LITE Grant, Office of the AVP-A

Support Your Research in Teaching and Learning with a LITE Seed Grant

I have been so grateful for the LITE grants over the years, as they have pushed my pedagogy forward and given me exciting things to think about and work on in the classroom.

Dr. Greta Kroeker, Associate Professor in the Department of History

Two-Time LITE Grant Recipient and 2015 Distinguished Teacher Award Recipient

The University of Waterloo’s Learning Innovation and Teaching Enhancement (LITE) Seed Grants fund projects investigating innovative approaches to enhancing teaching and fostering deep student learning at Waterloo. Since 2012, recipients across campus have used LITE-Grant funding to explore topics ranging from transcultural learning to ePortfolios, Communities of Practice to undergraduate teamwork development workshops, peer review of teaching to information literacy, and more.

Funded by the Office of the Associate Vice President, Academic, and administered by CTE, there are two deadlines per year for LITE Seed Grant applications. 

Seed Grants

Seed Grants support small-scale teaching and learning investigations or activities to develop your instructional skills with funding of up to $7,500. 

Applications are due June 1st and October 1st of each year.

Recent Changes to the LITE Grant Process

Grant Frequency

We no longer accept applications in February. As a result, we now award up to nine $7,500 grants in June and October (for a total of up to $67,500), as opposed to six grants in each of the three rounds. 

Updated Proposal Review Criteria: Impact and Transferability

Reviewers will now be evaluating grant proposals with additional criteria surrounding the impact and transferability of your project. Specifically, there are changes to section G in the LITE Grant Application Template, and reviewers will ask themselves, “Do the project results have potential to enhance and impact teaching and learning at the University of Waterloo within or across faculties/units?”  

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) Related Projects

Starting in the October 2024 round, proposals leveraging Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) will be evaluated by a campus partner with expertise in this area, such as members of the UW Standing Committee on New Technologies, Pedagogies, and Academic Integrity. They will evaluate sections B, C, D, and E. They will not adjudicate the grant; their role is to identify any issues related to GenAI use and assist the adjudicators in making an informed decision. 

Completion Time

Starting in the October 2024 round, projects will run for up to 18 months, instead of the previous 12-month timeline.  

Request for a No-Cost Extension

Extensions are not granted automatically. Requests for a no-cost extension must be submitted before the end of your project, and approved by the Office of the Associate Vice-President, Academic.  

Requests will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, following a two-step process. 

  1. Internal evaluation of your request form by CTE’s Research Team. We might request that you provide extra information. 

  1. CTE’s Research Team will liaise with the Office of the Associate Vice-President, Academic, on the grant holder’s behalf.  

The evaluation and approval process usually requires 10 to 15 business days.  

Fill out this form and email the Research Team (lite-grants@uwaterloo.ca) as soon as the need for an extension emerges. 

Get Help with LITE Grants

CTE staff are available to help you throughout the LITE Grant process, from discussing preliminary research ideas to disseminating your results.