Professional Development Support Funds

The Laney Graduate School makes available funds to support specific categories of graduate student professional development.

Awards will be made in three funding categories:

• conference participation,
• training not available at Emory, including language acquisition [click here for a special note about language training], and
• research.

One primary aim of the PDS funds is to help students compete for funding from external entities.  Using PDS funding, students have an opportunity to acquire specialized training and conduct preliminary research.  Together with the support available through the Grant Writing Program, this preparation can greatly enhance students' prospects for securing full funding for their research.

Eligibility

The funds are available to all students enrolled in doctoral programs, except students in Anthropology, Biomedical Engineering, and the Graduate Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences.  To receive an award a student must be in good standing, both in the graduate school and in his or her program.

Applying

Information, guidelines, and forms are available to the right.

These funds are awarded on the basis of two general considerations: the merit of the proposed activity, and the importance of the activity to the student’s program of study.  Advisors and Directors of Graduate Study, who are in the best position to judge the merit of proposals and whether it contributes to the student’s education, make the primary decision about whether a graduate student request should be supported.   

For conference participation, there is both an annual limit and a cumulative career limit: students can receive no more than $650 each year (with one exception—see details in Conference Guidelines), and no more than $2,500 over their Emory careers.  Within these limits on total reimbursement, students may attend as many conferences as they need. 

The Laney Graduate School supports training and research that is necessary for the timley completion of the PhD.  Training and research awards are intended to prepare students to write competitive grant proposals to external funding sources and to complement external support.  Training and research support are not subject to cumulative career limits.  However, the amount of past support and the size of the current request affect how an application is reviewed.

Support for either training or research up to a $2,500 threshold is subject to non-competitive review.  These requests are awarded primarily on the basis of DGS and advisor support.

When a student's cumulative support (including a new proposal) in a single category exceeds $2,500, proposals in that categopry will be subject to competitive review by a faculty committee.  When a student's cumulative support totals $5,000, regardless of category, competitive review will apply to all new requests.

The amount of a competitive award depends on the research and training requirements, the student's stage in PhD preparation, and the amount of previous training and research support from PDS.  The faculy committee looks for ways in which external support and previous PDS support has neen used to position the student for the proposed research.  It is extremely unusual for a student's cumulative research and training support to exceed $8,000.

Each category of funding has further eligibility and award criteria, spelled out in the guideline documents posted to the right.

Special Note on Language Training

Language is an essential tool of scholarship for many disciplines.  PDS support is available to support language training, but is not intended to replace resources already available at Emory.  Students working in a language commonly taught at Emory should be taking advantage of these classes during the school year.  In addition, language is a component of research, and the highest level of ompetency are achieved doing reserarch in the language, not in separate courses.

Emory has a new resource for learning languages that are not taught in regular classes: SILS, Emory's program in Structured Independent Language Study.

Students who apply for PDS funds to support language training are expected to investigate how the SILS program can provide some or all of the needed language training.  The SILS program may be able to facilitate training in spoken languages, but not in written languages like Sanskrit or Ancient Greek.  Visit cet.emory.edu/eclc/sils.cfm for more information.  You might also read an Emory Report article about the program.

Even in cases where SILS training cannot provide the needed level of language competence, it can provide preliminary training that enables students to make more effective use of further training opportunities.

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