Research & Promotion
Promotion and Tenure
Promotions and tenure are processed through Interfolio. Below you will find applications and forms related to the promotion and tenure process and the professional development plan. We have also provided helpful and relevant faculty handbook links, additional information can be found in the faculty handbook.
Promotion
- Promotion process for within rank and across rank promotion (Section 8.4.4)
- Minimum requirements and promotion points (Section 8.4.3)
- Promotion Across Rank Application
- Within Rank Promotion Criteria Point Summary
- Chair/Associate Dean Evaluation and Recommendation Form
Tenure
- Tenure (Section 8.5)
- Qualifications to Apply for Tenure (Section 8.5.3)
- Criteria for Granting Tenure (Section 8.5.4)
- Timing and Procedure for Applying for Tenure (Section 8.5.5)
- Biola University Tenure Application
- Pre-Tenure Review Form
- Post-Tenure Review Form
- Faculty Response to Biola’s Theological Positions
- Faculty Response to Biola's Theological Positions
- For Talbot School of Theology & Torrey Honors College: Faculty Response to Biola's Theological Positions
Supplemental Forms
- Peer Review of Publications or Scholarship
- IDEA Forms
- Template for Assistant or Associate Professor: Summary of IDEA Evaluations
- Template for Full Professor: Summary of IDEA Evaluations
- Summary of IDEA Evaluations Template Guide
Professional Development Plan
The Professional Development Plan (PDP), previously known as the Annual Report, is completed by faculty at the end of each academic year. Below is the PDP template and a couple of helpful Faculty Handbook sections.
- Professional Development Plan Template
- Categories of Promotion Criteria (Section 8.4.2)
- Professional Development Plan (PDP) (Section 8.6.1)
- Minimum requirements and promotion points (Section 8.4.3)
For any questions regarding the Professional Development Plan, please contact faculty.advancement@biola.edu.
Grants and Leaves
Below you will find applications and forms related to grants, sabbaticals and seventh semester leaves. For school-level grants, please connect with your dean or program chair.
- 2024–25 Provost Grant Application – Deadline: Monday, December 2, 2024 (funded during the 2025–26 fiscal year)
- 2024–25 Faculty Research & Development Grant Application – Deadline: Friday, January 17, 2025 (funded during the 2025–26 fiscal year)
- Fundraising for Grants (Section 9.6)
- Sabbaticals and Integration Research Leaves (Section 8.8)
Before conducting your research, be sure to check the Institutional Review Board page to ensure the correct ethical and approval procedures are adhered to. For additional information on human subject payments or gift cards purchased for the purpose of distributing to research participants, please review the following policies:
Research Support and Procedure
- Office of Academic Research & Grants (OARG): The OARG exists to help serve faculty in facilitating their academic research interests with both guidance and administrative support throughout all stages of grant development to management. For assistance, you can contact research.grant.office@biola.edu.
- Library Grant Resources: This research guide curates resources, especially for faculty research grants. The Biola Library helps faculty before, during, and after their research projects. Special databases enable faculty to discover funding sources as well as publications in their subject area. The Biola Digital Commons expands the impact of scholarly materials through archiving material outside of a paywall as allowed by most journal publishers’ Green Open Access policies. The Scholarly Communications Librarian is available to assist faculty in using these tools throughout the entire research lifecycle.
- Institutional Review Board: An IRB is an appropriately established group that has been formally designated to review and monitor research involving human participants. This group serves an important role in the protection of the rights and welfare of human research participants. IRB approval is required before any human participant research activities may begin. You can find the handbook, guidelines and forms on the IRB webpage.
- Internal Surveys:
- Some surveys conducted at Biola do not require IRB approval, such as those used for internal administrative purposes only (e.g., course evaluations, departmental assessments and customer service/satisfaction surveys). However, internal surveys are still expected to protect the privacy of participants, confidentiality of individual responses, and voluntary nature of participation. In order to make sure that internal research follows ethical research practices, surveys administered by departments to gather feedback from faculty, staff or students must be approved by the Office of Educational Effectiveness (OEE) using the Survey Application form. Once an application has been received, OEE will coordinate with the Office of University Communications to make sure that the timing of the survey aligns with other internal communications. Once the application has been reviewed, submitters will receive a response, typically within 48 hours, with any recommendations that should be accommodated before the survey is sent to participants.
- Please see the Research on Campus FAQ for more information about conducting surveys and other research activities at Biola.