Faculty Development and Capacity Building
With the mission to empower individual researchers and scholars, research teams, and the OVPR, RAO offers Faculty Development and Capacity Building services:
- Research support programs and trainings, including workshops and webinars.
- Group and one-on-one research planning, road-mapping, and visioning with aligned funding strategy development.
- Team science and convergent research training.
- Strategic proposal skill development training and coaching.
- Faculty-led sponsor engagement and communication for opportunity creation.
- Competitive intelligence and landscaping.
- Early Career Investigator (ECI) programming and support
- Mid- and Established-Career support
Early Career Faculty Development
Understand Your Career Path
Where are you on your Career Path?
What direction would you like to go?
How will you get there?
Get started with this Self-Assessment tool to evaluate strengths, weaknesses, and areas in need of improvement for your career development: Early Career Investigator Self-Assessment
Creating a Faculty Career Development Plan
The purpose of a Career Development Plan (CDP) is to facilitate the planning of the activities and milestones leading to promotion and tenure. A central feature of a CDP is a 3-5 year blueprint for developmental activities in research, teaching, and service that will position you for success at each stage of your career. These activities include funding and publishing. Your CDP should be reviewed and modified as appropriate on an annual basis.
A CDP can help you…
- Define your research vision.
- Develop your ability to realistically gauge the time required for your activities and goals.
- Identify gaps in the knowledge, skills, etc., you need to achieve your goals.
- Stay accountable.
- Fulfill organizational requirements (some CSU colleges and departments require career plans).
Start your CDP today!
Resources for Early Career Investigators
- Best Practices for Early Career Investigators PDF
- Effective Grant Seeking Guide for Early Career Investigators PDF
- Funding Landscape for Early Career Research Hanover Research webinar
NSF Career
The National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) supports early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization. This prestigious award provides 5 years of funding to junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholar.
NSF CAREER Resources
- NSF CAREER Project Description Template Word document (Hanover Research)
- NSF CAREER Project Description Template for Overleaf/LaTeX users (Hanover Research)
- NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Program 2024 NSF webinar
- webinar slides
- NSF 22-586 Timeline PDF
- Keys to a Competitive NSF CAREER Proposal Hanover Research webinar
- Key Insights & Strategies for Pursuing NSF CAREER Hanover Research webinar
- Fact or Fiction? NSF CAREER Hanover Research webinar
- NSF CAREER Education Activities & Broader Impacts Hanover Research webinar
Federal Agency Young Investigator Programs
If you would like to learn more about Federal opportunities for Early Career Investigators, please contact RAO.
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) Young Investigator Program
- American Chemical Society (ACS) Doctoral New Investigator (DNI) Grants
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Young Faculty Award
- Department of Energy (DOE) Early Career Research Program
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Early Career Faculty Award
- National Institutes of Health (NIH) Research Career Development Awards
- National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award
- National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Fellowships
- Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Program
- USDA NIFA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) New Investigator Grants
Foundation Early Career Investigator Opportunities
If you would like to learn more about Foundation opportunities for Early Career Investigators, please contact Peter Hartman and Sam Ernst, Directors of CSU Foundation Relations.
- Andrew Carnegie Fellows
- Beckman Young Investigators
- Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists
- Burroughs Wellcome Fund: Career Awards at the Scientific Interface
- Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Awards
- Cottrell Scholar Awards
- FFAR New Innovator in Food & Agriculture Research
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)
- Mallinckrodt Grants
- McKnight Scholar Awards
- Pew Biomedical Scholars
- Searle Scholars
- Simons Early Career Investigator in Aquatic Microbial Ecology and Evolution Awards
- Sloan Research Fellowships
- W.T. Grant Scholars
- Webb-Waring/Boettcher Investigators
Early Career Faculty Development Contact
Lynn Bruning
[email protected]
Mid and Established Career Faculty Development
Mid-Career faculty often find themselves at a point of transition—balancing established research success with new leadership roles, evolving research directions, and increasing demands on time and capacity. RAO supports Mid-Career faculty in strategically growing, repositioning, and sustaining their research programs.
Established-Career faculty play a vital role in shaping CSU’s research culture, mentoring the next generation of scholars, and leading high-impact research initiatives. RAO supports senior faculty in sustaining excellence, expanding impact, and building lasting research legacies.
RAO services for Mid-Career and Established-Career faculty include:
Strategic Research Preparation
- Guidance on aligning research agendas with emerging funding priorities and societal needs.
- Identification of Mid-Career and senior-level funding opportunities.
- Consultation on building diversified and sustainable funding portfolios.
- Support for transitioning from single-investigator awards to larger or more complex grants.
- Leveraging competitive intelligence and funding landscape data to inform faculty goals.
Complex and Strategic Proposal Development Support
- Support for center-level and multi-institutional proposals.
- Strategic consultation for large, complex, or long-term funding initiatives.
- Assistance in coordinating proposal development for major team-based efforts.
Team Science & Research Leadership
- Guidance on leading collaborative, interdisciplinary, and multi-PI research projects.
- Consultation for structuring and leading research programs, centers, or institutes.
Partnership and Alliance Management
- Assistance in identifying internal and external collaborators.
- Guidance on engaging with stakeholders, agencies, and non-academic audiences.
- Assistance in framing research outcomes for broader impacts and public dissemination.
Online Resources
- Grant-seeking for Mid-Career Faculty Hanover webinar
- Scaling Up Your Research Hanover webinar
- Engaging Undergraduate Students in Research Hanover webinar
- Transitioning from Single- to Multi-Investigator Grants Hanover webinar
- Preparing to Lead Center-Level Proposals Hanover webinar
- Building Strong Grant Collaborations Hanover webinar
- Engaging Collaborators to Enhance Your Proposal Hanover webinar
- Developing Teams for Collaborative Proposals Hanover webinar
- Facilitating Stakeholder Engagement in Grant Development Hanover webinar
- Strategies for Successful Interdisciplinary Collaborations Hanover webinar
- Communicating the Impacts of Your Research Hanover webinar
- Managing Large Research Proposals Hanover webinar
- Diversifying Grant Funding Sources Hanover webinar
Mid- and Established-Career Faculty Development Contact
Dinaida Egan
[email protected]