Teaching Transformation & Innovation (TTI) Grants

The TTI grant program is intended to provide Penn State instructors the opportunity to experiment, test, or implement a teaching innovation that addresses an important instructional concern.

All funded projects must meet the above requirement, but those that also address inequities or advance inclusion in teaching and learning will receive priority.

Support for TTI projects includes consultations with Institute faculty, as well as funding. Individuals who have received a grant of $2500 or more from the Institute in the past 3 years should allow other faculty an opportunity to compete for these grants.

To help us provide many grants, please request only what you need. Requests above $6000 are rare; larger grants should involve multiple faculty and courses.

Timeline and Submission Process

If any of the dates below fall on a weekend, the deadline shifts to the next workday.

Step 1: Before April 1

Please meet with a Schreyer Institute consultant to discuss your initial ideas in a pre-proposal consultation. This step saves you from developing a proposal that is not aligned with our mission. Before your consultation, please review what we can and cannot fund on our main SITE Grants page.

Your pre-proposal consultation may be face-to-face, via Zoom, or by phone. Please consider how your project will improve diversity, equity, and inclusion within the Penn State teaching and learning community.

Step 2: Before April 15

Please send your Schreyer consultant a brief (<300 word) paragraph (not a proposal!) describing the project as you currently envision it. The paragraph should state why the project is important, how it is innovative or transformative, and its potential for improving Penn State teaching or student learning.

Step 3: By May 15

You will hear by May 15 whether your project has been selected for development into a full proposal. If a unit, college or campus submits multiple proposals, SITE may contact administrators to rank proposals.

Step 4: By June 30

If you receive an invitation to submit a proposal you will have six weeks until full proposals are due at the end of June.

Final Decisions

On or before July 30 funding decisions will be sent to submitters.

Examples of fundable items

Requested funds must be directly related to and support the proposed project. Budgets need to be itemized and justified. The amounts should be based on current costs; generic items or estimates such as "$1000 project equipment" should not be submitted. Please review funding restrictions

• Experimental or unusual instructional equipment or technology
• Innovative instructional methods and procedures
• Atypical or newly available course materials
• Guest speaker for a course or for a group of faculty (please include travel costs in the honorarium)
• Visits to field sites, industrial facilities, or cultural centers that advance teaching and learning
• Student wages, if the work advances teaching or improves student learning (include wage and hours in budget)
• If your project involves students using software for a course, please seek pre-approval through the Courseware process

Proposal Review Criteria

This is a competitive process and decisions are based on the following factors:

• Alignment with the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence Mission
• Impact on equity and inclusion in teaching and learning
• Involvement of multiple courses or instructors
• Specific and necessary budget items (only request what you need; $6000+ grants are rare)
• Proposal clarity and quality, especially the quality of learning objectives (see Writing Objectives)
• Likelihood of the project continuing without additional funding
• Total number of proposals and amount requested
• Available funds