Education Pilot Grants

Objective
The Department of Medicine is awarding grants to fund research in education.

• The grants will facilitate career advancement of educators by promoting academic scholarship;
• The grants will enhance educator vitality and retention by fostering role diversity and career mastery;
• The resulting research findings will enhance the training of medical students, residents, fellows, graduate students, and postdocs.

Eligibility
Clinician and scientist educators with primary faculty appointments in the Department of Medicine are eligible to request pilot funding for educational research once every two years. Collaborators in other departments are acceptable as long as the principal investigator comes from the Department of Medicine.

Appropriate projects for funding include:

• Evaluation of pedagogical innovation
• Development of a curriculum
• Qualitative assessments of learning
• Systematic literature reviews
• Integration of technology into teaching
• Test of mentoring models
• Assessment of educational needs
• Pilot work for educational studies

Funds available
Department of Medicine may award up to $12,000 in funds per year. Applicants may request up to $6,000 per proposal. The funds may be applied to the cost of:

• Direct salary support for PI
• Supplies and small equipment
• Research assistants
• Consultants (e.g. evaluators, statisticians, etc.)
• Compensation to research subjects

Evaluation criteria
The Faculty Development and Diversity Committee will serve as the review committee for determining awardees. The committee will consult non-committee experts as needed. They will score applications based on the following criteria:

• Innovation of proposed project
• Adequate methods and expertise to achieve the stated goals
• Likelihood of educational benefits for trainees in the Department of Medicine
• Potential for scholarly products
• Contribution to applicant’s career advancement

The committee will provide written feedback to all applicants.

Reporting back
Each year’s grantees will form a learning community that will meet quarterly to provide peer mentoring. An experienced medical educator will also attend to offer research guidance.

All awardees must submit a progress report twelve months after activation of the grant.

Application
The deadline for applications has passed. Projects must start between July 1 and October 1 and finish 12 months later.

The application is online, but you will want to compose your answers in a separate document and paste them into the form. This document contains detailed instructions about the application.