UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Non-tenure-line clinical, teaching and research faculty and professors of practice can now apply to the Opportunity Grant Professional Development Program for the 2027-28 academic year.
More information and a link to the application is available through the Center for Faculty Development and Advancement. Applications are due Friday, Oct. 30.
To be eligible, faculty must have reached the second rank or higher, have worked full-time at Penn State for five consecutive years or more, and have the support of their academic unit head. The proposal should encompass activity that is above and beyond what the applicant is normally contracted to do. Course and time buyouts are available. Faculty members who have previously received an Opportunity Grant must wait five years before reapplying. Full eligibility can be found at the Center for Faculty Development and Advancement website.
Opportunity Grants fund self-developed projects, which can look different depending on the field and expertise of the applicant.
One 2025-26 recipient of an Opportunity Grant, Sekhar Bhattacharyya, associate teaching professor of mining engineering, made short trips in 2026 to mining facilities and universities in Chile, Saudi Arabia and India. The grant provided funding to get a look inside deep underground copper mines — unlike the U.S.’s surface mines — as well as to attend a course at Harvard Business School.
During the 2026-27 academic year, 33 faculty will embark on a wide variety of projects variety of projects, from developing a program for undergraduates at the Materials Characterization Lab, to exploring how educators can collaborate to better support multilingual learners.
Keith Aronson, director of the Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness at Penn State, will use an Opportunity Grant in 2026-27 to support the development of a new collaboration between the Clearinghouse and the Veterans and Families Institute for Military Social Research at Anglia Ruskin University in the United Kingdom. Aronson said his goals include expanding of health and well-being challenges faced by British veterans as they return to civilian life.
The Opportunity Grant Professional Program is administered by the Center for Faculty Development and Advancement in the Office of Faculty Affairs.