Hewlett Fund for Curricular Innovation - Language Instruction
Hewlett Grant Proposal Guidelines for Language Instruction Based Projects
The Hewlett Fund for Curricular Innovation provides grants or matching funds to one or more continuing faculty members or departments for projects that enhance undergraduate curricular innovation and development.
How can a faculty member apply?
Please fill out the form below to submit the application.
Hewlett fund for curricular innovation Application form
Who can apply?
- Weinberg continuing faculty members (individually or collaboratively)
- Weinberg Departments and/or Programs
Is program/department endorsement needed?
Applicants may wish to consult with their individual programs and/or departments (program director and department chair when both are present, or one of them when only one is present) before submitting a funds request.
The program director and department chair should review the project proposal and advise the faculty member if modifications or adjustments to the proposal should be implemented. A brief paragraph stating the program/department support for the proposal should also be included as part of the request.
What is the grant range?
- For individual projects: $500 - $5,000
- For departments/programs: it may vary depending on the proposal.
Grants will be assessed based on scope (workload and timeline of completion, development of new/original materials, etc.) and on programmatic impact (i.e., single-section vs multi-section courses; individual instructor vs multiple instructors; follow-up work based on existing content vs original content; high priority vs low priority; etc.).
What can the grant cover?
- Expenses from the purchase of materials required for the pedagogical project
- Stipend/compensation for undergraduate student employee when needed for the pedagogical project
- Stipend/compensation for faculty when the project is outside the scope of the expected responsibilities of the position
- Stipend/compensation for faculty research as it relates to undergraduate teaching responsibilities
How can technical support be secured, if needed, before submission?
Applicants should seek and secure technical support (if/when needed) for their project before submitting the application. This consultation will help identify whether the proposed project may (not) be feasible with the current technical resources available. In other instances when more than one technical unit may need to be involved in the proposed project, the LRC can help connect said units to assess the proposal.
Technical support can be requested through different units in Weinberg and the University depending on the type and the scope of the project; for instance:
- Media And Design Studio
Contact: Matt Taylor | mtaylor@northwestern.edu - OERs and open pedagogy-related projects
Contact: Lauren McKeen | lauren.mckeen@northwestern.edu - Digital Learning
Contact: digitallearning@northwestern.edu
Confirmation of technical support from any of these units will be required before submission in the request and approval from the unit is needed as part of the application.
Can I use this grant to cover the wages of an undergraduate student worker?
Hewlett funds can be used to cover the wages of an undergraduate student worker. It is the applicant's responsibility to handle the hiring process in its entirety.
If an undergraduate student worker is involved in technical tasks, the student should be either directly selected by the technical unit(s) or interviewed by the technical unit(s) if proposed by the applicant.
If interested in hiring work-studies, applicants should first contact the Federal Work-Study Office to familiarize themselves with the hiring conditions of these students, and should get in touch with their individual department chair and business administrator to ensure that they would be able to adequately manage the supervision and compensation of the student(s)’ employment under this program for the duration of the project.
Confirmation of departmental support for hiring undergraduate student workers will be required before the application submission in the form of a brief statement from said unit. This statement should be uploaded as an attached document to the application form.
What is the timeframe for application submissions?
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. While there is no deadline, it is advised to submit applications at least one quarter before the estimated starting date of the project.
How do I determine the budget for an application?
Hewlett grants are available for projects focused on curricular development that would enrich an individual course, course sequence and/or an entire language program curriculum, and that would require extraordinary efforts and/or resources 1 .
Based on the nature and the scope of the project, a detailed budget breakdown of the following items should be included in the proposal:
- An itemized list of resources needed to implement the project (i.e., cost of specific materials/devices that need to be purchased, honorarium for collaborators or wages for undergraduate student workers involved in the project, fees to access online tools or apps, etc.)
- If a stipend is requested , hours that the project will require and the calculation of said stipend based on those hours
What can't the grant cover or provide?
- Regular instructional or administrative salaries
- Research time
- Continuing or recurring projects or activities for a given course
- Stipends during faculty leaves
- Faculty research-related expenses except as they relate to undergraduate teaching responsibilities.
- Professional association membership or convention fees
- Professional development travel funds or reimbursements for travel-related expenses. In this case, please request funds through Weinberg Teaching-Track Faculty Professional Development Funds
- Cost of meals for faculty or student events
- Stipends/salary for Northwestern staff whose primary responsibilities include technical support (Please see section on “How can technical support be secured, if needed?”)
Projects that have been developed thanks to Hewlett grant funding include (but are not limited to): development of digital instructional materials (for OERs, please consult University Library resources), program-level proficiency studies , development of innovative pedagogical tools to reinforce grammar, etc. Other types of projects that could be developed with a Hewlett grant may be a pronunciation improvement project, development of special and/or innovative assessment tools with a subsequent research study, development of a listening/reading comprehension archive, creation of an online grammar review tool, etc.
In rare circumstances, full development of new courses can also be considered for a Hewlett grant, as an exception. In these cases, a detailed plan outlining the differences between the current course curriculum and the new course curriculum to be developed should be included in the application.
Where can I find other funding sources at Northwestern?
In addition to the Council on Language Instruction Curricular Enhancement Grants (Matching Funds and Special Curricular Projects Funds), and the Weinberg discretionary funds provided by individual departments, you may find more information for other funding sources i n the LRC webpage “ Grants and Funding for Faculty ”.
Other important considerations
Before submission, applicants should include in the proposal what the current need for this kind of project is in their program and how this special project will enhance it. The proposal should also clearly outline the structure of the project (i.e., how many tasks/ activities/ parts/ modules, etc. will be developed; its specific themes and/or content, and how they will be incorporated in the course curriculum).
Applicants should also review the workload required to complete the project and the project timeline to ensure that the project will not interfere with their regular professional duties in their program/department and in the College, if applicable.
Upon completion of the project , applicants are expected to submit a brief (one-page) report to the Language Resource Center. The report will be shared with the Dean’s Office. Applicants should also inform their academic unit and share e the result with the corresponding program director and/or chair, via an informal presentation for all faculty, a meeting with main stakeholders, memo to the department, etc. This step will also help enhance the applicant's professional profile within and outside the university through the dissemination of their contributions to their field.