Overview

The OFD offers a number of funding opportunities to support the professional development of faculty members at UMass Amherst, including team-based and individual Mutual Mentoring Grants funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, as well as Summer Writing Fellowships. Please see below for more information and application instructions for each of these opportunities.

The Mellon Mutual Mentoring (M³) Grant Program

M3 Grants are team mentoring grants designed to support faculty-driven, context-sensitive mentoring projects for early-career or under-represented faculty based at the departmental, school/college, interdisciplinary, or inter-institutional levels. For the duration of the Mellon funding, the OFD awards up to ten M3 Grants of up to $10,000 each per academic year.

The Mellon Mutual Mentoring Micro-Grant (M⁴) Program

M4 Grants are individual mentoring grants that are intended to encourage pre-tenure faculty to identify desirable areas for professional growth and opportunity, and to develop the necessary mentoring relationships to make such change(s) possible. For the duration of the Mellon funding, the OFD awards up to fifteen M4 Grants of up to $1,200 each per academic year.

Please see the Mentoring Grant Guidelines for more details and application materials. The deadline for applications for the 2009-10 year is Monday, March 30, 2009 at 5:00 PM E.S.T.

Summer Online Writing Fellowships

The OFD's Summer Online Writing Fellowship Program is a special Internet-based writing group designed for UMass Amherst and Five College faculty and facilitated by a professional writing coach at Academic Ladder. For more information and application instructions, please see here. For information on Academic Ladder, please see here.