Reimagining Seed Grants for the 21st Century: Individual and Institutional Impacts of a Mini-Grants Program

Abstract

The Connect Grants initiative is an innovative mini-grants program that promotes faculty leadership and career development while enhancing the university’s scholarship environment and infrastructure. Launched in 2014 as part of a National Science Foundation (NSF) ADVANCE Institutional Transformation (IT) effort, the initiative is designed to broaden faculty opportunities and support creative department-level efforts to guide faculty through career stages. Due to its successes, the program has been institutionalized. Through Bolman and Deal’s (2017) organizational lens, this paper describes the motivation for creating the program, its design, evolution, and evaluation. Findings indicate that the program supports individual awardees by expanding networks, building critical skills, and promoting scholarship, while also influencing institutional policies and practices. In contrast to some other inclusivity initiatives, the Connect Grants program targets institutional structures rather than focusing solely on individual skillsets and deficiencies. This provides an opportunity for reimagining seed funding and realizing both individual and institutional impacts.

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