President’s Innovation Seed Fund An Overview
Purpose To financially support ideas that: – Generate new revenue or reduce costs – Leverage relationships and partnerships across the institution to generate new and creative opportunities for revenue generation To help faculties/departments off-set budget reductions
Common questions answered $200,000 allocated to the Innovation Fund Projects are asked to pay back seed money to Innovation Fund once financial gain is realized Successful projects to receive ongoing operating funds Bulk of financial benefit stays with faculty/dept. – Some allocation needed to pay for centralized support Simple application process Resources available to assist
Application Process: Two Stage Process Two-phase application process: – Concept Proposal – Business Plan The Innovation Fund Committee reviews the Concept Proposal and applicants whose proposals fit with the fund guidelines are invited to develop a business plan. There is support available for development of the business plan. Application forms are available through:
Application Deadlines Application deadlines for the Spring 2010 term will be announced shortly.
Approved projects: Brantford Advanced Summer Acceleration Program (Holly Cox, Manager: Recruitment Services, Laurier Brantford & Dr. Len Friesen, Associate Professor: History) – Academic program designed with needs of college transfer students and international students in mind – Addresses these students’ special timing requirements – Financially, will greatly assist Laurier in recruiting these students to Laurier Brantford Starts: Spring 2010
Approved projects: University 102 (Dr. Sybil Geldart, Assist. Dean: Program Development, Laurier Brantford) – Preparatory program for incoming undergraduate students – Focus on reading, writing, researching at the university level – Builds on existing U101 course (focuses on learning strategies) – Collaborating with Learning Services – To be delivered in Waterloo and Brantford Starts: Summer 2010
Approved projects: BOOST (Julie Pong, Academic Advisor: Faculty of Arts) – Pilot program to assist first year undergraduate students who are struggling academically – Aims to significantly improve students’ academic performance – Aims to reduces tuition revenue losses – Program to be launched in all faculties, if pilot is successful Starts: Winter 2010
Approved projects: ESL Program (David McGuire, Manager: International Student Recruitment) – Laurier to offer its own ESL program rather than sending students to other institutions – Simplifies the process of getting started at Laurier for these students – New revenues from fees charged – Strengthens Laurier’s ability to recruit international students – Pilot to occur in Brantford Starts: Fall 2010
Apply now! wlu.ca/innovationfund Steve Farlow, Chair – x2841,