Innovation and Scholarship Fund

The Innovation and Scholarship Fund supports colleagues working on small-scale teaching and learning projects and initiatives and enables dissemination and embedding of the learning from these projects across the institution. Colleagues can apply for funding from £100 to £2,500 per project, providing financial backing for ideas that enhance educational practice across the University. 

This fund is designed to encourage scholarship and dissemination of practice to benefit the breadth of our teaching community, supporting specific enhancement activities in teaching and learning rather than ongoing or “business as usual” activity. 

Applications will be reviewed by a panel, and decisions will be made on the basis of the content of the application so please include all relevant detail. Please note that the Innovation and Scholarship Fund is a competitive and limited fund, and therefore we would encourage you to submit your application as soon as you are ready to do so rather than wait for a later panel. 

Purpose and Priorities 

The fund prioritises projects which: 

• Evaluate and/or identify potential mitigations for systemic or institutional challenges in teaching and learning 
• Demonstrate applicability beyond a single course or department 
• Engage students meaningfully through consultation or partnership 
• Contribute to inclusive, innovative, and evidence-informed practice 

Examples of eligible activities include: 

• Development of tools or resources with cross-disciplinary application 
• Student-led or student-partnered initiatives to improve learning experiences 
• Projects that investigate and address barriers to inclusive teaching 
• Activities that generate insights into curriculum design or assessment practice 

What the Fund Supports 

Previously funded activities have included: 

• Creation of learning materials and resources for use across disciplines 
• Vouchers to reimburse students for time given to focus groups, interviews, and other consultative engagement 
• Funding towards pay for student partners on project activity 

Please note that the following would not usually be funded from this resource:  

• Conference attendance or registration fees  
• Payment for research assistants or staff time  
• Course-specific materials or software licences  
• One-off outreach events without clear pedagogic impact 
• Retrospective funding (i.e. reimbursement for activities already completed) 

Application Guidance 

To ensure your application is eligible and competitive, please address the following as prompted when completing the submission:

1. Consultation

• Outline how you’ve consulted with relevant colleagues (e.g. eLearning teams, for projects involving eLearning approaches or tools). 
• Indicate any discussions with your departmental or school-level education leads as appropriate. 
• Demonstrate some awareness of how your initiative or activity would benefit others across the institution.

2. Funding Justification

• Explain why this fund is the most appropriate route for your proposal. 
• Detail any local funding sources you’ve explored (e.g. departmental budgets, school-level funds), and why they are not suitable. 
• If you’ve been declined elsewhere, include the outcome of those enquiries. 

3. Ethics 

• Ethical approval may be required depending on your project. Further information on scholarship and ethics is available in the Scholarship Toolkit.

4. Impact and evaluation 

• What are your intended outcomes for the project? How do they align with your identified structural or institutional challenge or overarching goal? 
• How will you evaluate the impact of this activity, and how will you know if it was a success?   (Please note, there is an expectation that evaluation will be embedded throughout the activity and not completed as a separate final step.) 
• How will you understand the applicability of your initiative or work outside of your context?

5. Dissemination

• How do you intend to disseminate the outcomes and impact of your activities or project at an institutional and local level? (eg online resource, blog post, journal article, etc) 
• How will you support others to embed your learning in their own context?

6. Spending and budget

• All spending must be completed before the end of the university financial year (31st July 2026). 
• You do not need to apply for the maximum award of £2,500.

Eligibility and Sign-Off 

All University of Manchester staff are eligible to apply, provided you are on a permanent contract or a fixed-term contract that includes the period during which the proposed activity and its evaluation will take place. 

Depending on the nature of your proposal, you may need sign-off from: 

• Your Programme Director (for course-level initiatives) 
• Your Department Head of Education or School Head of Education (for wider initiatives) 

Alternative Funding Sources

If your proposal does not meet this fund's criteria, you may wish to consider these alternatives:

• Faculty of Humanities TLSE Enhancement Fund
• Faculty of Science and Engineering Teaching Excellence Development Fund

Upcoming deadline

Submissions received by 9am on Monday 8 September will be considered at the next panel.