Any reason to apply for fellowships when sabbatical is fully paid?

[Pomegranate]

Hi all,

I am hoping to apply for a full year sabbatical, which will be at full pay (thanks to a banked semester-long departmental release). I was originally planning to apply for some fellowships as well, such as Fulbright, but I see that the university policies state that under no condition can my total pay exceed my base salary. What, on Earth, is then my motivation to apply for these funds? If I get one, and switched to it from my base salary, my total pay would decrease, not increase (though I am aware that I can then apply for some additional university research supplement programs, which would bring up my total pay so it is on par with my base, but it is also extra hassle for no solid benefit on my part). Should I simply not apply for anything?

Should I then instead be focusing only on summer-only, travel, etc. grants, for which I can get some benefit (as they could be paying, say, a trip to a conference)? Never done a sabbatical before, so I really have no idea! Any insight would be appreciated.

[Hegemony]

Nope, no particular reason to do it.

[Pomegranate]

Nope, no particular reason to do it.

Thank you!!

[Kron3007]

I wouldn't bother unless you feel there is value in the fellowship for some other reason (perhaps if it is prestigious it could help when you go oor promotion?). 

Personally, I wouldn't bother and would instead use that time productively.  However, I would look into travel grants if they are available and you are going somewhere.

I am just wrapping up my first sabbatical and it is a wonderful thing.  I have been a lot busier than expected, but it has been very productive and nice to be able to catch up.

[hazelshade]

Hi all,

I am hoping to apply for a full year sabbatical, which will be at full pay (thanks to a banked semester-long departmental release). I was originally planning to apply for some fellowships as well, such as Fulbright, but I see that the university policies state that under no condition can my total pay exceed my base salary. What, on Earth, is then my motivation to apply for these funds? If I get one, and switched to it from my base salary, my total pay would decrease, not increase (though I am aware that I can then apply for some additional university research supplement programs, which would bring up my total pay so it is on par with my base, but it is also extra hassle for no solid benefit on my part). Should I simply not apply for anything?

Should I then instead be focusing only on summer-only, travel, etc. grants, for which I can get some benefit (as they could be paying, say, a trip to a conference)? Never done a sabbatical before, so I really have no idea! Any insight would be appreciated.

So...the Fulbright goes directly to you, not via your university. Does that change the math for you?

[Pomegranate]

Hazelshade: Wouldn't my university find out though, given the profile of a Fulbright and how it is public? (I don't think Fulbright itself would have any such limitations). Of course, the general question applies to other fellowships as well.

Kron3007: I may end up doing exactly that! So glad to hear that yours was such a great experience! Cant wait really!

[Hegemony]

If you get a Fulbright, better to take it on a separate year. Then you have two well-funded research years — much better for your research than one research year at twice the salary.

[glendower]

I would read your university's policy as meaning money paid by or through them. Why would they keep you from getting paid by a prestigious granting institution?

[mamselle]

Yeah, that doesn't sound right. I think Fulbright get issued through your school's OSR, don't they?

I applied as a student, which of course is probably a different procedure, but the vetting was done by a committee formed from various departmental reps, and I can't imagine them knowing you get an award and not having something to do with its administration.

Grantors don't usually grant to individuals, but to institutions, for accountancy purposes.

Again, I  could be wrong....(it happened last year, once, I think...)

    《goes off to Google...》

M.

[Ruralguy]

I don't think you are wrong Mamselle.

OP, It will be difficult to find a funding source that doesn't either go through your school or if not, the granting agency would have complete knowledge of your salary and would ikely be unwilling to exceed it by much, if anything. 

[mamselle]

   《Returns from Google-quest...》

It's not stated categorically, and there are many, many pages of info, but everything I read presumed/required a host institution, even for independent work in the fine arts, which would seem like the hardest to obtain, and they all talk about an applicant's institutional affiliation as a given (still haven gotten down to the release-of-funds protocols, yet, but they must be there somewhere).

The arts site is here:

   https://us.fulbrightonline.org/applicants/application-components/arts

...you can probably spider-walk backwards to find you topic's page..

I'd want to know as an independent scholar on my own interest, but that seems confusing, since they still note 'your institution' as boilerplate, without "getting" the idea that independent scholars, by definition, don't HAVE an institutional affiliation..

Sorry, Brel, but you said it best: "Follow me, we're on a carousel ,,,"

More if it turns up...

M.

[mleok]

Could you use your banked departmental release at a later time? At my institution, the sabbatical is based on 1 year's credit covering the equivalent of 1/9 th of your academic year salary, so after 6 years, one can take 3 quarters off at 66% salary, and we can bank up to 9 years of sabbatical credit which corresponds to 100% of salary for 3 quarters. But, we can draw some of the credit and bank the rest, so applying for a fellowship would allow me to save some of the sabbatical credit for a later time.

[adel9216]

Prestige and a good addition to your CV? That's the only thing I think can see from your question

[hazelshade]

Yeah, that doesn't sound right. I think Fulbright get issued through your school's OSR, don't they?

No, that's not how they work. I run the OSR. Fulbright Scholar Awards (the ones issued through CIES, which are the ones available to faculty members) do not allow you to run the funds through your home institution; they must be issued directly to the grantee. You're looking at the Fulbright Student Program, which is a completely different enterprise and is unlikely to yield helpful information about the Fulbright Scholar Award.

All of the individual Fulbright programs that I'm familiar with do require a host institution, but this is the institution that is hosting you abroad rather than anything to do with your home institution. It seems a little silly to fault the Fulbright program for not understanding how independent scholars work when you are 1) misinterpreting a term and 2) not even looking at the grant program you think you're looking at.

[hazelshade]

Perhaps more helpfully to the OP, here's how this would play out at my institution:

• We would also be unable to pay you more than your base salary via institutional payroll.
• If you were to win a fellowship during a year when you already had your full salary covered by an institutional sabbatical, the norm would be for you to bank part of your sabbatical and take it later (as a one-semester sabbatical, course releases, whatever).
• We would also be fine with you taking the Fulbright on top of your regular sabbatical (unless, I suppose, the institutionally-awarded sabbatical was for a particular project that it would be impossible to pursue while undertaking the Fulbright).

A couple of options you could consider:

• You could apply for grants that don't have to be used as salary supplement (AAUW American Postdoctoral Fellowship if you're eligible, CAORC Multi-Country Research Fellowship if that fits the kind of travel you want to do) or that are specifically for travel/other research expenses (short-term residential fellowships, APS Franklin Grant, NEH Summer Stipend, grants through disciplinary societies, etc.).
• If it's feasible within the countries you're targeting, you could try a Fulbright Flex award that would let you make a couple of trips over a period of a couple of years (perhaps focusing on breaks/summers?).

Also note that conference travel is specifically disallowed as an expense for some travel grants, so if that's what you're looking for funding for, read the fine print.