Faculty Writing Initiative 
For faculty wanting dedicated time and space to write, the Faculty Writing Initiative (FWI) convenes faculty to write independently, together. FWI is designed to support faculty in achieving their academic and creative goals through work on writing projects of any kind—including grant proposals and research articles.
Faculty across all ranks, including non-tenure track, can participate either fall or spring semester.
*FWI for Fall 2025 has started! Please contact Drs. Antonio Byrd or Jane Greer for more information or availability to join while in-progress.
Art of Grants 
Coordinated by Drs. Alexis Petri (CAFE), Yifei Liu (School of Pharmacy), and Larry Wigger (Bloch School of Management), the Art of Grants program, asynchronous alone or combined with labs, will prepare faculty with the foundational knowledge and the applied experience to prepare a competitive proposal aligned with external or internal funding opportunities.
- Asynchronous Only (Sept 30 – Nov 21): Work through weekly modules at your own pace. This track emphasizes understanding the full grant lifecycle—from funding landscapes and idea development to proposal writing, submission, and project management. Completion earns two Sprint badges: Finding Funding and Writing for Grants and Philanthropy. .
- (Sept 30 – Mar 20): Complete the same modules on a different release schedule, coordinated with nine in-person lab sessions. Labs provide a collaborative space for live modeling, peer feedback, and hands-on drafting of proposals. Topics include logic models, team science, budgets, evaluation, and RFP analysis. Completion earns a Catalyst badge.
Program benefits (º£½ÇÂÛ̳-affiliated participants)
$500 stipend for active participation in the online course—either the asynchronous modules alone or the combined online + in-person lab option.
Eligibility for up to $4,000 in seed funding through CAFE's internal RFP. To qualify, participants must complete the online modules and attend at least eight of the nine in-person lab sessions.
Badge Pathway
Completing both the modules and the labs earns a Milestone badge in the Research & Creativity pillar, representing full-cycle engagement.
Large-scale Proposal Development Workshop
The Large-scale Grant Proposal Development Workshop is an 8-week practical grant proposal development workshop offered each fall. This workshop is open exclusively to faculty or researchers who have experience getting federal funding but want to build a larger team for a more significant societal issue.
Participants attending four out of five sessions and participating asynchronously on Canvas will receive a $500 stipend.
Grant Proposal Workshops
This spring workshop series combines faculty from Art of Grants and Large-scale Proposal Development to share progress on their proposed work and receive structured feedback from their colleagues. It is designed to support momentum toward successful proposal submission.
Grant Proposal Workshops last eight weeks and two faculty teams or groups present at each meeting. Details will be shared directly to members of these groups.
Faculty Grant Mentors
Faculty with grant experience mentor their faculty colleagues pursuing a grant in the same or related competition.
Each faculty grant mentor receives a stipend of $500 to meet with faculty at least four times and review and make suggestions on project description narrative at least once.
Proposal Review Panel
Assist with ad hoc grant proposal reviews with the goal of supporting highly competitive grant proposals of your colleagues. Each review panelist will be compensated - based on the number and size of the proposal(s).
Faculty interested in serving as an internal proposal reviewer, contact Alexis Petri by email petria@umkc.edu.