SDP: 2012 Application Guidelines

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1 . Introduction

The Leadership Foundation for Higher Education is pleased to invite proposals from member institutions for funding for the 2012 round of Small Development Projects (SDPs).

The LF is a higher education sector body, established by and for the sector. It contributes to the effectiveness of higher education by providing a dedicated service of support and advice on leadership, governance and management..

We plan to fund ten new projects, bringing the total number of SDPs supported since 2004 to nearly 80.

For details of previous projects please use this link.

The key principles of the Small Development Project scheme are:

that projects support innovative activities that would not normally attract funding from within an institution, or that would not be viable without an element of external funding; and
that there are demonstrable outcomes that will be of benefit to the wider HE community.

Proposals can be submitted at any time up to Monday 14 November 2011.

2 . Project guidance

SDPs can be funded up to £10,000 and will be deliverable within 12 months of the start date which this year will normally be from 1st February, 2012.
Proposals are welcome from all staff groups and may address any relevant theme.
Proposals are welcome from individual member HEIs and from consortia.
The Leadership Foundation will only support proposals that include intended outcomes that have potential for sector-wide impact/application. To that end, in some cases we may choose to ring-fence funding for projects involving particular groups or networks or target areas identified as emerging higher education priorities.
A key output of each SDP will be to contribute to publications, conference workshops, papers, seminars etc, and as widely as possible across the sector (see Dissemination below). Further advice and recommendations about dissemination will emerge as the project progresses.
Project proposals may benefit from demonstrating a link to key development priorities from Leadership Foundation research and practice. Please use this link.
Project reports, outputs and outcomes will be published on the Leadership Foundation website. We would expect the project website to be updated at key points as the SDP develops.
All the successful project leaders will be invited to a symposium led by the LF towards the end of the annual project cycle, most likely in January, 2012. Please allow for travel expenses to this event from the project funds allocated.

3. Proposals

Proposals should be presented under standard headings as indicated below, so as to facilitate the SDP panels’ decision making process. The information provided should be sufficient to enable panel members 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 (maximum 1000 words). Proposals should include:

Project title.
Name(s) of the project leader(s), with contact details, steering group members and the project’s administrative ‘home’ HEI.
Aims and objectives. These must clearly be relevant to the aims and objectives of the Leadership Foundation.
A description of the proposed methodology, including how the project will be tested in practice.
A description of proposed outputs and outcomes , and how these will be of benefit to project partners and to the wider HE Community, including thoughts on potential follow-on activities.
Milestones (quarterly).
Financial breakdown.
Plans for dissemination (which should be reflected in the financial breakdown) – how will the learning be captured and shared?
A letter of support from an in-house ‘champion’ (normally a member of the lead institution’s senior management team).
All submissions must be accompanied by a 250 word summary in addition to the thousand word maximum for inclusion on the SDP pages of the Leadership Foundation website, if successful.

4 . Selection criteria

Applications will be assessed by a panel comprised of members of the Leadership Foundation’s Membership Advisory Group (MAG) and Leadership Foundation senior staff.

Completed applications will be assessed against the following simple criteria:
Does the proposal clearly conform to the ‘key principles’ as described in the bullet points of section 1 above?
Is the proposal within the broad themes of Leadership, Governance and Management?
Is there synchronicity with Leadership Foundation aims and objectives? Please use this link for further information.
What are the sector-wide applications and/or impact and is there a clear dissemination plan?
Are all applicant HE institutions Leadership Foundation members?
Are all the requirements listed under ‘Proposals’ above met?

5. Dissemination

Dissemination will normally include workshops, publications, web pages, papers and conference presentations: innovative additional suggestions are most welcome. The most appropriate dissemination route(s) can of course be agreed by the team but might typically include ‘road shows’, papers/presentations at such conferences as UPA, SRHE, Staff Development, AUA, ARC or publication in an appropriate journal, academic or professional, web based material, video clips, etc. Projects will be expected to arrange their own dissemination programme. All projects will feature at some stage in a Leadership Foundation publication, normally Engage or In Practice.

6. Submission of proposals

Proposals may be submitted up to Monday 14 November 2011, electronically, either as plain text or in MS-Word to Louise Taylor.

To discuss proposals informally call Stuart Hunt, SDP Co-ordinator, 07939 071706, 01524 388492 or email Stuart Hunt, or Professor Bob Thackwray, Director, Membership & Networks on 07734 290794, 01582 467396 or email Bob Thackwray.

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