QEP Innovative Teaching Grants

The current proposal cycle deadline is January 9, 2026.

Apply for funding for Spring 2026 through InfoReady here.

The Pathways to Resilience QEP invites faculty to apply for funding to implement innovative teaching approaches in new or existing courses to advance students’ climate literacy and response-ability, which we’re defining as the capacity to participate in positive climate actions in our professions and communities. Pproposed innovations may include, but are not limited to:

supporting faculty ‘clusters’ or ‘hives’ to create one or more collaborative courses that leverage climate-related knowledge/expertise of faculty across departments and colleges
integrating community-engaged learning
integrating hands-on experiential learning
supporting climate-focused guest speakers
developing art projects, exhibits, or performances

Applicants may request up to $5,000; we anticipate the average award will be around $2,500.

QEP Innovative Teaching Funds support student learning through climate-focused activities associated with courses by covering costs such as:

Course buyout or overload payments for collaborating faculty
Costs of implementing service-learning, community-based research, or other community-engaged learning approaches (e.g., compensating a community partner organization for their time to work with your class)
Costs of implementing CURE’s (course-based undergraduate research experiences) or RAMP’s (research to action multidisciplinary projects), or other research focused learning (e.g., purchasing research supplies)
Equipment/supplies to be used by students for a climate-focused class project
Registration fees and travel costs for taking a class on a climate-focused field trip or to a climate-focused competition or program

Grant may cover these costs for the faculty member(s) and students.
Note: You must follow university procedures for student travel, including submitting a Student Travel Form to Student Affairs, submitting the Student Payments for Cost of Attendance Reporting Form to the Tax Compliance Office, and completing Chrome River travel authorization(s) and expense report(s).

Limitations–QEP Innovative Teaching Funds cannot be used for:

Food, beverages, or other expenses that are not allowable uses of state funds
Faculty travel for conferences (Exception: You can be considered for QEP Innovative Teaching Funds if you are taking students with you and the primary purpose of the travel is student learning rather than supporting your scholarship.)

Process and timing:

The call for proposals opens Tuesday, December 9, 2025.
The proposal deadline is Friday, Jan 9, 2026.
The Review Committee will review proposals Jan 10-16, 2026.
The QEP team will communicate funding decisions by Monday, Jan 19, 2026.
Grant awardees may begin spending budgets no earlier than Jan 19, 2026 and must spend down their funding by May 15, 2026. (Note: State funds that aren’t spent by fiscal year end will not roll to the next fiscal year. Spending your grant funds by mid-May 2026 allows for processing time before the fiscal year ends.)

Proposal Requirements

Lead applicant must be a faculty member (staff may participate as co-applicants). Grant applicants must provide the following in order to have a complete proposal:

I. ABSTRACT: An abstract that briefly (max. 200 words) describes the innovative teaching, engagement, or research project and how it will advance students’ climate literacy and/or climate response-ability (defined above)

II. PROJECT DESCRIPTION: A more detailed project description (max. 1000 words) explaining the project purpose (why), faculty, student, and/or class participants (who), process (how), and timeline (when). In addition, please elaborate on:

A. How your teaching innovations/engagement/research efforts will advance students’ climate literacy and/or climate response-ability (defined above), and estimate how many will be impacted

B. Provide the names and affiliations of all collaborators on the proposed project

C. Indicate how your proposed project connects to one or more of the QEP’s four Student Learning Outcomes, which come from App State’s General Education program:

Systemic Drivers of Global Change: Students will evaluate systemic factors that produce local to global inequalities and environmental problems in order to advocate for appropriate responses.
Global Self Awareness: Students will evaluate the effect of human agency on social, cultural, and natural environments.
Consequences of Global Change: Students will evaluate the effects of global change on local environments.
Response-Ability: Students will evaluate the effects of social, economic, and environmental problems on communities and cultivate a capacity to actively respond to these challenges.

III. PROJECT BUDGET:

A. What is your total project budget, how much funding are you requesting from QEP, and what do you want to use it for? Please break your request into easy to follow budget categories; see above ”Limitations” information on what cannot be funded as well as notes below on salary line item specific requirements.

B. What additional source(s) and amounts of funding (including ‘in kind’) in support of the proposed innovative teaching project, if any, have you secured and/or intend to seek?

C. Project fund/account(s) & support staff: What is the fund # (must be a state fund) and account(s) # into which you’re hoping to accept these grant funds? Please provide the name and contact info for your department support staff member.

Please note the following requirements:

Grant recipients shall work with their departmental admin and shall not begin spending until their departmental admin has received the funds and approved of purchases.
You must request 7.65% FICA and 29.67% Retirement in addition to any line item for a salary account. (For example, if requesting a $1,000 one-time pay, you must request $1,373.20 total for this OTP.) Your proposal may not exceed $5,000 including FICA and Retirement costs.
Different departments have access to different funds with different fund purposes, and it is not practical for the QEP to take responsibility for understanding other area’s fund purposes and spending guidelines.
If QEP funds are not spent appropriately, that is a departmental problem to solve.

Please contact Shea Tuberty (tubertysr@appstate.edu) with questions.