Nanyang Technological University - Imperial Education Seed Fund

Projects are expected to benefit students and staff at both institutions. Applicants must clearly state the impact that the award will bring to both institutions in terms of student experience, and, where possible, involve staff-student partnerships in the design and delivery. 

Projects which support development in the following areas are encouraged:  

• Research-led education: projects that are informed by the most recent research in the relevant topic. This could entail encouraging students to participate in research projects. 
• New applications for digital technologies: Projects that pursue innovative, inclusive and impactful online experiential learning opportunities. 

• Multidisciplinary, global challenge topics that are linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 
• Student entrepreneurship: Projects that provide students with the knowledge, skills, and resources to develop an entrepreneurial mindset through joint projects or creating experiential learning opportunities (e.g. joint hackathons). 
• Flexible lifelong learning/practitioner education: Projects that meet the needs of learners at different stages of their lives and careers. 
• Learning analytics: projects that foster knowledge exchange on approaches to building learning analytics platforms, and structures, and designing metrics to support and enhance the student experience. 
• Exchange of academic and professional knowledge: Study visits or workshops to clearly and demonstrably aid the exchange of academic and professional knowledge, including sharing of good practice to underpin the preparation of a long-term collaborative partnership (e.g. preparation of a PhD summer school, joint module delivery, future exchange agreement, etc)

All projects are encouraged to incorporate digital innovations appropriate to achieving their project goals in line with institutional education strategies: 

• NTU: NTU 2025 Strategic Plan 
• Imperial: Learning and Teaching Strategy 

Projects can be either curriculum based or extracurricular. Interdisciplinary projects are particularly encouraged. 

This call has a total indicative budget of £20,000 from Imperial and S$32,600 from NTU Singapore, to be awarded to up to 5 successful NTU and Imperial collaborating teams. 

Total project budget (Imperial and NTU) requests are not expected to exceed GBP 10,000 resp. 1SGD 16,200 based on the latest prevailing SGD exchange rate (equal partitioning £5,000/ S$8,150 or in differing amounts, e.g. £3000/ SGD5,000). 

 Eligible costs

At Imperial, the fund is open to permanent members of staff only. At NTU, the fund is open to full-time faculty members. 

One proposal per principal applicant per call is permitted. 

Each application should have one principal applicant based at Imperial and one principal applicant at NTU and should contain:  

• A written case for support to address the following:  

1. Project Summary: A description of the project and collaboration proposed, a brief description of the intended use and impact of the funding. Please refer to point 1 above for guidance. 
2. Significance: Explanation of how the activities proposed will enhance education and teaching practices at both Imperial and NTU.
3. Student experience: A description of how the project will benefit student experience at both institutions, and how it will facilitate students working together across institutions.
4. Outcomes: Discuss how you will know if the collaborative project has been successful in achieving the intended outcomes.
5. Sustainability: A description of how and when the project outcomes will become embedded into standard educational practices at each institution following the initial seed funding
6. NTU-Imperial partnership: A description of how the project team will collaborate throughout the project and the benefits of involving of team members from each institution.
7. Dissemination of project:  Outline how the completed project will be disseminated within NTU and Imperial College London to communicate results, outcomes and potential for others to adopt and adapt. 

The Panel will consider the following criteria in considering applications: 

• how the activities proposed will enhance education and teaching practices at Imperial and NTU 
• clarity of project outcomes 
• how and when the project outcomes will become embedded into standard educational practices at each institution  
• innovative use of new learning formats 
• positive impact on student experience at both institutions 
• extent to which the project demonstrates a full collaboration between NTU and Imperial team members in the design and delivery  
• alignment of the budget with the fund’s guidelines regarding use of funding 
• how the project's insights and outcomes will be shared and communicated within NTU and Imperial College London  

NTU and Imperial will then jointly review applications to make a final decision on which applications will receive funding. Details of how to access funds at each institution and the reporting guidelines will be outlined in the award letter sent to successful applicants.