Mission
The mission of Penn State Behrend as part of Penn State University includes teaching, research, scholarship, and outreach. Our primary objective continues to be to provide excellent education, but we must also focus on research productivity and increasing research funding. External funding provides significant benefits to the faculty and to the college.
Benefits to Faculty
- Independence to pursue scholarship and research
- Salaries to pursue scholarship and research in the summer
- Opportunities for travel
- Opportunities to employ students in research
- Ability to purchase state-of-the-art equipment beyond the college's capacity
- Prestige and evidence of significant impact and importance in the researcher's field
Benefits to the College
- Demonstrates that Penn State Behrend is fulfilling its mission in research and scholarship
- Strengthens programs and facilities with income independent of University funding
- Quantitative evidence of the excellence and competitiveness of Penn State Behrend faculty members and programs
Expectation
The college recognizes that funding opportunities and procedures vary widely among the disciplines. However, the college expects, and strongly encourages, faculty members will actively seek external funding for research, scholarship, educational enhancement, or equipment.
The annual Faculty Activity Report (FAR) should include recognition of success in funding, as well as recognition of efforts to obtain it even when those efforts did not meet with success. The latter point is particularly important. The funding climate is difficult and competitive, and sponsors only fund a fraction of submitted proposals. Each school will determine how much weight will be granted in the FAR for efforts to obtain external funding.
Assistance
The research staff in the Chancellor’s Office and the school directors can assist faculty members in determining if and where there is government, corporate, or private funding for research in their fields. Search for funding opportunities. You will be able to review the various funding links on this web page. Resources for individualized research topics can be found at the Penn State link for SciVal Funding . First-time users must create a log in while accessing the site from within the Penn State network. For questions or assistance accessing SciVal Funding, please contact Michelle Hutnik at [email protected]. Faculty and staff members can also consider resubmitting unfunded proposals with changes suggested by the reviews, or when the funding priorities in an agency change. Faculty members should also consider team efforts with colleagues at Penn State Behrend, other Penn State locations, and other institutions for larger-scale funding efforts.
The United States Congress is strongly pressuring funding agencies such as NIH, NASA, and NSF to do more to support and strengthen undergraduate education. Many agencies have established new programs in the last few years. Private companies and foundations also perceive the need to support education. This climate provides opportunities for predominantly undergraduate institutions like Penn State Behrend.
August 1992
Revised November 26, 2003
Revised July 27, 2015
Revised June 20, 2017