Early-Career Faculty

Welcome! You have come to the right page if you are within ten years of your PhD (you likely qualify as an early-stage, new, or pre-tenure investigator, depending on the funding agency).

Please browse this page to learn about the various ways in which we can support you and consider scheduling a one-on-one coaching session with us or taking advantage of our other services and resources. We also encourage you to go the NCFDD website, sign up for their newsletter, and peruse their seminars.

How RD Helps Early-Career Faculty

Staying on Tenure Track & Managing Your Time

Being an early-career faculty member can be overwhelming given the variety of responsibilities and demands on your time. Effectively prioritizing your tasks by scheduling them based on urgency and importance is key.

We can offer guidance on balancing your time based on your workload model through a time-management workshop on MediaSpace. We invite new faculty to participate in our PI Academy soon after joining KSU, so be on the lookout for an email invitation. Because scholarship and creative activity (SCA) is a major factor in qualifying for tenure, a lack of research productivity is a key reason for faculty being denied tenure. Schedule a one-on-one coaching session with us for advice on meeting the promotion and tenure guidelines set by your college and department. Consider joining NCFDD to take advantage of their online seminars and writing challenges.

Identifying Funding Opportunities

As an early-career faculty member, you can take advantage of numerous external funding opportunities targeted at early-career researchers.

Learn about NIH’s Early State Investigator (ESI) status, resources for ESIs, and grants/awards that do not revoke ESI status. Learn about NSF’s opportunities for early-career researchers. You can also apply for KSU’s internal funding opportunities, and we particularly encourage you to pursue seed grants. For other funding opportunities, check out our pages on
External Funding and Limited Submissions.

Developing Fruitful Relationships

Research is becoming increasingly interdisciplinary and collaborative, so as you look to grow your research, connecting with your peers will be essential.

Consider joining one of KSU’s research communities to meet colleagues seeking meaningful interdisciplinary research experiences. Interested in mentorship? Schedule a one-on-one coaching session with us for assistance with reaching out to possible mentors or mentees. Connect with the Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) and the Graduate College for help with recruiting students. Check out our page on hiring and mentoring post-docs.

Generating Deliverables with High Quality and Significance

Sometimes early-career faculty equate productivity with volume, but volume must not come at the expense of quality and significance. In the funding acquisition phase, your time will be better spent carefully crafting a few grant applications than taking a shotgun approach. Also, do not underestimate the value of improving a grant application or research article that has been returned for revision.

To boost your grantsmanship, accept your PI Academy invitation, enroll in our six-week-long Summer Research Fellows workshop, or attend one of our discipline-specific workshops. We maintain a database of grant-writing resources on D2L. To request access, email us and ask to be added to the RDSI Resources for Faculty course. When you reach the stage of generating publications, check out the KSU Library’s resources that support research and publishing.