Innovation in Action: Apply for a Pilot Grant
Funding Opportunities for Strategic Innovation Grants
ĢƵ’s distinction is rooted in its commitment to academic rigor and ever-evolving ways of educating students to the highest levels. This includes close alignment between undergraduate and graduate study in a small liberal arts context; a deep commitment to a multi-generational community comprised largely of women; and a willingness to look honestly at the past and use those learnings to inform how the College enacts its mission in the future.
To build our distinctive contributions in the next ten years, we need to pilot the community’s best ideas. Up to $100,000 in presidential discretionary funds is available to current faculty, staff, and students in the 2025-26 academic year to design and pilot projects that advance one or more of the emerging strategic plan's four core areas.
- Redoubling our commitment to academic excellence
-
Providing holistic student support
-
Advancing a community approach to access and inclusion
-
Enhancing our external visibility: positioning ĢƵ in the world
We plan to make 5-7 grants with priority given to project teams that respond to current issues in higher education; cross disciplines and privilege emerging technologies and ways of learning; include faculty, staff and students; cross existing administrative unit boundaries; and streamline current disconnected efforts on campus and build efficiencies. While we expect most project proposals to advance new ideas, project teams that propose to significantly re-imagine and improve existing efforts on campus are also welcome.
Apply for a Grant
Applications are due on November 3, 2025; February 2, 2026; and April 1, 2026. We expect many project teams to revise and resubmit their proposals as we workshop ideas together.
All funds granted must be spent by December 31, 2026.
Decisions will be made by the senior staff in consultation with relevant stakeholders.
A short summary of grants awarded will be shared with the community in the Lantern newsletter and at monthly programmed coffee hours. Fund recipients will present their findings at the final community coffee hour of the year or lunch in April/May 2026.
An information session about these grants will be held on Wednesday, September 24, 2025 from 12-1 PM from 12:00 pm -1:00 pm in Dalton 300.
Application Questions
- How many community members are included in this proposal?
- Name
- Affiliation with ĢƵ
- How will you measure whether this pilot project is successful? Please be specific.
- Project Title
- Brief Summary (less than 500 words)
- Which of the 4 areas does this project most connect to?
- Academic Excellence
- Holistic Student Support
- Community Approach to Access and Inclusion
- Positioning ĢƵ in the World
- What is the issue/opportunity this project addresses?
- What will you do and why?
- What is your timeline (including start and end dates)?
- What is your product or deliverable?
- What will be different if this is successful?
- If we scale this project across the College, how will it prepare us for students (today in elementary school) who will matriculate in 2035?
- Budget
- If this project is not funded at this application deadline, are you open to revising and resubmitting it for the next deadline?
Additional Information and FAQ
-
The College’s Approach to Strategic Visioning
-
Reports from the Strategic Planning Working Groups 2022-24
-
Findings from the Start/Stop/Continue Surveys
-
Council of Independent Colleges
-
Attend the Current Topics in Higher Education lunches on campus and review past topics.
We expect to award 5-7 grants. Grants will likely range from $5000 to $25,000.
The goal is for members of the community to pilot or test out ideas that might be core to the College’s next chapter. We are looking for ideas that highly how the College is distinctive and respond to these four questions about what will best support students and faculty today and into the future.
- How do we prepare ĢƵ to lead the liberal arts of the future as a research college with graduate programs?
- What will the liberal arts need to consist of for undergraduates entering their lives, the workforce, etc., in the 2030s and 2040s? Students who will enter the College in 2035 are in fourth grade today.
- How will undergraduate and graduate students live, learn, and how will we teach and engage with them inside and outside of the classroom?
- What infrastructure – living and learning spaces, places to eat, academic and other buildings, operational systems, IT systems, people systems, etc. – will best support ĢƵ's operationalization of its mission in 2035?
Priority will be given to project teams that respond to current issues in higher education; cross disciplines and privilege emerging technologies and ways of learning; include faculty, staff and students; cross existing administrative unit boundaries; and streamline current disconnected efforts on campus and build efficiencies. While we expect most project proposals to advance new ideas, project teams that propose to significantly re-imagine and improve existing efforts on campus are also welcome.
Yes! You will need your supervisor’s permission to ensure that the proposed work is in line with your current job responsibilities.
Project teams that are not funded at when they first apply may be invited to revise their proposals based on feedback from the selection committee and resubmit them at the next deadline. Some of our best ideas emerge in conversation with others, and we encourage project teams to continue in the conversation if they are not funded in the first round.
We mean pilot projects that, if successful, could be enlarged to serve all students, faculty and/or staff on campus. This does not mean the idea has to apply to the whole campus but that it is a big enough idea that with the right staffing and resources it could be continued and could make a distinctive impact.
No. The people whose names appear on the application will be completely responsible for completing this project.
Yes, the president’s office will ask for periodic reports on a schedule included in the grant award letter.