04 May Director of Research Development, Barbara Walker
The IHC is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Barbara Walker as Director of Research Development for the Social Sciences, Humanities and Fine Arts. We feel very fortunate to have someone with Barbara’s knowledge and experience in grants development as a member of the grants division at the IHC.
Barbara will be charged with assisting faculty in generating effective extramural grant proposals. She will provide assistance in all stages of proposal development and refinement; assist faculty in identifying funding opportunities that mesh with targeted areas for humanities research at UCSB; conduct grant development workshops for humanities faculty and graduate students; and collaborate with the Office of Research, ISBER, IHC, and the College of Letters and Science to develop plans to meet campus humanists’ research and funding needs.
Barbara will work with faculty across the campus to coordinate larger collaborative, interdisciplinary, institutional program development and proposal preparation. She will maintain contact with UC system-wide funding programs, federal funding agencies, and private foundation funders and, based on these, inform faculty about new funding opportunities.
Barbara has already conducted an online survey of HFA faculty regarding their research needs and interests, and is holding a workshop on May 5 on designing budgets for grants. She will be offering a proposal writing retreat in June, and plans for next year include a visit from the NEH Director of the Division of Research Programs.
In addition to Barbara Walker, the IHC’s grants team will also include a grants manager, who will be recruited shortly. The grants manager will assist faculty in assembling their proposals and budgets. Jessica Parra, department financial assistant, will continue to work with faculty in administering their grant funds. Once the position of grants manager is filled, we will re-open our grants division to serve faculty in the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts.
Barbara Walker can be reached at walker@research.ucsb.edu, or extension 3576. To join the IHC’s Funding Opportunities listserve, which Barbara will moderate, click here.