Abstract
In the United States, “seed fund” programs in biomedical fields have been reported to enhance faculty success in securing federal awards. Seed funds are relatively small internal grants that are allocated by universities to their faculty to invigorate research, in anticipation that they will lead to larger benefits—these benefits could be the creation of stronger teams that lead to larger external grants and/or more impactful publications. We hypothesized that a seed funding approach for research on natural resources and agricultural systems, including forest systems, may have similar benefits. Here, we report that seed funding supported faculty development in numerous ways, including leveraging to generate external competitive awards. For each dollar of institutional investment in each of the three seed funding programs, faculty acquired $6, >$50, and $4.50, respectively, in external funding that was leveraged within three years of the seed fund award date. Notably, the majority of the leveraged funding was from federal granting agencies through competitive programs. Federal competitive awards are important elements of tenure and promotion dossiers, as they reflect success in acquiring grants that are difficult to obtain, thus providing evidence of research excellence. We speculate that the seed fund proposal review process prepared faculty for competitive awards. Finally, we suggest best management practices for the implementation of seed funding to support teams of faculty.
Highlights
Universities typically invest in new faculty programs through so-called “start-up funding”negotiated as part of the employment contract between the faculty member and the university
As a complement to start-up funding,(2)“seed fund” programs can be worthwhile investments requirement detailed in the announcement; Be competitively awarded through a process patternedin thatfederal they can: (1) panel
(3) Create incentives for, and reward, faculty at all career stages, including those at early career patterned after federal grant panel review processes, with feedback provided to strengthen future who are in the process of onboarding, or in the tenure and promotion evaluation process; (4) Motivate applications; Createinter, incentives for,and/or and reward, faculty at all teams career of stages, including thoseacross at early faculty to join (3)
Summary
Universities typically invest in new faculty programs through so-called “start-up funding”negotiated as part of the employment contract between the faculty member and the university. Start-up funding must typically be spent within a few years, which may be prior to junior faculty receiving actionable feedback on their federal grant applications. Seed funds are relatively small internal grants that are allocated by universities to their faculty in anticipation that they will lead to larger benefits. There are reports in the literature that seed funding programs in biomedical fields can lead to greater success by faculty who prepare and submit grant proposals for competitive programs at federal granting agencies [1,2]. Some of this success is attributed to the Forests 2020, 11, 76; doi:10.3390/f11010076 www.mdpi.com/journal/forests
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