Faculty Development Program

The Faculty Development Program is part of the organized research program of The University of Texas at Austin.  It provides semester-length leaves for tenured faculty members, and summer session leaves for tenure-track assistant professors.  Funds for the Faculty Development Program are appropriated by the The University of Texas Board of Regents, and are administered in the Office of the Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies.

Faculty will use the Graduate School Online Awards System to apply for these awards using UTDirect - no hard copies involved. You will need to prepare your materials prior to completing the application online. See "How to Apply" for more details.

FACULTY RESEARCH ASSIGNMENTS provide tenured faculty members with the equivalent of one semester's salary (based on their academic base rate during the year of the award) so that they can devote full time to research. Only tenured associate and full professors may apply for FRAs. (

SUMMER RESEARCH ASSIGNMENTS provide partial summer leaves; terms vary by college. Only tenure-track assistant professors are eligible to apply. Applications from others will be returned. Previous SRA awardees are eligible to apply again, but the likelihood of their obtaining a second award is greatly reduced.

Faculty Research Assignments and Summer Research Assignments provide ONLY salary for the applicant. They do not provide other types of support, such as wages for research assistants, research associated travel, equipment, supplies, etc. Those types of funds may be provided by Research Grants and Special Research Grants, which are available through the Office of the Vice President for Research. For further information about those grants, contact the Office of the Vice President for Research.