Purpose: Faculty Innovation Grants for course redesign and experimentation are intended to foster the goals at the center of the Undergraduate Learning Initiative: developing students as independent and collaborative learners and helping students build coherence across dimensions of undergraduate learning that are typically fragmented or unconnected. There will be three emphases in the first offering:

• Redesign of large- and medium-enrollment first-year courses to emphasize independent and collaborative learning, connections between curricular learning and resources in the DC area, or an introduction to the role of scholarship in academic communities;
• New or expanded models for helping students develop connections between experience outside the classroom (e.g., study abroad) and curricular learning; and
• Innovative approaches to integrating research resources and opportunities into courses.

Faculty Innovation Grants are intended to help chart out the future of learning at Georgetown for the next 10 to 20 years; they will emphasize new models of education, making explicit use of the latest research on effective learning practices, and tracking true gains in learning and related costs of instruction.

Who's eligible to apply? Faculty Innovation Grants are awarded to individual faculty and to teams of faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates (within and across departments) working to (re)develop courses of long-term strategic importance to the curriculum. Priority will be given to projects that include tenure-line faculty.

Faculty interested in applying for a Faculty Innovation Grant should read the application guidelines.

Scope of awards: Grants will be for two years, with one year of development before full implementation. Grants will range from $5,000 to $20,000, depending on the scope of work proposed. Funds may be used for a wide variety of project-related activities including, where appropriate, summer salaries or stipends for principals.

Relevant dates: Applications are due March 1st; awards announced by May 1st. Grant funding begins July 1st, 2006. Grantees are highly encouraged to participate in project-focused workshops at the Teaching, Learning, and Innovation Summer Institute, May 22-26, 2006.

Contact: John Rakestraw, Associate Director for Faculty Programs, CNDLS, 202-687-0622, jar34@georgetown.edu.