University Teaching Grant

 

Overview

The University Teaching Grant invites faculty to imagine and advance innovative pedagogical projects that strengthen teaching and learning at SCU. In alignment with SCU's mission, vision, and values, this grant recognizes and facilitates the significant scholarly and creative labor of faculty to educate citizens and leaders of competence, conscience, and compassion to build a more humane, just, and sustainable world.

We welcome proposals that deepen pedagogical expertise, foster innovation in course or assignment design, and contribute to teaching conversations within or across disciplines. Projects may range widely in form and scope, and applicants are encouraged to think creatively and expansively about impact. This funding supports work that extends beyond routine course revision, providing supplemental faculty pay and a small budget to support implementation, assessment, and dissemination. Successful proposals demonstrate meaningful potential to enhance student learning and advance evidence-based pedagogical practice at SCU and beyond. 

The Office of Faculty Development is available for informational and project development consultations. Please reach out to Faculty Development (facultydevelopment@scu.edu) or directly to Center for Teaching Excellence Director Riley Caldwell-O’Keefe (rcaldwellokeefe@scu.edu) to find out more.

The purpose of this grant is to support pedagogical projects:

1. that impact pedagogical innovation in the SCU curriculum through a unique contribution to the pedagogical conversation within or across departments at SCU or more broadly;
   
   
2. build and deepen pedagogical expertise among faculty, support innovation in assignment and course design, and otherwise enrich the pedagogical work of faculty across campus.

Please note that these grants support course revision and pedagogical development that distinctly exceed basic faculty expectations for developing and continually updating courses to meet SCU, department, and program needs. We encourage you to seek out other funding opportunities for these kinds of projects, but are happy to support your work in these areas through an individual consultation.

 

Required Proposal Materials

Please prepare a detailed project description and accompanying budget for the Google Form application. 

You will submit your project proposal and any other supporting materials as an attachment to the Google Form. You must use accessible Google Doc or PDF formats.

Title of Project

Name(s), Position(s), Department(s) and Email(s) of Project Partners (partners may include faculty, staff, or students)

Describe your project in detail (750 - 1200 words), including:

• Goals: How will this project contribute to or enhance teaching and learning at SCU or more broadly? What demonstrated teaching and learning needs are you hoping to address?
  
  
• Scholarly Teaching Context: How is your project building on and expanding existing teaching and learning conversations within your department or discipline, across SCU, or more broadly? What departmental, institutional, cross-institutional, or scholarly evidence demonstrates a need for your project at this moment in time?
  
  
• Methodology: How will this project be implemented? Describe the pedagogical approaches, activities, and project processes you will undertake; the timeline for key phases of the work; and the roles and responsibilities of all project partners.
  
  
• Assessment: How will you assess or evaluate impact of your project: Please be specific in describing your assessment approach and anticipated measures. 

Please note that, if this is a project which may lead to publication or sharing outside of the SCU community, you will need to submit an approved or exempted Institutional Review Board (IRB) proposal to receive funding for the project. IRB does not need to be submitted prior to submitting this grant application.

• Professional Development: What are your current areas of strength and areas for growth related to this project? What known or anticipated barriers do you foresee? What types of support will you need to implement the project successfully?

Budget

• Each faculty member on the team will receive $2,000 as supplemental pay. 
• Optional possible budgetary support for other costs essential to the development, implementation, or sharing of results related to the project. The budget may include costs such as those associated with student research assistants, materials, conference or professional development costs, or publication costs. Please note: Additional budget requests are typically limited to a maximum of $2,000.
• Please list any submitted or received additional funding in support of this project.

 

Proposal Submission and Review

April 27, 2026 Priority deadline

Applications submitted after this time will be considered as funding is available.

May 15, 2026 Announcement of Awards (Anticipated)

Submit your proposal, including complete project description and budget via the Google Form. Please be sure to include any necessary addendums which may include:

• a brief note on letterhead from your chair or associate dean indicating their support of your proposal, if you are developing a new course or program that will require curricular approval; or
• artifacts or other documents that support the rationale outlined in your project description (i.e. student work, departmental or institutional data sets, brief annotated literature review; in consideration of the review team, please limit materials to those that are concise and most central to your proposal).

Reminder: If you are developing a new course or program that will require curricular approval, please include a brief note on letterhead from your chair or associate dean indicating their support of your proposal. You can also send this separately to facultydevelopment@scu.edu.

 

Evaluation Criteria

All proposals will be assessed by three reviewers who will evaluate the project based on:

• potential impact on student learning, curriculum, or pedagogy within a program, major, or the Core Curriculum; and
• potential contribution to pedagogical conversation and practice at SCU as evidenced by:
• articulation of scholarly and/or evidence-based rationale for the project,
• rigor of implementation methodology and assessment of project process and outcomes, and your
• plan for sharing out the results of the project.

Special consideration will be given to proposals that connect meaningfully to Jesuit values for education at SCU, that involve students as collaborators, or projects within or across departments that have not been previously funded through a University Teaching Grant.