2023-24 Provost’s Mentored Faculty Scholars Program

About the Program

In January 2022, the Office of the Vice President for Research, Scholarship and Creative Endeavors, together with the senior vice provost for Faculty Affairs and vice provost for Faculty Development, launched a new one-year, scholarship-focused 1:1 mentoring program for tenured and tenure-track faculty, at any rank and from any discipline. This program – the Provost’s Mentored Faculty Scholars program – augments traditional, within-department faculty mentoring at UT by facilitating mentor-mentee pairing across departments, or even across colleges.

The program will launch its third year in Spring 2024.

Mentored Faculty Scholars participating in the program will:

• Identify short- and long-term scholarly objectives suitable for their career stage and discipline and codify these in an Individual Development Plan (IDP).
• Identify sources of external funding, support, and recognition to grow their research portfolio and will take steps toward pursuing that external recognition.
• Broaden the impact of their research, scholarship, and/or creative endeavors, including receiving guidance on how to enhance one’s leadership skills.
• Receive support from OVPR Research Development to take steps toward advancing their scholarly agendas.
• Build a working relationship with a senior faculty leader who can advocate on their behalf.
• Build connections with the Office of the Vice President for Research, Scholarship and Creative Endeavors and Faculty Affairs leadership within the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost.

We encourage nomination of tenure-track and tenured faculty at any rank, who wish to receive structured mentorship to achieve the next stage of their career goals. Mentees selected to participate in the program will receive compensation of $10,000 for their participation.

Mentors will be recommended and selected based on how their expertise might enhance the mentees’ career goals, whether a faculty member is looking to enhance their publication portfolio, secure new sources of external funding, or lead a new research initiative. Mentors selected to participate in the program will receive compensation of $5,000 for their participation.

Through sustained, 1:1 interactions with their mentors over a one-year period, along with workshops and cohort sessions featuring mentoring experts from among UT’s faculty, each participant will develop a soft skillset critical to building or expanding their scholarly portfolio and increasing its impact. This includes maximizing the reach of their scholarship beyond traditional sub-disciplines; navigating the university’s culture and climate; navigating the external scholarly and publishing landscape; understanding how funds flow within UT; and knowing how to design a larger-scale initiative or scholarly endeavor that returns on its investment.

Learn more about Mentor responsibilities and compensation here.

Mentor/mentee meetings

• Mentor-mentee pairs set their own schedules for required meetings (30 hours total) throughout the program year

Research Development support provided Spring 2024 – Fall 2024

• Organized “Shut Up and Write” events (one per long semester) for cohort members to work on scoping research ideas for grant proposals
• 1:1 consultation for each mentee with an OVPR Research Development officer to discuss possible external funding sources

Mentoring Toolkit

The Provost’s Mentored Faculty Scholars program is by invitation only, but tools for self-assessment and professional development created for the program are available to anyone. Download the toolkit here.

2023 Provost’s Mentored Faculty Scholars