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Small Development Projects Bidding Guidelines 2010

Context

The Leadership Foundation for Higher Education is a higher education sector body, established by and for the sector.  It contributes to the effectiveness of the sector by providing a dedicated service of support and advice on leadership, governance and management for the UK’s universities and colleges of higher education.  As part of that contribution we are pleased to invite proposals from member institutions for funding for the 2010 round of Small Development Projects (SDPs). We plan to fund ten projects, bringing the total number of SDPs supported since 2004 to 50.

The key principles of the Small Development Projects scheme are that it supports innovative activities that would not normally attract funding from within an institution and that there is a clear benefit to the wider higher education community to learn from the process and outcomes of the project. 

Proposals can be submitted at any time from Tuesday 5 January 2010 to Friday 5 February 2010.

Project guidance

1. SDPs will normally be funded up to £10,000 and will be deliverable within 12 months of the start date. 
2. Proposals are welcome from all staff groups. 
3. Proposals are welcome from individual HEIs and from consortia.
4. Project submissions should take account of the Leadership Foundation cross cutting themes, in particular cross-sector working and sustainability.
5. The Leadership Foundation will only support proposals which have potential for sector-wide impact/application.  To that end, we may in some cases choose to ring fence funding for projects involving particular groups or networks (eg professional associations) or target areas identified as emerging priorities (eg ‘managing in hard times’)
6. An outcome of each SDP will be to contribute to an in house seminar, a publication and/or feedback to a conference or other appropriate event. Guidance will be given by the link person at the appropriate time.  (See Dissemination below)
7. Project proposals may benefit from demonstrating a link to key development priorities from Leadership Foundation research and practice.
8. Project outcomes will normally be published on the Leadership Foundation website.

Proposals

Proposals should be presented under standard headings as indicated below, so as to allow us to make comparisons. The information you provide us with should be sufficient to enable us to make informed decisions about what is being proposed, how the work will be managed and what outcomes can be expected. 

Please keep proposals brief (approximately 1000-1500 words). Proposals should include:

1. Project title
2. Names of project leader, steering group members and the project’s administrative ‘home’ HEI
3. Aims and objectives. These must clearly be relevant to those of the Leadership Foundation
4. A description of the proposed methodology including how the project will be tested in practice
5. A description of proposed outcomes and outputs
6. A description of the intended benefits to project partners and the wider higher education community
7. Milestones (quarterly)
8. Financial breakdown
9. Plans for dissemination (which must be reflected in the financial breakdown)
10. A letter of support from an in house ‘champion’ (normally a member of the institution’s senior management team).

Selection criteria

Applications will normally be assessed by a panel comprised of members of the Leadership Foundation’s Membership Advisory Group and Leadership Foundation staff.  Other expertise will be brought in as necessary.  Applications will be assessed against the following simple criteria:

1. Does the proposal clearly conform to the ‘key principles’ as described under Context above?
2. Is the proposal within the broad theme of Leadership, Governance and Management?
3. Is there synchronicity with Leadership Foundation aims and objectives?
4. Are there sector-wide applications and/or impact?
5. Are all applicant higher education institutions Leadership Foundation members? 
6. Are all the requirements listed under Proposals (above) met?

Dissemination

The most appropriate dissemination route(s) can of course be agreed by the team but should normally include an in house seminar.  Other forms of dissemination might typically include ‘road shows’, papers/presentations at such conferences as AUA, UHR, SRHE, Staff Development, ARC etc or publication in an appropriate journal, academic or professional, web based material, video clips, etc.  Some projects may wish to arrange their own dissemination programme.  All projects will feature at some stage in a Leadership Foundation publication, normally Engage or In Practice.

Submission of proposals

Proposals can be submitted at any time from Tuesday 5 January 2010 to Friday 5 February 2010.

Proposals should be submitted electronically as plain text or in MS-Word, to Louise Taylor

To discuss proposals informally contact Professor Bob Thackwray, Director, Membership & Networks or T:  01582 467396

These bidding guidelines are available to download.

Return to the Small Development Projects page