Utrecht Education Incentive Fund: cultivating innovation in education

Call for consortium leaders and members USO 2022

Utrecht University 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.

Consortium formation on themes

This year, three themes have been established based on which the projects will be funded: 1) Diversity & inclusion, 2) Flexibilisation, 3) Sustainable Development Goals. Besides these themes, there is a free theme, which enables implementation and highly innovative projects 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.

For the three themes and the free theme, teaching staff can apply as a consortium member. Teaching staff that have a specific idea and would like to become project leader, can apply with this idea as a consortium leader. The USO committee will select consortium members and leaders, after which they will be matched during a matchmakers meeting. Thus, consortia within the themes are formed. After this procedure, consortium leaders will hand in a project proposal (1st round) and later a more detailed proposal (2nd round).

Cross-faculty

All projects should be cross-faculty in nature and therefore be submitted by more than one faculty. 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.

Teaching staff can register as  consortium leader or consortium member until 24 September 2021, by submitting their motivation (300 words), reflection on the theme (300 words) and educational CV (2 A4). Consortium leaders also share a rough idea for their project.

Please apply as consortium member or consortium leader via this form

Timeline

24 Sep 2021

Deadline for registration as a consortium leader: ½ A4 motivation, ½ A4 thematic vision, 12 A4 teaching CV (including zone of impact), 1 A4 brief project idea.
Deadline for registration as a consortium member: ½ A4 motivation, ½ A4 thematic vision, 12 A4 teaching CV (including embedding in educational context), Currently, consortium members notify their director of education and consortium leaders notify their vice dean of education.

Early Oct 2021

Evaluation meeting
The USO committee will select consortium leaders and assemble all of the interested parties. Two committee members will be involved in each theme.

Mid Oct 2021

Matchmaker meetings
During the meeting, selected consortium leaders will pitch their ideas and consortium members can join these projects.

26 Nov 2021

Deadline for the first round of project proposals

14 December 2021

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 2021

Results of the first round
Between the first and second round, the consortia will contact the relevant stakeholders (ITS, policy advisors, educational consultants)

11 March 2022

Deadline for the second round, more detailed project proposal

1 April 2022

USO committee: evaluation meeting for the second round, incl. pitch
The USO committee will advise the CAT board concerning approval of the projects.

Mid April 2022

Confirmation of granted projects by the CAT board in accordance with the recommendations made by the USO committee

Mid April 2022

Results of the second round

September 2022

Start of the projects

All finished and running USO projects can be found in the Educational Database. On 29 June, there will be an information session on educational innovation grants at the Strengthen-Your-Education-Week. The application form for the first round (after the consortia have been formed) is already available below. More information? Read more about the Utrecht Education Incentive Fund here or contact the Centre for Academic Teaching via cat@uu.nl with questions.

Application form first round