-February of the following year ($1,346 available)
- Apply by January 10th for travel planned in March-June of the same year ($1,346 available)
- Apply by April 10th for travel planned in July-October of the same year ($1,346 available)
The RFAC will evaluate applications along with an external member assigned by the College. To ensure fairness, the following guidelines will be used to prioritize and disburse funds:
Guidelines for RFAC Professional Development Fund
- This fund is intended for research faculty, not for post-docs
- An RF may receive at most one travel grant per fiscal year. The maximum travel grant size is $1,000. Smaller grants may be requested. Larger grants will be considered in special circumstances (e.g., international travel). The number of awards will vary according to the number and amount of funds requested.
- Priority will be given to professional development outside of normal scientific conferences, although conference travel will be considered if the RF can demonstrate they do not have other funds to support such travel. See the Examples section below for more details on the types of travel that are prioritized.
- Seniority: While not restricted to younger research faculty, the committee reserves the right to prioritize more junior faculty (i.e., level I and II) and first-time applicants.
- Availability of other travel funds: If you already have travel funds from grants or other programs to attend your event, your request will be given lower priority.
Examples of Travel Considered for Funding by the Professional Development Fund
- A Research Technologist is required to attend the OpenStack conference, which is critical to his/her day-to-day job and is already covered by the College. However, the RT would also like to attend a one-day tutorial to further improve skills in related areas like applications. The PDF can be used to support the cost of attending the tutorial.
- A Research Associate attends the Association for Institutional Research Forum each year as part of CoC job duties but would like to attend extra workshops on relevant topics. The RA can apply for funding to attend these related workshops.
- A Research Scientist wishes to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration to meet and network with fellow scientists, but this conference is not covered by the RS’s grants or supervisor. The RS can apply for funding to attend this event.
- A Research Scientist wishes to attend a workshop on writing NSF proposals. The RS can request PDF funds to attend this workshop.
Application Materials and Further Instructions
Please fill out the form linked here, and email it to rfac@cc.gatech.edu by the specified deadline for your travel. This form requests the following information:
- Purpose of travel and relevance to professional development
- Estimate of costs, dates, etc.
- Source of any other funds for travel