Guidance for Faculty Applying for Fellowships

Fellowship applications are many times not submitted through ORSP particularly if the awards are paid directly to the individual. In such cases, the individual is responsible for all taxes and will be responsible for determining how to continue with Wake Forest health and dental insurance, if desired. Even if a fellowship will not be administered by WFU, faculty should discuss their applications with ORSP staff.  ORSP staff routinely work with proposal budgets and are familiar with many award terms and conditions that faculty should also be aware.

In some cases, the sponsor will make the award to the university, which lets faculty maintain fringe benefits that are paid through payroll deduction. If an applicant chooses to have the fellowship administered by WFU, and wants to use the award to be relieved of some teaching and service duties, then award funds must be used for academic year base salary and benefits at the currently budgeted rates. Faculty may receive the balance of funds as summer salary, with associated benefits, if allowed by the granting agency.

If a fellowship may not be used for fringe benefits or is insufficient to cover both salary and fringe benefits during the award period, then additional funding may be requested through the Reynolds Leave program. Such requests must be made in advance of submission, so the Dean’s Office can plan for these expenses. Requests are subject to the Dean’s approval, and are thus not guaranteed. In general, WFU will commit resources to a WFU approved fellowship application when required to do so by the sponsor and the resources are available.

Effective immediately, faculty whose fellowships will be administered by WFU must complete the Approval for Submission (routing) form. If WFU funds are needed to supplement salary and/or fringe benefits, then the Cost Share Request form must also be completed. These forms are available on the ORSP website: http://www.wfu.edu/rsp/proposal.html.

Even if the fellowship will not be administered by WFU, faculty should let their Chair and Dean know when they submit an application, so that these units can plan for personnel and budget resource to cover leave requests.