Many MSU faculty have built healthy research environments for their graduate students. The faculty champions is designed to acknowledge and enhance the strong work faculty are doing in this area by providing extra funds to improve graduate wellness within their research environment.

Faculty can request up to $1000 to support their initiatives in at least one of the following areas, supportive, collaborative, creative, and empowered[1]. The Graduate School has $5,000 this spring to fund these proposals.

The proposals can be to extend some work that you are already doing (thank you) or to add something new to your research group.

  • Supportive:

    Researchers at other universities were asked a few years ago[2] for the ideal characteristics of a positive research group. Here is a graphic representing their responses - the top term was supportive.

synergistic words

Faculty can propose ways to make the research environment more supportive. As an example, Team Psychological Safety “is a shared belief held by members of a team that it’s OK to take risks, to express their ideas and concerns, to speak up with questions, and to admit mistakes — all without fear of negative consequences” https://hbr.org/2023/02/what-is-psychological-safety. As Harvard Business professor Amy Edmondson puts it, “it’s felt permission for candor.” Faculty can propose group agreements on behavior during meetings, encouraging ideas, positive feedback, and getting to know each other.

Another possibility is to make more frequent and impactful connections with the graduate student’s committee. Or increase support by expanding a the range of mentors, e.g. each student completes a mentor map student-mentoring-map.pdf  and uses the mentoring network to support their progress.

 

  • Collaborative

    Faculty can propose how they can increase the collaborative culture in their research groups or departments, including team-building exercises. Here are some suggestions from University of Toronto[3]
    1. Encourage collaboration rather than competition within your research team and with other research teams.
    2. Hold regular team meetings and encourage team members to discuss their projects with one another. Discuss the overall objectives of the team and how each person’s work contributes.
    3. Celebrate joint achievements such as collaborative applications for funding and joint publications, as well as individual achievements in the research team.
    4. Offer prospective team members the opportunity to meet current lab members, alumni.
    5. Develop a structured on-boarding process for new team members.
    6. Create a “handbook” that details your supervisory or mentorship philosophy, information about the ways your team works, and links to other relevant policies, Standard Operating Procedures, and required reading. Consider making public the content that would be relevant to prospective team members. Examples and further reading are linked from the Royal Society of Biology, the Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, and in this eLife article.

 

  • Creative:

    A great deal has been written about fostering creative research. Faculty can propose a range of ideas on how to spur creativity in their group or dept. Some possibilities include.
    1. Meaning and purpose: Graduate students deeply engage with their work when they are committed to the meaning and purpose of their research.
    2. Diversity: When multiple perspectives are brought to work on complex problems, the solutions that emerge are stronger and more robust. People of different backgrounds see situations differently, make different comparisons and analogies, and can forge different connections. Create ways for students to interact with graduate students in other disciplines.
    3. Collision spaces: Graduate students benefit when their work environment has places where they can bump into each other and discuss their research. This can be as simple as whiteboards (with working markers!) in lounge spaces or in wide corridors. Other ideas might be gained in the Harvard Business Review article on hybrid work and how to socially manage the in-person space for human interactions.
    4. Breaks: Good ideas often emerge while graduate students take a break from work. Ideas include a no-questions-asked mental-health day.
    5. Time to focus: Graduate students sometimes need undisturbed time and space where they can concentrate for an extended period. This does not need to be a space that the student has sole access to, but it can be space that a student can reserve and use.

 

  • Empowered

    Including
    1. Students developing a plan for when they will finish their degree,
    2. Project management skills,
    3. Student agency in seeking a career from a broad range of options, including completing Individual Development Plans.
    4. Various forms of recognition that lab leaders can give to students, such as group celebrations of their achievements, nomination for awards, etc.

 

  • If a faculty member has an initiative that does not fit into these categories, please propose it.

 

Submission and Review

Applications to the GradCat Wellness program will be accepted using InfoReady between December 9, 2024 and January 21, 2025. Applicants are asked to upload a single PDF with ~2 pages:

  • A one-page narrative that (1) details and justifies the enhancement sought, including which area the project will focus on (supportive, collaborative, creative, or empowered); and (2) describes the research or department group in which the funds will be used, number of students impacted etc..
  • An itemized budget on an additional page.
    • Faculty can propose spending the funds on costs either directly related to the project, e.g. purchase of large whiteboards to enhance collaboration in a common space, or connected to a proposed activity, e.g.  refreshments during development of group agreements on behavior during lab meetings etc. (There needs to be a business purpose etc.). Funds cannot be used for course buyout or faculty summer salary. 
    • The funds for this RFP derive from collected F&As and as such are state funds. Therefore, expenses need to be according to state spending guidelines https://www.montana.edu/policy/business-procedures-manual/

  • Submitted proposals will be reviewed by the Graduate School’s Student Success office and faculty from the Graduate Council. The criteria will be
    • The details of what the proposed work will entail in one of the four areas: supportive, collaborative, creative, or empowered.
    • The extent the proposal might improve graduate wellness within the research environment.
    • The appropriateness of the proposed budget.
    • Number of graduate students impacted. Note, this is likely to be a holistic criteria. Research groups with a small number of students should submit proposals as they will not be automatically at a disadvantage compared to large groups.

 

[1] Basic needs of food, shelter, childcare, and access to health services are also vital to graduate wellness, but the funds we have for this RFP are not large enough to meet basic need goals. We encourage faculty to let their students know of the existing food and childcare scholarships and to apply for university housing (the most affordable housing near MSU).

[2]  https://wellcome.org/reports/what-researchers-think-about-research-culture. 

[3] Private communication, Dean Josh Barker