'Free space' 2023 - Call for proposals of the foundation Innovation in University Teaching

As in the previous year, the Foundation is promoting the freedom of teaching with this call for proposals and enabling university teachers to develop and test creative or experimental ideas in their teaching. There are no thematic or subject-specific focal points. The call for proposals is geared towards projects that are convincing in terms of their innovative potential with regard to academic teaching and to focus on the students' learning process.

Funding data:

Duration of funding, funding period and amount of funding per project
The project funding begins on 01.04.2024. The maximum funding period is 24 months; the latest project end date is 31.03.2026. The maximum funding amount is 400,000 euros per project. The type of funding is open; applications can be made for personnel funds, materials and funds for project-related investments, for example.

Who is eligible for funding?
The call for proposals is aimed at university employees who are involved in teaching development: Teachers, students, university didacticians or managers. All persons employed full-time at a German university who are involved in teaching are eligible to apply. Student projects related to teaching as well as projects by teaching assistants are explicitly welcome, although here, too, the application must be submitted by a person entitled to submit an application.

Application procedure
The substantive selection process is preceded by a procedure for expressions of interest. From February 1 to 15, 2023, expressions of interest (only one per person and per project idea) can be submitted via the Foundation's website. From the submitted expressions of interest, a lottery will be drawn to determine who is eligible to submit an application. Then the applications can be submitted from March 1 to April 30, 2023, which are formulated and based on the project idea in the expression of interest.

Important information about the internal university procedure:
A confirmation of administrative support from the university management is necessary for the application. In order to receive this, please send your complete application documents (incl. financing plan) to the Academy for Teaching Development until April 2, 2023 (by mail only: ale@uni-jena.de).
This email must confirm that
(1) no other funding is available for the requested project and that
(2) no significant changes will be made to the application or funding plan prior to submission to the Foundation Portal.
Confirmation from university management will then be obtained as soon as possible by the ALe office and sent to applicants for independent submission of the application until April 25, 2023.

Further information on the call for proposals
Detailed information on the call for proposals can be found on the following website of the Foundation for Innovation in University Teaching: https://stiftung-hochschullehre.de/foerderung/freiraum2023/External link