Professional Development Fund Grants

No – you need to complete an application for each activity.

Yes – But the activity/expense must have taken place after May 9, 2025 (for the 2025-2026 application year).

Yes – But each activity requires a separate submission, and awards cannot exceed $2000 per year.

*Caveat* - We ask the faculty only submit one activity per review cycle to help manage the review load. Please apply for your earliest activity first!

Yes – But they must be separate activities, and submitted separately, and the total cannot exceed $2000 per year.

This is NEW to this year’s review cycle! Please also see Caveat on multiple submitting multiple activities.

Yes – If you are not able to use a partial award, you can indicate this in the application.

*Caveat* - Applications that are not able to use a partial award will be less likely to receive awards.

No - While it can be frustrating and disappointing to have your plans change, the committee wants to keep this process as fair as possible for all faculty. Applications for funds are reviewed and scored on merit and decisions about fund allocations are made based those scores. If you are unable to use the funds for the activity for which you applied, please notify the committee at pdfg@fgcu.edu. This will help us make those funds available for a future review cycle. You can always submit a new application for another activity to be reviewed in the next cycle.

There are three award notification dates-late November, late January and late April. Use these dates your guides. Remember that you can apply the year before an activity if you would like to lock in those funds. 

Maybe. The PDFG committee will evaluate the personal and institutional benefits of your activity proposal. If you are awarded funds to purchase technology supplies, you must ultimately abide by the university’s policies and procedures for purchasing whatever supplies you have requested. Information Technology Services has rules about what equipment can be purchased with school funds and what equipment may be used on the university’s network. The PDFG Committee will not be able to evaluate whether your technology requests will meet ITS standards. 

While all these expenditures may contribute to one end goal, this sounds like a request with multiple activities. Each application to the PDFG should only include one activity: one trip, one conference, or one list of supplies for a project. An application with multiple activities will most likely be disqualified. 

You may apply, but a detailed budget is a significant part of the application scoring rubric. If you can’t provide evidence of a responsibility planned budget, with documentation/evidence for those supplies or expenses, your application will likely be scored lower.  

Yes. State law and regulations preclude the use of E&G (Education and General) funds to purchase food, gift card incentives for research participants, and fees or tuition for exams, courses, or other training that leads to professional licenses/certifications required for performance an employee’s job duties. Additionally, PDFG funds may not be used to pay research assistants or collaborators.