Teaching Transformation & Innovation (TTI) Grants

The TTI grant program is intended to support Penn State faculty of any rank or appointment the opportunity to experiment, test, or implement a teaching innovation that addresses an important instructional concern.

All projects should focus on faculty teaching and/or student learning at Penn State. Successful proposals will give due consideration to whether the project will have a positive impact on diversity, address inequities, or advance inclusion in teaching and learning.

Faculty interested in developing a research project about an instructional challenge or innovation should seek funding through our Teaching and Learning Scholarship grant program.

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 our larger grants.

Successful proposals receive funding in the subsequent fiscal year. Our aim is to fund as many projects as possible and no amount is too small! Please request only what you need. Requests above $5000 may be considered, but larger grants are rare. Larger grants are likely to be successful only if they involve multiple Penn State faculty and courses and have well-justified costs.

Timeline and Submission Process

Step 1: Before March 1 of each year

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 teacihng and learning community

Step 2: Before March 15

After your pre-proposal consultation, 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, innovative and/ or transformative, and describe its potential for improving Penn State teaching and/or student learning.

We share pre-proposal descriptions with your campus/college administrator for priority ranking. Those ranked lower may or may not be invited to submit a full proposal. We value providing funding for proposals distributed across campuses and colleges.

If your project is selected, you will receive an invitation to submit a full proposal by April 15. You will have six weeks to develop your proposal.

Step 3: By May 31

Invited proposals are due at the end of May.

Final Decisions

On or before July 30 funding decisions will be sent to faculty who submitted proposals.

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.

• Experimental or unusual instructional equipment (e.g., a previous grant funded a bat detector to use in a wildlife and fisheries class)
• Innovative instructional methods and procedures, including technology-based approaches
• Atypical or newly avaialble course materials (a previous grant funded back issues of a journal for a creative writing class)
• Guest speaker for a course or for a group of faculty. Speakers for faculty must address a topic related to teaching & learning
• Student and faculty visits to field sites, industrial facilities, and and cultural centers
• Student hourly wages if they are well-justified, necessary, and include the wage and hours
• Projects that involve students using software for course must be approved by the university through its Courseware process prior to submitting a formal proposal.

Proposal Review Criteria

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

• Alignment with the Schreyer Institute's Mission
• Proposal clarity and quality, especially the quality of learning objectives (see Writing Objectives)
• Evidence that other Penn State faculty will collaborate and/or use the results of the project
• Consideration for issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion
• Rationale and basis for requested funding (expensive items may be partially funded)
• Total number of proposals and amount requested
• Available funds