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Funding Opportunities
Innovation Grant
This grant is targeted toward faculty and school-based IT support groups who are interested in using information technology as a tool for innovations in teaching and learning. Submission of proposals from individual schools, on behalf of a consortium of projects within that school, will also be accepted. To date the fund has not supported programs that are research centric but has focused on curriculum-based initiatives.
Grant Proposal Guidelines and Applications
Amount of Grants
Letter of Support from Local IT Unit
Letter of Support from Administrative Dean
Letter of Support from Dean's Office
Project Requirements
Preferred Proposals
Matching Resources
Scope of Activities
Mailing Address
Mandatory Draft Submission
Submission Deadlines
Notification of Decision
Grant Proposal Guidelines and Applications
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. Grant Proposals consist of the following sections:
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Innovation Grant Letter of Support from Local IT unit [MS Word]
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Innovation Grant Letter of Support from Administrative Dean [MS Word] (GSE Applicants only)
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Innovation Grant Letter of Support from Appropriate Dean's Office [MS Word] (for proposals requesting over $50,000)
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.#month.#year (for example: smith.hms.11.01). 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 of up to $50,000 are suggested. Grants up to $150,000 that promise to impact teaching at multiple Schools will be considered. 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.
Letter of Support from Administrative Dean (GSE Applicants Only)
GSE proposals should include a letter of support from the Administrative Dean.
Letter of Support from Dean's Office
For proposals between $50,000 and $150,000 the proposed project needs to align with the applicable strategic goals in the use of technology and include the endorsement of the Dean. To coordinate interest and ensure alignment with strategic goals, most schools have appointed an internal contact to work with interested parties. Please contact Mary Spidle for the name of the person at your school.
Project Requirements
- Demonstrably align with, and contribute to, the sponsoring organization's academic mission and goals.
- Propose an innovative application of IT 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.
- Incorporate some reasonable level of informal evaluation that looks at impact, benefits and/or costs.
- Result in programs with broad access and reuse of resources.
- Intent to create a brief web-based review of project to share lessons learned with the community.
- Have some component of matching funds and/or resources.
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 should 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 innovation in the use of information technology in enhancing teaching and learning. Examples include: support for the deployment of new instructional technology, the development of specialized tools to improve the teaching and learning environment, 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.
Mandatory Draft Submission
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
Submission Deadlines Awards are made in the fall and spring semesters. Deadlines for upcoming rounds are:
Spring 2008:
Draft, April 1
Final Proposal, May 1
Winter 2008:
Draft, November 3
Final Proposal, December 1
Spring 2009:
Draft, April 1
Final Proposal, May 1
Winter 2009:
Draft, November 2
Final Proposal, December 1
Notification of Decision
Notification of awards will be made approximately eight to twelve weeks after the final proposal deadline.
