Advancing Education at MSU

Mini-Grant Award

Excellence in teaching and learning, enhanced by a deep commitment to our own brand of personal service, is the heart and soul of MSU.

Previous and Current Mini-Grant Award List 

The Goal

The goal of the Advancing Education at MSU program is to promote ongoing improvement of academic quality by supporting and rewarding innovation that results in new relationships, research, and learning experiences. The mini-grant is a mechanism to provide support to MSU employees who would like to experiment with creating instructional resources or training materials, implementing instructional strategies, equipment, collaboration, and so on. Please see below for specifics.

The Theme

For the first time in the history of the mini grant, we have three themes, Generative Artificial Intelligence in Higher Ed, Accessibility, and Workforce programs, and we ask that applicants focus their projects on that theme. It is not a requirement, but applications consistent with the theme will generally be considered a higher priority. We have intentionally kept the topic broad to encompass all faculty and staff potential projects.

Funding Details

• Pool of $6,500 total pool of funds provided by the Center of Teaching and Learning
• Constraints:
• $1000 max per person for stipends to pay for applicant time invested.
  
  
• Stipends cannot be paid until completion of work is demonstrated. Upon satisfactory completion of two Project Updates the full stipend will be paid with the expectation that presentations will be made in the following fall.
  
  
• $1,500 max per person per project for equipment, resources and other expenses. People may apply in groups for projects that require more than $1,000.
• All faculty and staff are invited to apply!

Examples of the types of projects we will fund (you are not limited to these ideas):

1. Student salaries for short term or intermittent projects that need a workforce.
   
   
2. Develop or participate in online training sessions for faculty, staff, or students.
   
   
3. Create resources and training materials to improve academic quality
   
   
4. Develop or participate in webinars
   
   
5. Expenses for shadowing and/or collaborating with individuals at other institutions
   
   
6. Implementation of new technologies in online and on-campus classes
   
   
7. Software purchases (must be approved by CIO)
   
   
8. Further instructors’ skills in pedagogy at the university level

We will not fund conferences or travel.

Important Dates

Application Process

1. Complete the Mini-Grant Application and submit it by Tuesday, September 15, 2026.  Applications submitted by this date are given priority consideration. Late applications are accepted provided funding is still available.
   
   
2. The Mini-Grant Committee will review applications together and choose awardees. Committee members may request clarification and/or specific changes to the proposal.
   
   
3. Applicants will be notified of award status by Thursday, October 15, 2026, at the latest; earlier if possible.
   
   
4. Project Update forms will be sent with award notices. First Project Update due by Monday, February 15, 2027.
   
   
5. Drafts of project posters are due Friday, April 9, 2027. These plans will be reviewed by available members of the committee.
   
   
6. Poster session will take place on Tuesday, May 11, 2027. Time TBD.

Project Update

A brief Project Update Form will be sent to you along with the Award Notice. Reviews of the update will be conducted by Center for Teaching and Learning in consultation with the other mini-grant committee members as needed.

Project Poster Session

Mini-grant recipients are required to present project outcomes during an end-of-year poster session. Poster sessions are a common dissemination practice across the North Dakota University System (NDUS) and are used to share research, teaching innovation, and applied projects. This format supports clear communication, informal discussion, and cross-disciplinary learning while making project outcomes visible to the campus community.

Submit application in Blackboard

To get to the course in Blackboard, go to Organizations, then find the course entitled Apply for the Mini-Grant. If you cannot locate the course, notify Chris Gonnella at Christine.Gonnella@mayvillestate.edu.