George R. Brown Teaching Grants
The Committee on Teaching invites all Rice faculty members to submit grant proposals for projects that foster excellence in undergraduate teaching at Rice. Funds for these Brown Foundation Teaching grants can be used to support a variety of activities, including “seminars and other programs aimed to improve the quality of teaching, and . . . studies and experimental tests of new instructional methods or programs.” In previous years, awards have ranged from a few hundred dollars to $5,000.
Projects involving significant innovation and those that benefit a large number of students are strongly encouraged. In the past, awards have been made for purchase of equipment, supplies, and materials; for honoraria for outside speakers and consultants; for support of special events; for wages of individuals who assist with a project; and for reasonable costs associated with developing and teaching a new undergraduate course, except for supplements to the instructor’s salary. These grants are intended solely for the enhancement of undergraduate instruction, and not to support faculty research or graduate education.
Proposals should be prepared and documented according to the attached guidelines. All proposals will be evaluated at the same time by members of the Committee on Teaching, and the Committee’s recommendations will be reviewed by the Provost’s office. Funded proposals may later be made available for other Rice faculty to read.
Interested faculty are invited to submit proposals at the beginning of the spring semester. The Committee on Teaching will notify faculty of deadlines.
Teaching Innovation Fund Grants
In the last few years, substantial transformations in higher education have opened up extraordinary new opportunities to innovate classroom instruction and expand educational opportunities. In order to ensure that Rice continues to deliver quality education in this period of dynamic innovation and experimentation, the Teaching Innovation Fund welcomes proposals from departments, groups of faculty, or individual faculty seeking to develop pedagogy, courseware, or curriculum that utilizes new technologies, delivery methods, or tools. The TIF is an internal funding mechanism that awards competitive grants of between $5,000-$10,000.
Course Development Grants for New RiceX or Rice Coursera Online Courses
Grants of $20,000 to develop new online courseware that utilizes either Coursera or edX platforms and that reaches larger communities of learners as well as Rice matriculated students. Proposals need not be equivalent to a semester-long course, but can focus on a subject mastered in 4-6 weeks of work. Proposals can be for a single course or for a coherent sequence of courses.
Faculty Initiative Fund Grants
Rice University’s Faculty Initiatives Fund (FIF) is an internal funding mechanism that awards competitive grants of between $5,000-$50,000 to Rice faculty. (In extenuating circumstances, grants of up to $75,000 can be considered.) These grants are intended to help faculty members develop adventurous research and scholarly projects that enhance the university and lead to larger endeavors, research breakthroughs, external funding opportunities, or unusually creative works.
Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning Course Development Grants
Through innovative research, engaged pedagogy, and creative approaches to application, the Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning seeks to promote and advance creative models and practices of leadership of benefit to new generations of leaders. While leadership is a topic in many quarters at Rice, the CERCL operates by means of a different approach – one that is primarily concerned with innovative attention to the fostering of “tools,” conversation and “environments” necessary for the development of what we have come to call leadership; and, this includes the development of new and “organic” means by which to think about and act out leadership. Each year CERCL accepts proposals for grants not to exceed $2000 to encourage new courses or the update of existing courses in line with the goals of the Center.
Curricular Development Grants, Humanities Research Center
The Humanities Research Center awards competitive grants that are intended to spark programming and curricular development in areas that do not necessarily fit within departmental structures, help develop innovative paradigms for conducting humanities research, or ask new questions within existing paradigms. Research projects may involve, but are not limited to, faculty workshops, conferences, collaborations with other institutions or individuals, creative works, or other endeavors that require financial resources outside the scope of individual faculty research accounts.
Course Development Grants, School of Architecture
Each year, the School of Architecture awards course development grants of up to $5,000 for full-time faculty teaching within the school. The grant period typically runs June 1st through December 31st.
Office of Undergraduate Research and Inquiry
Two types of grants are available to plan and integrate inquiry-based learning throughout curricula at Rice.