Building Integrated Learning and Coaching Networks for Research (BILCN-Research) Program 

 The Saint Louis University BILCN-Research Program is a nine-month, cohort-based, research development program that develops SLU faculty’s networks and skills needed to advance their research agendas and effectively compete for external funding.

The BILCN-Research Program is in its fifth year of integrated faculty research development, blending workshops with SLU facilitators, peer-led coaching and accountability groups, and independent faculty work. A committee of faculty members selects faculty participants who must be high-potential, full-time SLU faculty who have not received major external funding awards appropriate to their research areas in the past three to five years but have active research agendas, research experience, and a project for which they will seek major external funding. Faculty from all disciplines are encouraged to participate.

Once selected, participants are assigned to interdisciplinary coaching groups, each of which is led by a faculty coach and supported by OVPR staff. Oversight comes from the faculty research councils. The research councils, coaches, and OVPR staff work with internal and external workshop facilitators to deliver integrated content, coaching, and support for participants’ proposal development work.

The estimated time commitment for participants is about two to four hours per week. During the program, this includes six to eight workshops, including an orientation, as well as regular meetings with a coaching group and individual work. The expected outcome for all participants is submission of an external funding proposal within approximately one year.

Integrated Modules Model

The program consists of three phases. The first phase has three key activities in several integrated modules:

1. Workshops that introduce tools and skills that facilitate the writing of competitive proposals and that improve the quality of these proposals
2. Small "coaching groups" consisting of a faculty mentor and a small group of workshop participants that meet to discuss workshop materials and both present and comment on peer draft documents
3. Independent work by program participants to draft concept and logic maps, research overviews, and key components of a research proposal. The second and third phases focus on drafting, revision, submission, and the next stages.

Applications for the 2025 BILCN-Research cohort will be accepted until Nov. 15, 2024.

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Program Delivery

More broadly, the program is delivered over a nine-month period, consisting of three phases:

• Phase one takes place during the spring semester, consisting of workshops delivered to all participants, coaching groups in which workshop material is discussed and practiced, and individual, independent work that results in research proposal components for submission. After beginning with an introductory meeting, all program participants meet together for workshops and separately in individual coaching groups to work on integrated and related content. The workshops are roughly three weeks apart, with individual work and coaching group meetings interspersed between.
• Phase two takes place during the summer. Participants will have dedicated proposal writing time, periodically meeting with coaching groups.
• Phase three takes place during the first months of the fall semester, focusing on pushing final revisions of proposal components into submissions and discussions of the stages of the research funding life after submission.

Program Timeline