Enhanced Mentoring Program with Opportunities for Ways to Excel in Research (EMPOWER)

• Full-time tenured or tenure-eligible assistant and associate professors from all schools and units at all IU campuses are eligible to apply.
• All full-time tenured professors from all schools and units at IU with successful, externally funded research programs who are willing to assist mentees with grant proposal and broader research agenda development, are eligible to be a mentor. It is not required that mentors and mentees be from the same discipline.
• Willingness and ability to commit to a minimum of 30 hours over the one-year program period dedicated to meeting with an identified mentor with a proven track record of success obtaining external funding for research, as well as additional time preparing a grant proposal.
• Mentee applicants should avoid choosing a mentor with whom there is a conflict of interest. If there is one, please disclose it in the application, including mitigation plans.
• Visiting and adjunct faculty members, staff scientists (support‐oriented positions), and postdoctoral research associates are not eligible to apply.

Mentee Program Details

• Mentees may be awarded up to $7,000 in funds that can be used directly to support the development of a proposal under the guidance of a mentor. The funds can be used for research and/or professional development to advance research, including but not limited to summer salary (for 10-month appointees) to write proposals, equipment, data, supplies, and/or travel. No funds can be used directly for course buyouts.
• Submission of a proposal to an external funding source must occur no later than 12 months from the end of the one-year program period. Failure to meet this requirement may result in the applicant becoming ineligible to receive support from IU Research in the future and the applicant’s dean and department chair will be notified.
• Mentees cannot apply to any other IU Research internal grant program during the EMPOWER program period. In rare and extraordinary circumstances, exception requests will be considered.
• A mentee can receive this award once.
• Priority will be given to mentees who have yet to receive external funding as PI.
• Mentees are encouraged but not required to participate in any grant writing workshops, training, and/or other relevant professional development opportunities made available across the university and beyond, including but not limited to those offered by IU Research, respective campus offices of Academic Affairs, and the Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Mentor Program Details

• Mentors work with mentees to help outline a research agenda, including developing and submitting a proposal for an external grant opportunity, and a plan for sustained external funding.
• The mentor is expected to meet 30 hours with the mentee during the one-year program period.
• Mentors are required to provide the mentee applicant with a letter of support confirming their commitment to the mentee, including areas of guidance intended to be provided to mentee.