IDEA Grants Program:
Innovation, Diversity, Equity, and Achievement
Established by the Office of the Vice President and Vice Provost for Equity and Diversity, the University of Minnesota IDEA (Innovation, Diversity, Equity, and Achievement) Grants Program seeks to infuse equity and diversity into every aspect of the University’s work and operations by funding creative yet pragmatic proposals for projects that address issues of institutional equity and diversity.
View a list of recent IDEA Grants recipients and projects.
The process of re-imagining the University’s work on equity and diversity requires a willingness to develop and implement new ways of thinking and operating. While the Office of the Vice President and Vice Provost for Equity and Diversity embraces its leadership role in guiding the advancement of equity and diversity, this work cannot be accomplished by a single office. Instead, we must move forward together across University departments, units, colleges, and campuses.
We also know that individual academic and administrative units have specific needs, concerns, strengths, and capabilities. This is particularly true while the University faces substantial financial challenges that require innovative academic, fiscal, and administrative planning strategies to advance excellence throughout the institution. And given that these strategies must embrace the University’s core values of equity and diversity if the University is to achieve excellence, repeated budget cuts challenge us all in our pursuit of an aggressive change agenda in these areas.
To address these concerns, the University IDEA Grants Program has been redesigned to provide a platform for continued cooperative efforts that will not only advance the institution’s transformation, but will also help ensure that all resources devoted to equity and diversity are leveraged to insure maximum potential impact. OED has determined that funding initiatives that are focused on a unified theme, or area of concentration, is one way to support the leveraging of resources. Therefore, the IDEA Grants Program will adopt this framework, and the focus of the funding for academic year 2009-2010 is set forth below.
While units are engaging in advancing equity and diversity in a number of important ways, OED is focusing in FY10 on collaborative efforts to create safe and welcoming spaces in the University where everyone can thrive and do their best work. The goal of this system-wide transformational work is to create intellectually and culturally vibrant places of learning and leadership where all individuals are valued, respected, and unobstructed in their pursuit of excellence in their work and scholarship. Therefore, successful IDEA Grant proposals will be designed to support a strategic goal of enhancing safe and welcoming spaces for underrepresented and marginalized members of the University community.
IDEA Grant Eligibility, Funding, and Reporting All academic and administrative units across the University’s campuses are eligible to apply for IDEA Grants. Offices, units and programs within the Office of the Vice President and Vice Provost for Equity and Diversity are not eligible to apply for grants, though these units may be consulted for guidance and support in the development of proposals and may serve as partners in the work proposed by applicants. Grant awards will depend upon the scope and breadth of the project, but will typically range from $1,000–$5,000. Funded projects must begin within 90 days of award notification. Upon project completion, awardees must submit a summary report evaluating the project’s outcomes, including project benefits and recommended improvements. This report is to be submitted to the Office of the Vice President and Vice Provost for Equity and Diversity within 60 days of the project’s conclusion. The disbursement of funds will occur in phases, depending on the nature of the proposal. However, in all cases, $500 will be withheld until the submission of the evaluation report.
IDEA Grants proposals, which will be reviewed for funding in two cycles in FY10, on January 22, 2010 and April 30, 2010 should include:
A description of the project/program/initiative that includes the following information:
a. The strategic equity and diversity goal that has been identified as the focus of the proposal
b. The tactics that will be employed to meet the strategic goal, and the specific outcome(s) that are being sought
c. The members of the University and external communities who are intended to benefit from the work
d. How progress to the strategic goal will be measured, identifying specific benchmarks and/or metrics and the timetable for achieving these benchmarks
e. Who, specifically, will be carrying out the tactics and measuring progress to goals
f. How the work will be done collaboratively and in a way that links to other equity and diversity work being done at the University, including to work being done in OED units g. What matching funds and/or in-kind contributions have been secured or are being sought?