Utrecht Education Incentive Fund: call for proposals now open!

Utrecht ľ�ϸ��Ӱ�� is committed to developing educational innovation and wishes to esteem outstanding education as well as good teaching. For this reason, the Executive Board is making available a sum of two million euros per year to support talented members of teaching staff and educational innovations. One million euros will be distributed among the faculties based on their number of students. The Dean determines how the amount is to be spent in consultation with the Vice Dean of Education and the Directors of Education. Please contact your Faculty Board for more information. The other million euros will be allocated to interfaculty educational innovation projects. The call for interfaculty projects is now officially open.

New approach: themed projects and free space

This year, three themes have been established based on which the projects will be funded: internationalisation, lifelong learning and interdisciplinarity. For each theme, a consortium will be set up to write a project proposal. This will enable sustainable investment in education and help to get more members of teaching staff involved in the projects. Each of the three consortia will submit a project proposal for which they can request a maximum of €250,000. Registration as a consortium member or leader is now open! Compared to previous years, the phase of consortium assembling has been added. Lecturers submit their registration as individuals, and no longer with a project plan. Submitting a project plan (without registering for a thematic consortium) is only possible in the (limited) free space. Read more about the free space below.
These proposed long-term interfaculty projects will help boost innovation in education and the quality of teaching. In addition to professionalising our teaching staff, the objective of the Utrecht Education Incentive Fund is to improve the quality of teaching at UU. We fund projects that (a) are not funded by the primary education process, (b) could potentially have a major impact on education in Utrecht and (c) are innovative within the specified context.

You can register as a consortium leader or consortium member until 18 September 2020. send in your motivation (300 words), reflection on the theme (300 words) and you educational CV (2 A4). The registrations will be assessed by the USO committee. The committee will consolidate the consortia and bring the members together for a matchmakers meeting.

Annual themes for the 2021 Utrecht Education Incentive Fund

Timeline

18 September 2020	Deadline for registration as a consortium leader: ½ A4 motivation, ½ A4 thematic vision, 1–2 A4 teaching CV (including zone of impact), signed by the Dean Deadline for registration as a consortium member: ½ A4 motivation, ½ A4 thematic vision, 1–2 A4 teaching CV (including zone of impact and educational context), signed by the Director of Education or Head of Department
25 September 2020	Evaluation meeting The Utrecht Education Incentive Fund committee will select one or two consortium leaders for each theme and assemble all of the interested parties. Two committee members will be involved in each theme.
2 October 2020	Results of consortium leader appointments
15 October 2020	Matchmaker meetings For each theme, a consortium meeting will be organised and led by the consortium leader(s), the two Utrecht Education Incentive Fund committee members and an EC&T employee. They will flesh out the aspects of their theme and prepare a project proposal. The EC&T employee will provide educational advice and make recommendations concerning the use of ERP hours (for four ERP providers).
4 December 2020	Deadline for the first round of project proposals
14 December 2020	Evaluation meeting The evaluation committee will assess the potential of the proposals and share the evaluation results with the consortia (including formative feedback). A minimum evaluation score will be established in order to prevent weak proposals from being funded.
Before Christmas 2020	Results of the first round Between the first and second round, the consortia will contact the relevant stakeholders (who advise the Utrecht Education Incentive Fund committee within the current set-up)
15 February 2021	Deadline for the second round
Late February 2021	Utrecht Education Incentive Fund evaluation committee: evaluation meeting for the second round, incl. pitch Each of the consortia will submit a more detailed proposal. The evaluation committee will advise the CAT board concerning approval of the projects. This will also be the point at which the winning projects are selected.
Early March 2021	Results of the second round
Early April 2021	Confirmation of winning projects by the CAT board in accordance with the recommendations made by the Utrecht Education Incentive Fund evaluation committee
September 2021	Start of the projects

Free space

The free space enables implementation and innovation projects to apply for between €50,000 and €100,000 in funding. The goal of implementation projects is to apply existing innovation results (via the Utrecht Education Incentive Fund or otherwise) in other faculties. Innovation projects should be highly innovative. Just like the themed projects, the implementation and innovation projects should be cross-faculty in nature and therefore be submitted by more than one faculty. At the two evaluation meetings (14 December and late February), the free space proposals will be discussed as well. Project proposals must also be signed by the Dean in the first round.

You can apply for a project in the free space using the application form on .

More information

Read more about the Utrecht Education Incentive Fund here or contact the Centre for Academic Teaching (cat@uu.nl) with questions.

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