Innovation awards announcement and call for proposals 8/21/14
A call for proposals: The University of Washington
Innovation Awards
For more than 150 years the University of Washington has been a place where the imagination
thrives. New discoveries are made every day in laboratories and classrooms across campus,
where faculty, staff and students work together to tackle some of the most intractable problems
we face. Many of the challenges confronting us today in areas such as climate, health care and
education require fundamental discovery-based research and education that is novel in its
approach and has the ability to break open new territory in a field. The University of Washington
Innovation Awards will fuel innovative research and education that address problems of
humanity.
There are two categories of awards; each seeded through existing gift funds — including the
President’s Fund for Emerging Priorities:
Innovation Research Awards are to support unusually creative early and mid-career faculty in
health, natural, social and engineering sciences. Innovative discovery-based individual research
or smaller scale collaborative research projects will be supported rather than extensions of
large-scale ongoing research programs. The goal is to foster high-payoff work that promises to
be transformational but for which other funding sources are limited.
Innovation Education Awards are to foster new levels of student engagement and
understanding, especially through active learning. Priorities will be to develop new ways to
stimulate critical thinking and other core competencies of an undergraduate education. The goal
is to encourage teaching innovations that are novel in approach, result in better student learning
outcomes, can scale for broader impact, and add to the field of evidence-based teaching and
learning.
The Innovation Awards will encourage, nurture, bring together, and celebrate creative thinkers
in our midst. A second purpose of the Innovation Awards is to increase public awareness of
academic innovation. We hope that the efforts seeded by this program will stimulate
philanthropic support of additional innovation awards.
Two Innovation Research awards will be made each year in selected areas that will be rotated
each year. For FY 15, one award will be made in the biomedical sciences (up to $250K for each
of two years) and a second award will be made in the social sciences (up to $100K for each of
two years). Preference for these awards will be given to Assistant and recently promoted
Associate professors. The Innovation Education award (up to $100K for each of two years) is
open to all full-time faculty members with at least two years of university teaching experience.
Both awards are open to Faculty members from each of the three University of Washington
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Innovation awards announcement and call for proposals 8/21/14
Campuses. Award recipients are expected to publish their results in appropriate journals and
give talks on and off campus.
Selection Process
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Innovation Research award criteria: highly innovative, potentially transformational
research proposals. Preference will be given to Assistant and Associate Professors.
Research Faculty are eligible to apply.
Innovation Education award criteria: educational proposals that show novelty of
approach, efficacy on student learning, scalability or transferability for broader impact,
and contribution to the scholarship of teaching and learning. Full-time faculty members
or teams with 2 years university teaching experience are eligible to apply.
Funding:
o Innovation Research award in biomedical sciences will be up to $250K/yr x 2
years.
o Innovation Research award in the social sciences will be up to 100K/yr x 2 years
o Innovation Education award will be up to $100 k/yr X 2 years.
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Proposal: a two step process
Step 1: Email the following materials as a single PDF to research@uw.edu:
o Project Summary (1 page maximum)
 Abstract: Provide an executive summary of this project, including overall
goal, methodology and significance for a well-educated lay audience.
Indicate which of the innovation awards you are applying for.
 Unique Aspects: Describe unique or distinctive aspects of this project.
How will the project break open new territory in your field? How will it lay
the foundation for a solution to a real world problem?
 Principal Investigator: Provide a brief description of expertise.
o Project Description (3 page maximum)
 Overview: Provide an overview of this field and the need for this project.
 Relevant Efforts: Describe past and current efforts that are relevant to
this project.
 Goals and Methodology: State the major goals of this project and
summarize the methodologies and time frame to be used in achieving
them.
 Impact: Describe the potential impacts of achieving these goals. How
will results, resources, or best practices be disseminated?
o 3-page CV citing up to 10 most relevant publications and list of active grants
o 1-page description of how your research accomplishments and/ or personal
characteristics provide evidence of innovation or creativity.
o 1 page budget that includes the following budget categories: salaries and wages;
benefits; materials and supplies; equipment; travel; contractual services; other
services. Indirect costs will not be charged on these awards.
o 1 page budget justification
o A letter of Support from Department Chair
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Step 2
o Finalists will be invited for an in-person interview with the selection committee
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Innovation research awards selection committee
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Innovation awards announcement and call for proposals 8/21/14
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Will include UW members of the National Academies
Organized and run by Office of Research; chaired by Carrie Harwood, Associate
Vice Provost and member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Judy Howard will co-chair Social Sciences awards committee
Innovation education awards selection committee.
o Will include UW Distinguished Teacher awardees, representatives of the Faculty
Council on Teaching & Learning, and one or more directors of tri-campus centers
for teaching and learning
o Organized and run by Office of Academic and Student Affairs; chaired by Jerry
Baldasty, Senior Vice-Provost for Academic and Student Affairs.
Application deadline and award dates
o Application deadline October 1, 2014
o Decisions by December 15, 2014
o Funding to start target: January 15, 2015
Follow-up
o Annual Report due one month after annual renewal date each year
o Final Report due one month after completion
Questions should be directed to Matt Orefice, Manager of Special Projects, at
research@uw.edu.
FAQs.
Q. Can faculty members apply jointly for an award? A. Yes, collaborative projects are
encouraged.
Q. How do you define a biomedical sciences project?
human health.
A. A project with clear relevance to
Q. Is a project that uses a model organism(s) as an experimental model appropriate? A. Yes.
Q. Is a clinical research project eligible for an award? A. Yes, but preference will be given to a
project that includes both basic and clinical components.
Q. Can innovation award funds be used to support faculty salary? A. Yes.
Q. Can lecturers apply for an innovation award? A. Yes.
Q. Do the funds awarded need to be spent in two years. A. No the award can be spread over
three years.
Q. How do you define a “recently promoted” Associate Professor? A. An Associate Professors
who has been in rank no more than five years.
Q. Does my application need to be routed through the Office of Sponsored Programs? A. No
your proposal should be submitted directly to the Office of Research (research@uw.edu).
Q. Can the award go to extend an existing grant-funded project? A. No.
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Innovation awards announcement and call for proposals 8/21/14
Q. Can the education award fund an approach that isn’t novel but is new to the applicant? A. No.
Q. Is the education award intended for an innovation that already has a track record or
innovations that are still on the drawing board? A. Both, as long as the track record is that of the
applicant and the project takes the innovation to the next level.
Q. Can the education award include a novel adaptation of an existing approach? A. Yes.
Novelty in a project may include achieving learning goals in new ways, using new modes,
translating the advantages of one mode to another mode, applying an existing practice in a new
way or to a new context, pushing the edge of scholarship on teaching and learning, or shifting
the way a subject is taught.
Q. In the Project Summary and Project Description for the education award, does “break open
new territory in your field” and “provide an overview of this field” refer to the applicant’s discipline
or to the field of education? A. The field of education, including discipline-based education
research. Applications may cite education research or theories of learning, human development,
evidence-based pedagogy, curriculum, and assessment. Reference to common teaching
practice will not be enough to show grounding in the field.
Q. For the education award, can I use technology tools not widely available at the UW? A. Yes,
but preference will be given to projects that use either existing UW tools or tools that could easily
be made available to all faculty without great expense.
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