The goals of the Professional Development Grant program (PDG) of the Bloomington Professional Council (BPC) are to:
- Contribute to the professional development of all professional staff members.
- Support continuing and advanced education and skill development for all professional staff members.
- Encourage collaboration among professional staff members within the IUB community.
- Increase networking opportunities for professional staff members within the IUB community.
- Enhance professional advancement potential.
- Ease the financial burden of professional development events and activities for professional staff members.
- Demonstrate the value professional staff members add to the IUB community.
- Promote increased visibility of the professional staff and of the variety of professional responsibilities at IUB.
- Reward unique contributions to the professional staff and to the IUB community.
Each proposal must include the responses to following items:
- Professional development grant application (pages 2-3 of this web form).
- Description of the opportunity (250 word limit).
- Explanation for attending (250 word limit).
- Applicant job description (250 word limit) and resume/CV (to be uploaded).
- Letter of support from the applicant’s supervisor.
Apply nowProvide a letter of support from a supervisor. Your supervisor must send this letter directly to the IUBPC at iubpc@indiana.edu or send a hard copy via campus mail to the IUBPC office in Poplars 822.The proposals most likely to be selected by the committee and awarded with funding will demonstrate any, many, or all of the following:
- Thoughtful and understandable descriptions of the professional development event/activity and the organization offering the event/activity (such as attending a training or workshop, presenting at a conference, recruiting, etc).
- A professional staff member’s representation of the professional staff, and of IUB, to an outside constituency, networking and/or collaboration opportunities (both within and outside of the IUB community).
- Clear and convincing explanation of the value and rewards the professional development activity will provide to candidate, candidate’s current Department/Unit, IUB.
- An impactful follow-up ‘contribution’ to the IUB community (such as an workshop/presentation, brown bag lunch discussion, collection of an artifact, demonstration, etc).
- Alignment with the goals, directions, strategies, and missions of the President and/or Provost.
- Strong writing/communication skills in a professional-looking proposal.
- A unique request or a unique event/activity (with a strong rationale/description behind it).
- Willing support and solid justification from a supervisor.
- Evidence of additional funding source(s), and/or demonstrated effort to secure additional funding (PDG funding would ideally supplement funding from additional sources rather than be the sole source of funding to support a professional development opportunity).
Completed grant applications (with the exception of the letter of support/recommendation from a supervisor, which should be sent by the supervisor directly to the BPC office) will be accepted at any time, but must be completed online no later than 5:00 p.m. EST by each deadline:
Grant Award Cycle | Professional Development Opportunity | Deadline to Apply | Applicant Notification | Funds Transfer On/After |
1 | July - October | June 1 | June 15 | July 1 |
2 | November - February | October 1 | October 15 | November 1 |
3 | March - June | February 1 | February 15 | March 1 |
Example: If the professional development opportunity takes place in January, the applicant should submit grant application materials by the October 1 deadline. The applicant will hear back regarding their application status by October 15 and funds will be transferred on/after November 1.
Each grant awardee will provide:
- Digital photograph for inclusion on the BPC PDG web page.
- Presentation or 1 page maximum essay/letter/journal response to the professional development activity to later be shared with the council and/or inclusion on the BPC PDG website.