Brown uses Workday for all reimbursements.  Please submit an itemized list of expenses, a specific buisness reason (that includes, who, what, when, where and why) and the account that should be charged, along with receipts.  Receipts should include payment method; and if airfare, the complete itinerary of the flight.  If your receipt does not have payment method on it, you may use a copy of your credit card statement as back up.  The credit card statement does not replace a receipt. If your receipts are not in English and there is no corresponding credit card statement, or if you do not have a receipt, a missing receipt affidavit may be required. All receipts must be submitted within 60 days of purchase/event date/or return travel date.  If you are a faculty member, you will still be reimbursed, but it will become taxable income, and an additional 7.5% fringe benefit rate will be charged to your research account.  Graduate Students will not be reimbursed past 60 days.  Certain exceptions may apply.

Please note the following:

• Please email Stephen Bush (Stephen_Bush@brown.edu) for approval for any travel requests while the University has limited travel to essential only (presentation of paper or research). 

• All international travel requires registration in Travel Safe. In order to receive reimbursement you will need to submit a receipt from Travel Safe that includes the information pertinent to your trip, dates and location. 

• If requesting a meals per diem for more than 14 consecutive days, you will need authorization from the Dean of the Faculty.  Email Sam_Caldis@brown.edu and provide a copy of the authorization as part of your expense report.

• If staying at a hotel, you are required to submit a hotel folio along with any other receipt, i.e. if using Expedia or Hotels.Com, you may submit the receipt from them, but will also be required to submit the hotel folio. 

• If renting a car, you must use Enterprise/National Car Rentals and book through Brown's Travel Portal.  The contractual rate includes liability and collision damage insurance.  Documented evidence must be provided if Enterprise/National is not available in the region you are traveling to.  A business reason must be provided if using another service, and is subject to approval of the Controller's Office. 

• All computers and Ipads must be purchased through OIT.  Any software purchases as well, must be reviewed by OIT.  Please contact Kat_Skowyra@brown.edu for more information. 

• Any office furniture must be purchased through a Brown preferred vendor.  Please be in contact with Nicole for more information.

Apply for Faculty Travel Funds

The Faculty Travel Fund will provide up to $1900 for domestic conference and research trips; with a $600 top up for international travel.  The funding may be reduced depending on the amount of other research funds available.  For more information, including the application process, please visit the website. 

The Office of Vice President for Research (OVPR) awards Humanities Research Funds (HRFs) to support faculty research in the humanities and social sciences, where external funding opportunities may be limited.  Each eligible department is given a fixed amount of money annually. 

Note: If a full-time faculty member has effort in more than one department, the faculty may apply for funds from each department. Eligible faculty members with effort in more than one department should coordinate with the chairs in their respective departments to determine how the HRF request will be allocated and administered.  The total HRF award may not exceed the limit per single faculty member, noted below. 

The HRF funds are merit-based and are intended to support faculty research projects.  Award funds may be used to support reasonable and necessary costs of conducting research and scholarship.  All expenditures under this program must be in accordance with University policies and procedures.  Eligible HRF expenses (subject to Brown’s guidelines and approvals, if applicable, at the time of award) include, but are not limited to, travel to archives, preparation of manuscripts and articles, hiring research assistants, collecting or analyzing data, travel to research conferences, and securing permissions. New for 2025, funds can be used to host research conferences or research workshops at Brown.  In this case, faculty are permitted to pool their funds if needed.  Note, that each individual faculty member may not exceed their individual limit across their departments.  Rationale for pooled funds must name the faculty team and their departments. 

With few exceptions, funds should not be used to purchase general computing equipment (except if needed for a specific research purpose) including desktop computers, laptops, and tablets.  Funds should not be used for teaching related expenses, including but not limited to curriculum development, invited lectures for a class, and hiring teaching assistants. 

Requests to the chair for travel to research conferences should show evidence of having exhausted other sources of support, including the DoF Faculty Research Funds. 

Typical award amounts range from $1000-$2500, but awards may be up to $4,000.  Funds are usually made available by January 1, and must be spent by December 31st of the same year. 

A call for requests will be issued from Nicole on behalf of the chair, usually in early Fall.  Our report to OVPR is due in early November, with notifications of preliminary award amounts issued in December. Timeline may vary based on notifications from OVPR.

Seed Grants (https://www.brown.edu/research/conducting-research-brown/finding-funding/internal-funding-opportunities/research-seed-funds-guidelines)

Research Seed Funds are offered through the Office of the Vice President of Research (OVPR) and are intended to support activities necessary to advance competitive research proposals, such as performing preliminary wor and facilitating collaboration.  It is expected that a competitive proposal for a sizable project will be submitted to an external fundng organization within a year of the completion of the Research Seed Fund period.  

Any Brown faculty member employed by Brown and whose research is administered through Brown is eligible.  Brown faculty employed by affiliated institutions, Brown faculty whose research is administered through affiliated institutions, emeritus faculty, adjunct faculty, visiting faculty, and postdocs, are not eligible to lead projects as Principal Investigator (PI), but may be included on the research team.

There are two funding categories: Caegory 1 - Awards can be up to $50,000 for proposals with a single PI.  Awards are for one year, but no-cost extensions may be granted with appropriate justification.  Category 2 - Awards can be up to $100,000 for a group of two or more PI's from distinctly different disciplines who are initiating a new collaboration with the goal to establish an ongoing, long-term connection across disciplines that is expected to lead to substantial external research funding through multi-investigator or center types of grants.  At least one PI must be a Brown faculty member.  More information can be found on the OVPR website.

Salomon Grants (https://www.brown.edu/research/conducting-research-brown/finding-funding/internal-funding-opporunities/richard-b-salomon-faculty-research-award-fund-guidelines) 

Also offered through OVPR, Salomon Grant applications are open to any Brown faculty member whose research is administered through Brown.  Emeritus, adjunct, and visiting faculty, as well as post-docs, are not eligible to apply.  Faculty who have received a Salomon grant in 2017 or later are not eligible to apply. 

Grants of up to $15,000 are awarded for one year.  The anticipated performance period is February to June of that year.  These are meant as development grants and may not be renewed, but no-cost extensions may be granted with the appropriate justification.  Funds not expended by the completion date will be returned to OVPR.  

The research project will be considered and evaluated by a committee of faculty reviewers who will make their award recommendations to the Vice President for Research.  The final selection will be made based on the following criteria: 

• Intrinsic merit of the work and potential impact of the proposed activity on the academic field of study. 

• Likelihood that the award will provide significant progress on a project that would not be possible without the funding. 

• Likelihood that the proposed work would be completed during the award period. 

Preference will be given to junior faculty who are in the process of building their research portfolio.  For more information please visit the OVPR website.

Please be in touch with Nicole before inviting any guest speakers to campus.  In order to be paid, guest speakers must register in Workday.  If the visitor is international, it is important they enter the United States under the correct visa in order to paid.  There are also additional registration steps and documentation that are required.  For any speaker, If the honorarium is $3k or above, a contract will need to be entered through Brown's Contract Management system. 

To download as a pdf, please click here.

Process

Submitting a course to Tina for inclusion in the registration process requires three steps:

1. Determine if the course requires Curriculum Council Review
2. Determine what materials you need to submit to Tina
3. Determine the date by which you must submit the materials to Tina.

Determine if the course requires Curriculum Council Review:

Regular faculty

These courses require College Curriculum Council (CCC) review (only) the first time you teach it: 

• First- or second-year seminar
• UNIV course (mandatory S/NC)
• Course with a WRIT, RPP, COEX, or CBLR designation
• Inactive courses (courses you haven’t taught in the last ten years)

All other courses do not require CCC review the first time you teach it, but do require CCC review the second time.

Term faculty

All courses require CCC review the first time you teach it. Courses that have been taught before do not require CCC review.

Determine what materials you must submit to The Administrative Coordinator (Tina Creamer)

Requires CCC review

Title (100 characters max), course type, description, grade option, enrollment cap (a rationale must be provided), specify if the course is limited to undergraduates or graduates, prerequisites (if any), specify if instructor override is required, preferred time slots, and syllabus. If the course is designated as WRIT, RPP, COEX, or CBLR, provide an explanation as to how the course meets the criteria for the designation.

First-time course being taught by regular faculty that does not require CCC review

Title (100 characters max), course type, description, grade option, enrollment cap (a rationale must be provided), specify if the course is limited to undergraduates or graduates, prerequisites (if any), specify if instructor override is required, preferred time slots, and syllabus.

Does not require CCC review, because it has already undergone it

Course number, title, and preferred time slots

See Notes section below for details.

Determine the date by which you must submit the materials to Administrative Coordinator (Tina Creamer)

For a preferred time slot, if course requires CCC review

By January 6th (or the first day the University opens after Winter Break) all materials need to be submitted to Tina for both fall and spring semesters of the following academic year. 

For a preferred time slot, if course does not require CCC review 

Feb. 1st

For a non-preferred time slot, whether or not CCC review is required

For preregistration for fall courses (which occurs in the prior spring): Feb. 15th

For fall courses regular registration: July 1

For preregistration for spring courses (which occurs in the prior fall): August 1st

For spring courses regular registration: October 1st

Notes:

Title: If you would like to specify the title as it appears on students’ transcripts, you may submit that (30 characters max). Otherwise the transcript title will be shortened for you. 

Course type: Intro; First-year seminar; Second-year seminar; Intermediate; Upper-level seminar; Graduate seminar

Description: 140 words or less

Time slots: See here. Regular faculty typically will have settled this already in the December faculty meeting. Please note: the time slots for the whole University fill up and become unavailable on a first-come first-served basis. Therefore, the earlier you submit your course information and preferred time slot the better. This is especially true in relation to pre-registration. In regard to classes that are submitted subsequent to pre-registration, many of the available slots will have already been taken in pre-registration. We will do the best we can to accommodate your preferences, but we have no control over the registrar’s policies for assigning time slots.

Grade option:  Letter grade or S/NC [pass/fail] only

For information on syllabus requirements, see here.