Grant funds support faculty members, sessional instructors, staff, academic units and educational leaders to design and implement course and curricular reforms in their discipline. Our learning and teaching grants reflect the vision, values and priorities of the UVic Strategic Framework.
We currently fund projects to a maximum of $7500. This ensures support of a wide range of projects between faculties, departments and schools.
Looking for help?
LTSI is available to support you in your grant proposal. We can recommend other groups to connect with, defining intended learning outcomes, conducting focus groups and more.
Timeline
Please note than unless noted in timeline, dates are consistent from year to year.
Application Guidelines
Materials and submission form available by December 1, 2023.
Grant Deadline
Please see each grant page for deadline as they vary.
Adjudication Process
Grant committees will meet in the following 30-60 days.
Applicants Notified
Applicants will be notified by May 10, 2024.
Categories
Strategic Initiative Indigenous Grant
Supports learning and teaching initiatives that help fulfill UVic’s commitment to reconciliation and develop opportunities for students to gain a better understanding of Indigenous peoples, history and culture, and the impact of colonization.
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Grant
Supports empirical research exploring improvements in teaching and learning (courees and program specific) and promotes an interactive community of scholars.
Course Design/Redesign Grant
Supports the design of a new course, or a redesign of an existing course and its implementation and encourages instructors to design in ways that are pedagogically innovative that fill any gaps in academic program curriculum.
Strategic Initiative International Grant
Supports learning and teaching initiatives focused on internationalizing the curriculum, involving inclusion of international, global, and intercultural aspects and perspectives into the content, learning and teaching, and program of study.
Experiential Learning Fund Grant
Supports learning and teaching initiatives that increase experiential learning opportunities and build capacity for experiential learning at UVic. This grant is part of the Community-Engaged Learning program as part of Coop and Career Services.
Open Educational Resource Grant
Supports learning and teaching initiatives that aim to adopt, adapt or develop open educational resources. This grant is a partnership between UVic Libraries and LTSI.
Anti-Racism Initiative Grant
Supports learning and teaching initiatives that integrate EDI and/or engage students in anti-racism awareness and work.
Review our other experiential learning fund
Application process
Application requirements
1. Complete grant application form
Follow the grant category guidelines and respect the word limit for each item. To make sure you have a reliable record of your information before submission, we suggest you copy your responses into a separate file (or copy from a separate file into the form).
2. Send email receipt
Before submitting, check off box that says “send me an email of my responses”, then download and send to your Chair/Director or Dean. Please ensure you have communicated your proposal for review and follow any departmental/faculty guidelines.
Note: Once you have submitted the application, you cannot edit it. Contact us with any questions.
Ethics requirements
Some projects may involve the collection of data from human participants or student coursework/ research activity (e.g. interviews, surveys, participant observation, focus groups). If so, the UVic Human Research Ethics Board (HREB) must approve the project. The principal applicant is responsible for ensuring that ethics approval is obtained prior to data collection. Contact ethics@uvic.ca for further details.
Budget and accounting
As part of your application, you will need to submit a budget with a justification for each item spent. Continuation of the project should not be dependent on grant funding, so consider and indicate whether the project may need funding from additional sources. The adjudication committee may recommend alterations to budget upon approval or conditional approval of the grant.
Eligible expenses
- Pay for undergraduate, graduate or other research assistants (RAs)*. Individuals who hope to be hired on the grant as RAs should not be listed as the applicant or a co-applicant
- Teaching release time for main applicant (see Application Approval for details)
- Outside consultants* essential to the successful completion of the grant – “Products” of work is subject to the Copyright Compliance and Administration Policy (IM7310)
- Travel that is necessary for completion of essential components of the project
- Fees to participate in relevant training and workshops to support project goals
Ineligible expenses
- Reimbursement for work related to the grant
- Teaching Assistants for timetabled courses
- Equipment or supplies normally supplied by the University
- Commercial services (other than those stated in the list of eligible expenses)
- Academic work costs such as journal subscriptions
- Registration and travel to academic conferences (these may be covered through Professional Development or other UVic funds)
*Other notes
- RA salaries: comply with university wage rates, vacation pay, and benefits as outlined in the Human Resources CUPE 4163 salary schedule (TA Appendix). Important considerations: 1) calculate the RA expenses based on the current and next year’s rates in the grant’s budget form; 2) when paying salaries, grantees need to indicate the basic salary rate for Senior Assistants on the payroll forms. You may contact the LTSI Program Coordinator if you have questions.
- When working with Indigenous Elders, adhere to Guidelines of protocol, hosting and payment for *SELWÁN ȽTE, Knowledge Keepers and Community Members in your proposal. In the application, list all expenses, including those for Indigenous protocols (unless paid as salaries), under the ‘Other’ category.
- Any changes not listed in the budget of the approved application require written pre-approval from the LTSI Executive Director via the LTSI Program Coordinator. Pre-approval requirements include a rationale for the change and a revised budget submission without altering the initial amount funded.
- Post-approval, budget modifications require LTSI’s written consent and a revised budget submission, without altering the initially approved amount.
Sample budget
Please note, this budget is not updated to reflect current rates, please see Financial Services and go to the travel expense reimbursement form for updates on mileage and other rates.
- One graduate student will be hired at $32.17 per hour for 40 hours to help survey the introductory chapters of five existing textbooks. Total pay will include 4% vacation pay and compounded 11.85% benefits ($32.17 x 40 = $1,287).
- A graduate RA will travel to the field teaching site (250 km round trip) four times. Travel will be reimbursed at the standard UVic rate for use of personal vehicle of $0.51/km ($0.51/km x 1000 km= $510.00).
- The RA is needed for the initial design of course modules and monitoring of students’ reaction to the redesigned course elements. These RA activities will not be needed in subsequent offerings of the redesigned course. The redesigned course will be sustainable without additional outside support.
Schedule:
May-Aug 2021 (Note the change in current rates)
• 14 hrs: Create survey to gather information from external stakeholders; analyze data
• 6 hrs: Meet with Elders to learn how Indigenous peoples perceive health and physical activity. Provide honorarium and gifts.
• 10 hrs: Conduct 2 focus group interviews (on Zoom) with interested stakeholders
• 21 hrs: Complete transcription and data analysis to identify key learning themes
Total: 51 hrs at $31.52/hr = $1,607.52
Sept-Dec 2021
• 7 hrs: Finalize ILOs for learning modules
• 28 hrs: Develop learning strategies and assessment tools that align with ILOs and abide by principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
Total: 35 hrs at $32.17/hr = $1,125.95 [the basic rate of $27.65 is used in this example]
Jan-May 2022
• Implement learning modules in course
• 7 hrs: Survey students’ perspectives on the course materials; analyze data
• 14 hrs: Adjust module content as necessary
Total: 21 hrs at $32.17/hr = $675.57
Total Budget Request: $3,409.04
Application Approval
The Chair/Director/Dean’s support for the project indicates three things:
- Confirmation of departmental/unit support for this application, including a commitment to project completion. Note that, where teaching release is requested, the maximum amount from a grant that can be used for that purpose is $5,000, and that the principal applicant’s home unit is responsible for supplementing any remaining funds towards course release.
- Understanding that, if the grant is approved, the principal applicant’s home unit will be contacted by LTSI and will be asked to assign a distinct account to the principal applicant to be used solely for approved budget items related to the grant, and LTSI will have viewing privileges on the account to monitor expenditures. If the project requires ethics approval (see Ethics requirements), we will transfer funding to the grant account only after we receive an e-copy of the ethics approval from the HREB.
- Commitment, along with the recipient, to assume responsibility for any deficits accrued in the recipient’s grant account.
Where there are multiple proposals from the same unit, we may ask the Dean, Chair or Director to prioritize these proposals within the context of the strategic directions of the faculty, department or school.
Awardee commitments
Peer grant recipient group
We ask that successful applicants show their commitment by participating in occasional update meetings with other awardees. You will receive an email invitation in due time.
Reporting
You are asked to submit an online progress report by March 31 of the calendar year following receipt of the grant, regardless of whether or not the project has been completed. Summarize the progress, challenges and successes of the project to date.
Grant completion
The grant facilitator will reach out to you to have a brief verbal conversation after the completion date of your project (i.e., two years after receiving the grant funds).
The end-of-grant meeting involves an informal discussion about the project’s outcomes (including its deliverables and dissemination) and associated budget based on the approved proposal and the grant goals.
If a project should require more time, it would be necessary to request approval of an extension from LTSI. On expiry of the grant, any remaining funds will be returned to us for redistribution in future competitions.
