Expanding Networks of Expert Scholars

Developing national and international networks is an important part of supporting a faculty member's progression. The ‘Expanding Networks of Expert Scholars’ initiative, starting in 2025-26, is intended as a strategic investment in tenure-eligible assistant and tenured associate professors to support their career growth. This initiative allows assistant and associate professors to bring leading scholars/researchers in their fields to their department and the VCU campus.

The initiative provides funds to tenure-eligible assistant and tenured associate professors, to invite one or more leading scholars in their field to:

• provide critical feedback on a project (such as, a manuscript submission or resubmission to a major journal, book manuscript; grant proposal, etc.);
• organize a panel session; 
• invite one major scholar to give a talk. 

The external scholar(s) should not be a current or former mentor, graduate school advisor, collaborator, sponsor, or colleague, as we expect the faculty member to establish new connections that may be useful for soliciting external letters for promotion and/or tenure.

The initiative is administered through Faculty Affairs in the Office of the Provost. The Office of the Provost will provide up to 6 awards of up to $5000 each academic year. Each award requires 50% matching funds from the awardee’s school/college. The award can be used to to cover the travel costs, honoraria, or other such related expenses. The funds may not be used to directly support the faculty member’s research.

The first cycle of awards in this initiative was announced in April of 2025 for the 2025-2026 Academic Year.

Submissions will be accepted every Spring semester for the following academic year. Reviews and award decisions will be completed by the end of the spring semester for each submission cycle.

At the conclusion of the engagement with the scholars, the faculty member will submit a one-page report describing the experience, how they engaged with the scholar(s), insights gained, and impact on their overall career progression. This report should be submitted one month after the end of the engagement.

For clarifications or questions, please email vpfacaffrs@vcu.edu.

Awardees