Tenure-line and Practice Faculty who have been in a full-time appointment for six years and who have gone at least six years since a previous FDL are eligible for Faculty Development Leave, which is designed to provide concentrated time for professional development, instructional development, and/or scholarship. FDLs, which can be configured for one semester at full pay or an academic year at half pay, are awarded on a competitive basis. An appropriately configured and endorsed application must be submitted to the college the first Monday in December of the year preceding the leave.
During a full-year FDL at half-pay, an external award or fellowship may provide up to half of academic-year salary. Although there is no requirement to use an FDL to obtain a leave with partial pay, faculty members are encouraged to pursue opportunities for special awards and fellowships to coincide with a year in which they are eligible for FDL.
Please submit your Faculty Development Fellowship applications for Fall 2026, Spring 2027, and academic year 2026-2026 by December 1, 2025. If you have questions about the leave process or your eligibility for leave, contact the dean’s office at casdeansoffice@unl.edu.
Although UNL has recently moved to a rolling deadline for FDF applications, the College of Arts and Sciences only considers applications received by the posted December deadline. This process is necessary in order to be able to plan critical instruction needs and to be equitable in awarding of leaves when applications exceed capacity. Applications received at other times of the year will not be considered until December.
Application Requirements
- The Application for Faculty Development Fellowship, with all appropriate signatures. Faculty members holding formal joint appointments require the signature of both chairs or directors.
- A statement by the applicant (three page suggested maximum) describing the proposed project. This statement should include a description of the work to be undertaken during the proposed leave
,and an explanation of the benefits of the proposed leave to the university and the faculty member. - If there are multiple applications from the same unit, a statement ranking the applications, and providing a rationale for the rankings in terms of the criteria shown below. The statement should come from the chair or director.
- A statement from the chair or director indicating whether the leave(s) can be accommodated without disruption to the research and/or instructional missions of the unit.
Award Criteria
- Excellent scholarship (including research and creative activity and/or instructional development) is the primary factor in judging proposals.
- The FDF proposal must present a clear goal and a clear plan (including expected outcomes).
- It is important that faculty are able to explore new areas and to investigate ideas which potentially have a big pay-off but may not work out. Thus, proposals for risky projects may rate highly provided the potential for significant outcomes can be demonstrated.
- The benefits of the leave to the university and the faculty member must be explained in terms of
departmental, college, and campus priorities.
The college is allotted one leave for every ten eligible faculty. We will accept requests for leaves beyond this for a department but you should be sure to indicate how the teaching program will be maintained if the leaves are all granted.
Faculty who have held full-time appointments at UNL for six years or more at the rank of assistant, associate, or full professor, or at the rank of assistant, associate, or full professor of practice are eligible for participation in the Faculty Development Fellowship program. Faculty are encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity throughout their careers. Six full years of service must elapse between Faculty Development Fellowships.
As stated in the Faculty Development Fellowship policy, these leaves are to be awarded competitively and must be awarded on the basis of expected benefits to the university and to the faculty member. The primary evaluation of applications will remain in the departments. The Dean’s Office will review the applications to ensure that they meet the above criteria.