Cal Poly Internal Funding: Continuing Initiatives/ Teacher-Scholar Mini Grant Program
Proposals are due Thursday, October 8, 2026 @ NOON PDT via InfoReady.
No late submissions will be accepted. Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit their proposals early. (Standard practice is 24 hours ahead of deadline).
Important documents:
1. The Continuing Initiatives/ TSMG Info Sheet (includes rating definitions)
2. The Internal Funding_2027-28 RFP for full details
3. The Excel budget template.
When creating your project budget, we recommend starting with the excel budget template before filling out the budget fields in the InfoReady application.
Background
Cal Poly is committed to the teacher-scholar model in which faculty integrate excellence in teaching with excellence in research, scholarly and creative activities. The teacher-scholar model enables faculty to fulfill Cal Poly’s mission as an institution committed to quality undergraduate and graduate education, to the advancement of knowledge through basic and applied research, to the enrichment of society through creative activities in the arts and humanities, and to serving our community. The Cal Poly Internal Funding Grant Program, supported by funds from the CSU Chancellor’s Office and the Cal Poly Office of the Provost, is intended to help faculty remain engaged in their disciplines beyond the classroom and to contribute new knowledge through robust programs of scholarship focused on strengthening California socially, culturally, and economically. The annual funding from the program is intended to provide internal resources to help faculty pursue a broader array of professional activities.
Synopsis of the Program
Continuing Initiatives - Teacher-Scholar Mini Grant (TSMG): The primary focus of this track is to provide “bridge” and/or “closure” funding for all types of research, scholarly, and creative activities. Fundable areas include but are not limited to basic or applied research; artistic, archival, creative, or design products; peer reviewed publications; professional workshop convenings; operational bridge funding for ongoing projects; develop or institute curricular or co-curricular programs; program assessment; innovative practice; collaborative engagement; or community engaged teaching and learning.
Funding Details
Base budget requests may not exceed $10,000. Additional requests to support Undergraduate and Graduate students are available and discussed in further detail in the info sheet.
• Faculty compensation. Faculty can request up to $6,000 in additional compensation per faculty member, with no more than $9,000 of additional compensation across all faculty co-PIs in any proposal. Do not list staff as co-PIs; they may be included in the temporary personnel section. Total amount received may be less after benefits.
You may request additional compensation for the months when you plan to do the work directly related to the funding. Co-PI salary should be listed in field “non-PI Faculty in Project ($).” Even though you may be equal partners, please select one person as PI and the other(s) will be co-PI/Non-PI.
Eligibility
All faculty unit employees are eligible to compete for funding, including lecturers, tenure-track, and tenured faculty. Awards are provided only to those who hold a current appointment for the duration of the program (July 1, 2027 – June 30, 2028); exceptions may be granted but require review by the Office of the Associate Vice Provost of Research and the Dean of the respective college. This funding is intended to provide support to new, early career, tenure-track probationary faculty and lecturers at any stage of their career at Cal Poly. To be eligible to apply as a PI or co-PI, applicants must be faculty (unit 3) employees (i.e. tenure-track, tenured, or lecturer faculty). Non-faculty unit employees (i.e. MPP, staff, etc.) are not eligible to serve as PIs or co-PIs. Support for temporary personnel: non-unit 3 employees may be compensated as temporary personnel; they must demonstrate that any work on this internally funded program falls outside their regular position duties.
• You may submit one proposal to each funding option (as PI or co-PI). Project topic and scope must be different for each proposal.
• Applicants cannot submit a proposal to the Continuing Initiatives-TSMG program as a PI if they have received TSMG funding - twice in the preceding 5 award cycles (2022-23 to 2026-27); i.e. the fiscal year for the original active term of the project, not the fiscal year when the PI received the notification of award. This limit does not apply to submissions as a Co-PI.
• Applicants can only re-submit the same proposed project three times – one original submission and two resubmissions. Applicants must denote when they are resubmitting a proposal.
• PIs and Co-PIs are not eligible to receive a new grant if they have any past-due progress reports for previous Internal Funding awards (previously denoted as RSCA/TSMG).
Note that this program does NOT require any processing through the Office of Research pre-award offices for proposals to external funders.
Applicants will be notified whether their proposals have been awarded by February 2027.
The Office of Research thanks you for your participation! If you need assistance, please e-mail research@calpoly.edu.
Please also see our two other tracks: New Initiatives/ Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activities (RSCA) Grant Program and Proposal Development Program (PDP).
Info Session
To learn more, we invite you to attend our internal funding Information session on Friday, September 4, from 11:00.-12 noon. Phil Costanzo, Academic Senate Grants Review Committee chair, will explain the internal funding program, answer questions and provide tips and suggestions for drafting competitive proposals.
Zoom link will be added here.
The presentation slides will be linked here and recording will be linked here.
