Faculty research often slows during the semester, even when there is strong commitment and clear goals in place. Teaching, meetings, and administrative responsibilities gradually take priority, leaving less time and energy for sustained research work. This pattern is widely recognized, but the way it is addressed tends to focus on individual strategies. Faculty are encouraged … Read more
Author: NCFDD In this Summer of Faculty Development blog series, we keep coming back to one plan most faculty have made at some point: using the summer to catch up on research. By the end of the semester, the list is usually long. A manuscript that stalled. A proposal that needs more than a light … Read more
Author: NCFDD There’s a point in the semester when research starts to feel harder to return to. Not because the work isn’t important, and not because you’ve run out of ideas. More often, it’s because too much time has passed since the last meaningful step forward. What once felt like steady progress now feels stalled, … Read more
More than 70% of faculty report cuts in professional development while nearly two-thirds report declining well-being, raising concerns about long-term impacts on teaching, research and student success DETROIT (MARCH 26, 2026) — NCFDD—a faculty success organization founded in 2010 that partners with 300+ institutions to reduce isolation, increase research productivity, and support sustainable academic career paths—today … Read more
Author: NCFDD Faculty research funding support has become one of the most urgent and misunderstood challenges facing higher education today. As expectations around external funding increase, many institutions respond by asking faculty to do more: write more proposals, pursue more opportunities, and adapt faster to shifting funder priorities. Yet this approach often overlooks a central … Read more
The faculty support gap in higher education is real. Over 1000 faculty and academic leaders revealed what faculty need most, and how institutions can help deliver it. Faculty development is no longer optional infrastructure. NCFDD’s national survey of 1,098 faculty and academic leaders reveals a growing divergence between what faculty need to remain productive and … Read more
Author: NCFDD Strong research ideas are not in short supply. Across disciplines, faculty are asking rigorous questions, developing sophisticated methods, and pursuing work with real intellectual and societal value. Yet many of these ideas never become competitive research proposals, even when faculty invest significant time and effort. This gap is not a reflection of weak … Read more
Turn Your Research Into a Clear, Compelling Funding Story Learn how to communicate your research in plain language that resonates with funders and partners beyond your discipline. Download this free worksheet designed to help faculty turn their research into a story they can use in emails, conversations, proposals, and pitches to non academic audiences. You … Read more
Author: NCFDD Across disciplines, faculty often assume that strong ideas speak for themselves. If the question is rigorous, the methods are sound, and the scholarship is credible, the value should be obvious to reviewers. Increasingly, that assumption no longer holds. Today’s funding landscape places growing weight not only on what faculty study, but on how … Read more
For many faculty, the experience of pursuing research funding today feels fundamentally different than it did even a decade ago. The rules are less clear. The competition feels sharper. Expectations seem to shift midstream. And the emotional toll of repeated rejection often carries more weight than it once did. If funding feels harder, more unpredictable, … Read more