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Queen Mary Academy

The President and Principal’s Fund for Educational Excellence

The President and Principal’s Fund for Educational Excellence was established to encourage a culture of educational innovation and exploration at Queen Mary.

Funding call 2024/25

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: 

  • Assessment (eg use of authentic assessment, artificial intelligence) 
  • Curriculum Development, embedding the Principles of Academic Degree Programme Design (eg in the areas of teaching and learning approaches and activities, employability)

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.

Selection criteria

The Panel will evaluate applications based on the following criteria: 

  1. Demonstrating educational innovation and exploration with the potential to make a measurable contribution to one or more key strategic priorities 
  2. A robust evaluation approach 
  3. Clear evidence of incorporating the student voice eg co-creation 
  4. Potential for wider reach and increased impact, including across other disciplines, Schools/Institutes and/or Faculties 
  5. A clear plan for dissemination with the potential to raise the profile of Queen Mary and enhance our reputation for excellence in education.
  6. Alignment to the priorities set out in the 2030 Strategy for Education and the Student Experience and The Queen Mary Education Approach

Eligibility

  1. The project lead should be a member of Queen Mary staff working in an academic Faculty, School or Institute 
  2. Funding is not available for the continuation of projects which have previously received funding from the President and Principal’s Fund for Educational Excellence, the Westfield Fund or Drapers’ Fund 
  3. If the project lead has previously received funding from the President and Principal’s Fund for Educational Excellence, the Westfield Fund or Drapers’ Fund, the project (including evaluation) should have completed before being eligible to apply 

Funding

Allowable expenses 

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.  

Please seek advice and gain approval from your School/Institute Manager.

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.

 Non-allowable expenses  

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

Information Sessions

Two information sessions are taking place for potential applicants. The sessions will be recorded and made available on this webpage. 

Educational Impact workshops

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: 

Funding panel

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. 

How to apply

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.

Support 

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.

Queries

If you have a query, please contact qmacademy@qmul.ac.uk.

Funded Projects 2023/24

  • AI for student learning and research - Nick Fisher, Dr Cassandra Lewis (Institute of Dentistry); Paula Funnell, James Soderman, Chenee Psaros, Sharlin Ahmed, Rosella D'Alesio (Library), Dr Pedro Elston, Rofique Ali (Institute of Health Sciences Education); Dawn Buzzard, Catherine McLean (TELT) and student collaborators, QMA Support: Graeme Hathaway
  • Co-creating AI best practices in higher education (HE): Building AI skills enhancement resources through interdisciplinary Student-Staff Best Practice Sharing Sessions - Dr Xue Zhou, Dr Joanne Zhang, Dr Lilian Schofield (School of Business and Management); Dr Lesley Howell (School of Physical and Chemical Sciences); Dr Aisha Abuelmaatti (School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science); QMA Support: Graeme Hathaway
  • East London Atlas Project - Dr Elsa Noterman, Dr Alex Henshaw, Dr Andrew Russell, Dr Philippa Williams (School of Geography), QMA Support: Elise Omfalos
  • Empowering Skill-Based Education through Virtual Reality - Dr Lesley Howell (School of Physical and Chemical Sciences); Professor Chie Adachi (Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry); Dr Pedro Elston (Institute of Health Sciences Education) QMA Support: Elise Omfalos
  • ePortfolio Based Learning for Personal and Professional Development, using the Graduate Attributes Framework - Dr Timothy Fulton and Dr Sally Faulkner (School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences) QMA support: Elise Omfalos
  • ‘GenAIrating’ Critical Clinical Thinking: A new approach to learning using large language models - Dr Stuart Miller, Ian Griffiths, Dr Simon Lack, Dr Manuela Angioi, Prof Dylan Morrissey (William Harvey Research Institute), Dr Esther Murray (Institute of Health Sciences Education), QMA Support: Graeme Hathaway
  • Get spotted! a podcast series and a masterclass on communicative practices that make you stand out at university and in your dream job! - Dr Weronika Fernando and Dr Saima Sherazi (School of Languages Linguistics and Film) QMA Support: Elise Omfalos
  • How might we create spaces that support human flourishing, enabling students and staff to thrive and innovate? - Dr Louise Younie, Dr Rofique Ali, Dr Nandini Hayes, Vanessa Thompson (Institute of Health Sciences Education); Professor Chie Adachi (Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry); Dr Nicholas Hostettler (School of Politics and International Relations); Marianne Melsen (QMSU) QMA Support: Dr Ana Cabral, Olu Popoola and Puiyin Wong
  • QMCUR (Queen Mary Centre for Undergraduate Research) - Dr Giuseppe Viola, Dr Maria Romero Gonzalez, Professor Henri Huijberts, Professor Julia Shelton (School of Engineering and Materials Science), QMA Support: Puiyin Wong

Drapers’ Fund for Innovation in Learning and Teaching 2023/24 

  • Innovative and diverse creation of teaching materials in Economics, Finance and Business Management: new approaches in the classroom with co-creating Research-Led, Learning by Doing, Peer-Led Team Learning and Teaching with Historical Perspectives - Dr Daniela Tavasci, Dr Eileen Tipoe, Dr Luigi Ventimiglia (School of Economics and Finance); Dr Xue Zhou and Dr Lilian Schofield (School of Business and Management), QMA Support: Puiyin Wong
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