Evergreen Fund for Innovation applications are due:

November 7, 2008 at 5:00 pm

The Evergreen Fund for Innovation supports pioneering efforts by members of the Evergreen community, affording them time and resources for initiatives that will shape the college's future. Former president Jane Jervis-inspired by the planning year when founding faculty developed the Evergreen's ground-breaking curriculum-launched the endowment in 1996 to keep Evergreen on the leading edge of higher education.

The Evergreen Fund for Innovation will award up to $58,000 in 2008-09. Proposals are due November 7, 2008 and recipients will be announced by January 2, 2009. Proposed projects must designate a term or continuing faculty member as project leader. Leaders of each awarded proposals will be identified as a distinguished Evergreen Innovator for 2008-09.

Successful proposals may be broad or narrow in scope and should:

• Focus on innovative ideas that might be sustained after the award.
• Be unlikely to receive funding from regular college resources.
• Depart from the ongoing work of the project leader(s).
• Be submitted by teams of two or more Evergreen community members. (Teams may include faculty, staff, students, alumni and, with adequate justification, individuals from outside the college.)
• Represent the best Evergreen has to offer in interdisciplinary and cross-divisional collaboration.

In 2008-09, proposals must address the implementation of Evergreen's 2007 strategic plan update (www.evergreen.edu/president/docs/strategicplanup07.pdf). Projects could focus on one or several interrelated goals to, for example, reinvigorate Evergreen's liberal arts mission, make Evergreen more sustainable, improve recruitment and retention, revitalize staff and faculty, foster equity, advance diversity, enhance technology in the classroom and administration, integrate the college's physical resources with its working and learning environments, and others.

Proposal narratives may be no more than 5 pages and include the following:

• Need or opportunity for the proposed project. What problem would this project help solve? What possibilities might it create? (30%)
• Project description and anticipated outcomes. (30%)
• How outcomes would support the mission of the college. (20%)
• How the project would support new approaches to teaching, learning and other aspects of the student experience. (20%)

In addition to the 5-page narrative, application packets should include the following attachments:

• A cover sheet including the title of the proposal; total funding request; name, signature and contact information for the faculty leader; names and roles of other team members (student team members should include their ID number).
• A detailed, 1-page budget with justification.
• A timeline for the major benchmarks of the project. (Projects must be completed by June 30, 2010.)
• Resumes or vitae for all team members. (2-page maximum each. Selection panel may request references for non-college participants.)
• Statements from the appropriate dean or director authorizing staff or faculty release time for members of teams requesting it.

Awards will be selected by a committee that includes the college's president and four vice-presidents or their designees and one participant each from faculty, staff and students.

Email proposals (a single document in .pdf format is preferred) to sponsres@evergreen.edu , or submit a single, one-sided paper original of the proposal to the Academic Grants Office, LIB 3705. Proposals must be submitted by 5 p.m., November 7, 2008.

For more information, contact John McLain, Academic Grants Manager, at ext. 6045 or mclainj@evergreen.edu.