The President and Principal’s Fund for Educational Excellence was established to encourage a culture of educational innovation and exploration at Queen Mary.
The Fund was established to encourage a culture of educational innovation and exploration at Queen Mary and will award £120k each year to support a small number of impactful projects.
In this second year of the Fund, funding will be awarded to projects in one of the following priority areas:
The panel will award four grants of £20,000 and four grants of £10,000 for financial year 2024/25. It will also award £5,000 to one project funded by the Drapers’ Fund for Innovation in Learning and Teaching.
Joint projects developed by two or more Schools/Institutes, at Faculty or at Institutional level are encouraged.
The deadline for applications is Friday 21 June 2024.
The Panel will evaluate applications based on the following criteria:
Staff time
Project leads are encouraged to consider the time required to successfully complete the project and the need to arrange cover. Please use 23/24 staff costs with an uplift of 5%. Totals should include the full payroll costs.
Please seek advice and gain approval from your School/Institute Manager.
Student Interns
Student Interns can be employed through QTemps or directly through the Queen Mary payroll. Interns are usually paid hourly. The hourly cost will vary according to the role and length of service. The minimum pay rate is currently Grade 1 Point 7 on the Queen Mary pay scale.
External suppliers/experts
This might include, for example, production of multimedia and other digital resources or payments to external collaborators.
Conference attendance for dissemination
This could include reasonable costs of attending a UK conference including travel and accommodation and should align to your plan for dissemination.
Event costs
This might include, for example, the costs of organising and hosting an internal symposium or conference and should align to your plan for dissemination.
Costs which require additional approval
This might include, for example, piloting software that would require integration with Queen Mary’s existing educational systems IT ecosystem
Printing
For reasons of sustainability
Applicants are strongly encouraged to engage with the support available to help them to articulate the potential impact of their proposal. Two sessions of the workshop ‘Getting Started with Educational Impact’ are taking place as follows:
The panel will be chaired by the Director of the Queen Mary Academy and will include educators who have been recognised for their innovative practice.
Please download, complete Application Form PPFEE 24-25 [DOC 90KB] and email to qmacademy@qmul.ac.uk.
The deadline for receipt of applications is 5pm on Friday 21 June 2024. Successful applicants will be informed by Friday 26 July 2024.
Please attend our Information Session on Wednesday 15 May from 9:30-10:00 when there will be a chance to learn more and ask questions. Book your place.
If you still have questions please contact us qmacademy@qmul.ac.uk
If you would like support in developing your evaluation plan, please attend one of our ‘Getting Started with Educational Impact’ sessions taking pace on 22 May at 11;30 and 28 May at 13:00. Book your place.
The panel will look at your application and assess whether the proposed budget is likely to achieve the stated deliverables. We have provided some sample costings [PDF 36KB], based on previous funded projects, to give an indication of the kinds of activities which have previously been funded.
The panel will look at costs in terms of impact: are the suggested items aligned to maximise the impact of your project (in terms of number of students who will benefit, measurable contribution towards strategic aims etc..)? The panel will be looking for costs which are well aligned to the project aims and plan.
Project leads have discretion on the use of funds and are expected to meet their objectives within the overall funding awarded. No additional funding will be available. If costs increase, project leads will be expected to absorb any additional costs within the funding which has been allocated.
A member of the Queen Mary Academy team will be assigned to support you and help you to stay on track. At the end of the year we will ask you to complete a short final report. You can see an example of the format which will be used for projects funded in financial year 2023/24 final report template [DOC 81KB]
The Fund application form will ask you to share your dissemination plan. This should include, for example, sharing the work at the Festival of Education, producing a case study for the website, sharing resources produced during the project, speaking at conferences, applying for prizes and other forms of external recognition.
Funding will be awarded for financial year 2024/25 and funds will be transferred to your budget code in August 2024. If you wish to carry forward funds to the 2025/26 financial year, please ensure that you use an Extra Departmental Activity (EDA) code.
We therefore advise you to consider whether your project is achievable in one academic year.
The slides from the Information Sessions are available for download Information Session slides [PDF 231KB]
Successful applicants will have access to support from the Queen Mary Academy in the further scoping and development of their projects. This will include practical advice and guidance on educational scholarship, evaluation, impact and dissemination. Successful applicants will be expected to disseminate their work externally in ways which enhance Queen Mary’s reputation for excellence in education. This might include producing content for the website, speaking at conferences, applying for prizes and other forms of external recognition.
If you have a query, please contact qmacademy@qmul.ac.uk.