Grant Round 2 2015Applying for a seed grant

Institute for Teaching and Learning March 2015Dr Alison Kuiper

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Plan for today’s workshop

› Introductions

- Alison Kuiper, Rebekah Moles, Carl Schneider and you

- Are you planning to apply or thinking about it?

› Thinking about applying - Focus on seed grants

- 2015 priorities and your idea if you have one

› Preparing your application for submission - Process

- Requirements and support

 

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Aim of OLT grants program

› To provide funding for academics and professional staff

› to investigate, discover, develop and implement innovations in learning and teaching

› Grants facilitate scholarship and research into learning and teaching, and promote systemic change in the sector

› They play an important role in providing esteem for learning and teaching scholarship and practice

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2015 Seed grants

› Funding $40,000 per grant

› Closes internally 5pm Thursday 4 June 2015

› Closes with the OLT 5pm Monday 22 June 2015

› Seed projects can be:

- pilot projects which test and evaluate an original idea including those that plan to build into full proposals

- single-institution, small scale projects

- pilot projects

- projects to build the capacity of early career academics, including projects which are led by early career academics

Round 2

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Does your project fit an OLT priority area?

› Academic standards

› Assessing equivalence of qualifications and learning outcomes

› Assessment and promotion of student learning (on selected topics)

› Curriculum design (on selected topics)

› Employability skills

› Improving institutional pathways across higher education

› Improving access to and outcomes in higher education for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

› The contemporary PhD

› Handout

2015 priority areas

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What makes a good application?

› Demonstrates a passion for improving learning and teaching

› Is well grounded in literature

› Displays innovative strategies and approaches

› Shows a willingness to engage with emerging technologies

› Matches aims and activities to deliverables and outcomes

› Has well thought out dissemination strategies

› Shows good cross-institutional collaboration and engagement with industry

› Considers the work of past OLT projects

› Considers the scope of the project beyond the home institution

The OLT suggests a good application

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In 2015

› Increased emphasis on dissemination, implementation and transferability

› Project impact and previously completed OLT work added to the criteria

› A project impact plan needs to be developed

› All criteria to be addressed under separate headings in the application

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Making an application

› Follow the steps on the ITL website

› http://www.itl.usyd.edu.au/awards/oltprojects.htm

› Download and get very familiar with the OLT document and resources

› http://olt.gov.au/grants-and-projects/programs-and-applications

› Establish a team

› Find partners (not required for seed grants but see p3)

› Contact HoS for advice support and letter

› Seek feedback

› Use the checklist on the website

› Submit application in plenty of time with all required docs

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Academic resources

› Make use of both

› http://olt.gov.au/grants-and-projects/programs-and-applications

› Seek feedback from

› mentors

› faculty colleagues

› previously successful applicants for OTL grants

› other successful grant applicants

› Alison Kuiper ITL (PEI and ICO)

OLT and ITL resources

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Academic resources

› OLT Grant Application Process When Leading a Project

› OLT Workshop (1.6mb - PPT)

› Seed projects FAQs

› Managing your project

› Good practice reports

› Good practice resources

› Grant application handbook report

› Key features of successful applications

› Successful grant holders

› Research funding toolkit

› Advice re industry partners

› Successful proposals

http://www.itl.usyd.edu.au/awards/oltprojects.htm

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Resources for internal submission

› Template letter of support - Sydney project

› Template letter of support - Sydney as partner

› Template letter of support - other institutions partnering with Sydney

› Checklists

- for internal submission on website

- in OLT doc for final submission

› Queries about letters, budget, compliance to Myra myrophora.koureas@sydney.edu.au 

On webpage http://www.itl.usyd.edu.au/awards/oltprojects.htm

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Criteria

A. Project rationale and need for project

B. Project outputs (or deliverables)

C. Project impact

D. Project approach

E. Project team and governance

F. Project budget

Handout

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Project rationale and need for project

› Addresses priority

› Usefulness

› Readiness

› Grounded in theory

› Assessors consider › 1 quality of application

› 2 how important the project is to the sector

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Project outputs (or deliverables)

› Be realistic about proposed outputs

› Delineate the scope

› Identify assumptions

Project outputs (or deliverables)

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Project impact IMPEL model

Impact Management Planning and Evaluation Ladder

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Project approach

› Appropriate plan

› Stages

› And timeline - Begin 1 February 2016

› Note complexities of inter-institutional agreements and time for ethics approvals

› Be wary of surveys; are there alternative strategies which could be used for collecting data?

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Project team and governance

› Roles and responsibilities of team members

- involve them in the planning

- a preliminary allocation of responsibilities among the team members is advisable

› Demonstrate capacity of team to deliver

- including the quality and timeliness of the project leader’s previous work

› It’s important to show the project will work.

› Allocate tasks and make sure people have the skills

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Project budget

› Questions?

› Queries about letters, budget, compliance to Myra myrophora.koureas@sydney.edu.au 

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Submission issues and compliance requirements

› ICO, DVCE’s Office, provides this support, notifies OLT of impending applications

› Only applications that have been notified and have received university approval will be considered by the OLT

› Evidence of support from your faculty is required before letter of support from the University can be provided

› Partner applications also require a letter of support from the DVC(E)

› Prepare your application following the 6 steps by the internal submission date

› The internal closing date is firm

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Making an application

› Online form (p16- 18)

› Seed proposal – 10 A4 pages (p12)

› Criteria above

› Associated appendices (p18)

- Letter of endorsement

- Additional letters of support

- Biographies of team leader and members

- If applicable, design specifications

- All in form of one .pdf through Grants portal

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Appendices

1. Assessment process

2. Obligations associated with receiving a grant

3. Intellectual property

4. Key web links p.29

5. Proforma for letters of support - lead and partners

6. Project impact planning

7. Information about project team and governance

8. Information about project budget, funding and payment

9. Definitions and descriptions

Don’t ignore these!

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Key things to note in making an application

› 1 Value of the project

› 2 Impact beyond the institution

› 3 Methodology

› 4 Technical requirements

› The value of the project is the most important factor in determining funding.

› However an application which is professional and compliant provides evidence that you are well organized

› and that the grant is well planned and likely to deliver on outcomes.