All eligible higher education institutions have now nominated institutional leads for the Strategic Alignment of Teaching and Learning Enhancement Funding in Higher Education 2019. The fund, with a total value of €5.57m, represents a significant commitment to the enhancement of teaching and learning in Irish higher education. The investment is designed to enable the development of a strong foundation for future enhancement of teaching and learning within institutions in line with local priorities.
Institutional leads will act as the key point of contact within each institution for this funding call. When each institution decides the number and type of proposals they would like to submit, in line with the funding allocation for the institution detailed in the funding call, it is the institutional lead who will then make the submission on behalf of the institution. The full list of institutional leads has now been published on the FAQ section of the funding call on the National Forum website here. All institutional leads have been sent the access information for the submission form for their institution.
This fund was announced by the Higher Education Authority, in partnership with the National Forum, in June 2019. It aligns strategically the teaching and learning enhancement funding that has been allocated by the National Forum since 2014 and the additional funding of €5m for teaching and learning capacity building announced in budget 2019. It also complements and supports previous investments made in this area under the Higher Education Innovation and Transformation Fund 2018.
The call for funding can be accessed here. The National Forum has also set up an open facility here to enable discipline groups/initiative teams or individuals to share their ideas for potential submissions to the call. The deadline for institutional submissions is 8 October 2019 and it is anticipated that teaching and learning initiatives will commence in November 2019.