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Funding Opportunities

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Content Grant

The Provost's Content Grant was established in May of 2004. This fund focuses on helping faculty to develop and repurpose new and existing online content for educational purposes. The grants, which range from $2,000 to $10,000, can finance a wide range of content types, such as video presentations, image databases, animation, in-class polling, use of audio and interactive exercises that illustrate classroom concepts.

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis throughout the year.

Grant Proposal Guidelines and Application
Amount of Grants
Letter of Support from Local IT Unit
Project Requirements
Preferred Proposals
Matching Resources
Scope of Activities
Mailing Address
Help Preparing the Proposal
Submission Deadlines
Notification of Decision

Grant Proposal Guidelines and Application

These guidelines and companion templates are provided to assist Project Managers with the formulation of proposals, to provide readers with a standard format for review, and to facilitate project management by all parties. Content Grant Proposals consist of the following three sections:

  1. Content Grant Proposal Summary [MS Word]

  2. Content Grant Budget Calculations [MS Word]

  3. Content Grant Letter of Support from Local IT unit [MS Word]

Submission of the application should be in one file that contains all of the templates that make up the application and the file name should be according to a naming protocol as follows: contact person's last name.school.content.#month.#year (for example: smith.hms.content.05.04). Electronic submissions are required. (PDFs are accepted; however, please include an editable text file along with the PDF. Should there be a section that cannot be sent electronically, paper backups will be accepted.

Amount of Grants

Grants between $2,000 and $10,000 will be considered. The monies from these awards should primarily be used to develop or repurpose existing digital content for use in a course including video production, scanning of images, and creating simulations and animations. Funding can be used to cover salaries of any support staff involved or other expenses that are not covered through other sources. Compensation for faculty or staff teaching time, tool development, equipment, most external consultants or ongoing support of previously funded projects should be funded by the local unit.

Letter of Support from Local IT Unit

All proposals should be submitted with a letter from the local IT Unit. HMS applicants should contact the Director of Educational Resources in the MEC for proposal review.

Project Requirements

  • Demonstrably align with, and contribute to, the sponsoring organization's academic mission and goals.
  • Propose an application of content intended to enhance the learning and/or teaching of participants in a curriculum, course, concentration, or program at Harvard University.
  • Provide evidence of need for proposed project.
  • Designate one Harvard University faculty member as the sponsor, and show evidence of support from the local IT Department.
  • Build on existing investments in IT in the sponsoring organization and be consistent with the existing Intranet standards.
  • Offer some plan to sustain the program if applicable.
  • Result in programs with reusable content.
  • Priority will be given to projects that have not previously been funded.

Preferred Proposals

Proposals will be preferred if they foster cross-disciplinary collaboration either within a Department/School or across the University.

Matching Resources

The total budget of the project can include matching resources in the form of dollars or existing infrastructure. Dollars could include monies from school-based funding initiatives, external foundations or other award-granting institutions. Existing infrastructure refers to existing internal resources such as people, space, equipment, or overhead that would be re-purposed to help support the project. The ratio of innovation funding requested to matching resources is flexible.

Scope of Activities

This program will provide funding for content development at Schools and enhancement of the teaching and learning process to gain new pedagogical insight.

Mailing Address

Proposals should be emailed to Mary Spidle. You may send a hard copy of your proposal in addition to the electronic copy to Mary Spidle, 1350 Mass Ave, Holyoke 560, Cambridge, MA, 02138. Mary can be reached at 617-384-6532.

Help Preparing the Proposal

Mandatory draft proposals are due a month prior to the final deadline. A representative of the Office of the University CIO will be available to comment on proposals at anytime. Please contact Mary Spidle to arrange a meeting to discuss your proposal ideas.

Submission Deadlines

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis throughout the year.

Notification of Decision

Decisions of awards are made approximately 2 to 4 weeks after the final proposal has been submitted.

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