Inclusive Excellence in Teaching Grant Opportunities

Important Dates

Application Deadline: Monday, April 7, 2025

Grant Activation (estimated): Mid-May 2025

Grant Conclusion: All work and payments must conclude by Friday, August 15, 2025

Additional Spending Deadlines: 50% of faculty stipend(s) (and student wages) to be paid out prior to June 30, and 50% to be paid out July 1- Aug 15

Budget Information

Maximum grant: $5000 

Maximum payment to any individual: $1000 

Eligible expenses:  

• Instructor stipends as allowed by rank, status, and local academic unit regulations 

• Student wages (not preferred in this grant type)  

• Gift cards 

• Purchase of registration or print/video materials 

Ineligible expenses:  Food (generally), external consultants or speakers 

Discouraged expenses: Stipends or wages for undergraduate or graduate students 

Grant Information

To aid in scaling-up student support and inclusive excellence in teaching efforts across campus, we encourage departments, programs, colleges, and schools to invest in expanding in-progress projects to effectively increase local capacity for faculty learning, course- or curriculum-development, or pedagogy-related programming.   

These capacity-extending mini-grants should be designed to ripple out: faculty who participate in these mini-grant projects will be expected to contribute in some way to a department’s, area’s, program’s, or course’s future faculty as they continue implementing broadly inclusive teaching practices and enact the university’s strategic goals for inclusive excellence in educational spaces.  

We imagine these grants will primarily take the form of stipends to faculty who are part of a pilot project and who will contribute to publicly available resources – within the department, discipline, or another venue beyond private knowledge and information – that will extend the reach and durability of that project. A key criterion for evaluating grant proposals will be the sustainability and/or broad impact of the faculty work. Specifically, funding will not be given for only learning about inclusive teaching principles or for bringing in external consultants or speakers. 

Examples of possible mini-grant projects include (but are not limited to) the following: 

• Development of course modules or materials designed for adoption by multiple instructors teaching in a course or curricular area 
• Pilot implementation and assessment of course modules or materials designed for multiple instructors teaching in a course or curricular area 
• Design of faculty development/training curricula and materials to support a current course, course sequence, or curricular area 
• Registration costs for an inclusive teaching-related event, local/regional/national, with a specific proposed local deliverable for the George Mason program, department, school/college, or campus community 

Individuals or teams who received an ARIE Grant (Kickoff Grant, Course Grant, Capacity Building Grant, or Mini-Grant) in 2022, 2023, 2024, or 2025 are eligible to apply for an IET Mini-grant to extend or enhance their current work in Summer 2025. Proposals are also invited from teams that have not yet received a grant, especially if they have evidence of inclusion-related work already underway that this grant could support. 

Current Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning members and affiliates (faculty fellows, graduate assistants, and similar) are not eligible to apply as PI or members on these grant teams. 

Submission Requirements

Project Summary (no more than 150 words).  

What learning and/or resources will your efforts create, and how can your department/program/unit leverage the results to support faculty in multiple courses in improving their teaching related to inclusive excellence in courses and pedagogies that foreground equity and justice?  Proposals that attend to the needs of term or adjunct faculty, to the teaching or support of introductory courses in any level of degree program, and/or integration with program-level assessment (APR) will be highly regarded.  

Also include the names (indicate one principal investigator (PI)), Mason emails, titles/positions, and both College and Department of all key participants, including a department or division staff member who will be responsible for supervising the disbursement of grant funds (Note: This is, typically, not the PI or your College/Department’s Chief Business Officer.  Rather, this is your financial point-of-contact and someone who handles EPAF submissions, P-card purchases, etc. Sometimes there is more than one person who will need to help manage the finances for your grant.)  (Does not count toward your 150 words.) 

Narrative (No more than 400 words)  

1.  Inclusive excellence in teaching-related goals:  Identify the key goals for how the effort, programming, events, and/or assessments will address calls for broadly inclusive and equitable teaching through alterations to course content, assessment of learning, curriculum alignment, and/or pedagogical strategies for student engagement. Your plans should support an integration of inclusive and equitable resources/strategies rather than isolated elements of a course or curriculum. (See more information on the Stearns Center site). 

2. Outcomes: Briefly describe the current project, plan, resource, or effort, and any resources already invested in that project. List two or three intended outcomes for the proposed new effort, programming, event(s), and/or assessment(s) that are directly related to the university’s ARIE principles or strategic plan.  Identify any particular faculty groups, courses, programs, or curricular pathways that you intend to have significant impact on. Describe what feedback, resources, and/or leadership capabilities will result from this new effort, and how they will continue to “ripple out” to future instructors.  

3. Implementation:  What is your timeline for designing, engaging with, and/or piloting this project?  What steps or stages will the project involve, and who (actual/estimated) will be involved with each?  Please also indicate that you have checked with a finance staff member in your unit to ensure that the participants you plan to support are eligible for any stipends you plan to disburse. 

Letter(s) of support from chair(s) and/or dean(s)   

For each unit involved with the grant proposal, provide a short support letter, from either the department chair or the dean of the unit (or another appropriate individual in your unit administration), that addresses the desire for a project like this one and their support for sustaining this kind of resource or programming in the future.  

Budget 

Provide a budget breakdown which details costs for each item.  Grants can be requested for up to $5000 total.  They can include faculty stipends of up to $1000/person.  For any stipend, please calculate any required fringe costs that will need to be paid out of the grant monies (the Fringe rate for Special Pay, which is what these stipends are, is 7.2%, unless you are employed at Mason Korea then the fringe rate is 18%).  We currently recommend compensating faculty at a rate parallel to NSF guidelines for reviewers, e.g. $280/full day or $35/hour, but you may prefer a different rate or an overall stipend rather than one pegged to specific (estimated) hours. Identify any expenses for materials (e.g. print/video), student wages (not preferred for this grant type), gift cards, or professional development spending.  

Important Dates:

First Consideration Priority Deadline: Monday, December 9, 2024

Final Consideration Deadline: Friday, January 10, 2025 (please note that proposals received between December 9 and January 10 may be reviewed and awarded on a rolling basis)

Grant Activation (estimated): Friday, February 7, 2025

Grant Conclusion: All work and payments must conclude by Friday, May 16, 2025

Budget Information:

Maximum grant: $3000 

Maximum payment to any individual: $500 

Eligible expenses:  

• Instructor stipends as allowed by rank, status, and local academic unit regulations 
• Student wages (not preferred in this grant type)  
• Gift cards 
• Purchase of registration or print/video materials 

Ineligible expenses:  Food (generally), external consultants or speakers 

Discouraged expenses: Stipends or wages for undergraduate or graduate students 

Grant Information:

To aid in scaling-up student support and inclusive excellence in teaching efforts across campus, we encourage departments, programs, colleges, and schools to invest in expanding in-progress projects to effectively increase local capacity for faculty learning, course- or curriculum-development, or pedagogy-related programming.   

These capacity-extending mini-grants should be designed to ripple out: faculty who participate in these mini-grant projects will be expected to contribute in some way to a department’s, area’s, program’s, or course’s future faculty as they continue implementing broadly inclusive teaching practices and enact the university’s strategic goals for inclusive excellence in educational spaces.  

We imagine these grants will primarily take the form of stipends to faculty who are part of a pilot project and who will contribute to publicly available resources – within the department, discipline, or another venue beyond private knowledge and information – that will extend the reach and durability of that project. A key criterion for evaluating grant proposals will be the sustainability and/or broad impact of the faculty work. Specifically, funding will not be given for only learning about inclusive teaching principles or for bringing in external consultants or speakers. 

Examples of possible mini-grant projects include (but are not limited to) the following: 

• Development of course modules or materials designed for adoption by multiple instructors teaching in a course or curricular area 
• Pilot implementation and assessment of course modules or materials designed for multiple instructors teaching in a course or curricular area 
• Design of faculty development/training curricula and materials to support a current course, course sequence, or curricular area 
• Registration costs for an inclusive teaching-related event, local/regional/national, with a specific proposed local deliverable for the George Mason program, department, school/college, or campus community 

Individuals or teams who received an ARIE Grant (Kickoff Grant, Course Grant, Capacity Building Grant, or Mini-Grant) in 2022, 2023, or 2024 are eligible to apply for an IET Mini-grant to extend or enhance their current work in Spring 2025. Proposals are also invited from teams that have not yet received a grant, especially if they have evidence of inclusion-related work already underway that this grant could support. 

Current Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning members and affiliates (faculty fellows, graduate assistants, and similar) are not eligible to apply as PI or members on these grant teams. 

Submission Requirements:

Please assemble all parts of the proposal as noted below into a single PDF, and email to Stearns Center by 11:59 pm on or before the application deadline, with the subject line “2025 Mini-Grant Proposal.” Email Stearns Center ([email protected]) or Dr. Rachel Yoho ([email protected]) with any questions. 

Project Summary (no more than 150 words).  

What learning and/or resources will your efforts create, and how can your department/program/unit leverage the results to support faculty in multiple courses in improving their teaching related to inclusive excellence in courses and pedagogies that foreground equity and justice?  Proposals that attend to the needs of term or adjunct faculty, to the teaching or support of introductory courses in any level of degree program, and/or integration with program-level assessment (APR) will be highly regarded.  

Also include the names (indicate one principal investigator (PI)), Mason emails, titles/positions, and both College and Department of all key participants, including a department or division staff member who will be responsible for supervising the disbursement of grant funds (Note: This is, typically, not the PI or your College/Department’s Chief Business Officer.  Rather, this is your financial point-of-contact and someone who handles EPAF submissions, P-card purchases, etc. Sometimes there is more than one person who will need to help manage the finances for your grant.)  (Does not count toward your 150 words.) 

Narrative (No more than 400 words) 

• 1.  Inclusive excellence in teaching-related goals:  Identify the key goals for how the effort, programming, events, and/or assessments will address calls for broadly inclusive and equitable teaching through alterations to course content, assessment of learning, curriculum alignment, and/or pedagogical strategies for student engagement. Your plans should support an integration of inclusive and equitable resources/strategies rather than isolated elements of a course or curriculum. (See more information on the Stearns Center site). 
• 2. Outcomes: Briefly describe the current project, plan, resource, or effort, and any resources already invested in that project. List two or three intended outcomes for the proposed new effort, programming, event(s), and/or assessment(s) that are directly related to the university’s ARIE principles or strategic plan.  Identify any particular faculty groups, courses, programs, or curricular pathways that you intend to have significant impact on. Describe what feedback, resources, and/or leadership capabilities will result from this new effort, and how they will continue to “ripple out” to future instructors.  
• 3. Implementation:  What is your timeline for designing, engaging with, and/or piloting this project?  What steps or stages will the project involve, and who (actual/estimated) will be involved with each?  Please also indicate that you have checked with a finance staff member in your unit to ensure that the participants you plan to support are eligible for any stipends you plan to disburse. 

Letter(s) of support from chair(s) and/or dean(s)   

For each unit involved with the grant proposal, provide a short support letter, from either the department chair or the dean of the unit (or another appropriate individual in your unit administration), that addresses the desire for a project like this one and their support for sustaining this kind of resource or programming in the future.  

Budget 

Provide a budget breakdown which details costs for each item.  Grants can be requested for up to $3000 total.  They can include faculty stipends of up to $500/person.  For any stipend, please calculate any required fringe costs that will need to be paid out of the grant monies (the Fringe rate for Special Pay, which is what these stipends are, is 7.2%, unless you are employed at Mason Korea then the fringe rate is 18%).  We currently recommend compensating faculty at a rate parallel to NSF guidelines for reviewers, e.g. $280/full day or $35/hour, but you may prefer a different rate or an overall stipend rather than one pegged to specific (estimated) hours. Identify any expenses for materials (e.g. print/video), student wages (not preferred for this grant type), gift cards, or professional development spending.