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

Beginning with the June 2026 round, all applicants will need to obtain endorsements and feedback from senior leadership on their project before submitting their proposal. Faculty member applicants will need to obtain it from their Associate Dean, Undergraduate Studies and Departmental Chair; staff member applicants will need to obtain the feedback of the Associate Vice-President, Academic, and their ASU Director.

The letter of intent (LOI) must be submitted to the respective senior leadership using the Letter of Intent template. Please note that a full proposal does not need to be attached to the LOI. 

The signed LOI must be sent to the EDRC, who will attach it to the final version of your proposal. You must receive the written approval of your Chair and ADU, or of your Director and the AVP-A before you submit the final version of your proposal.

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. 

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?”  

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. 

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

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. 

2. 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. 

LITE Protocols Regarding the Use of Generative AI in Proposal Writing and Peer Review

The Learning Innovation and Teaching Enhancement (LITE) Seed Grants program is committed to ensuring that Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), when used, is used ethically and with integrity.

We are aligned with the Tri-Council’s position, which stipulates that “privacy, confidentiality, data security and the protection of intellectual property must be considered and prioritized in the development and review” of scholarly work (Government of Canada, 2026, January).

Purpose

The following protocols outline the principles and guidelines for the ethical use of GenAI for LITE Seed Grant applicants, reviewers, and CTE’s Research Team. They aim to ensure that when AI technologies are used, they are implemented in a responsible, transparent, accountable, and fair manner. GenAI was used to draft and review these protocols (see “Artificial Intelligence Disclosure Statement” below).  

These protocols are based on the Tri-Council’s “Guidance on the use of generative AI in the preparation of grant applications”:

"The agencies recognize that generative AI may be a valuable tool to applicants in the preparation of grant applications, including the potential to improve efficiency, assist non-native English and French speakers, and streamline the proposal writing process. In accordance with existing agency policies, applicants are responsible for ensuring that information included in their grant applications is true, accurate and complete and that all sources are appropriately acknowledged and referenced. Applicants should be aware that using generative AI may lead to the presentation of information without proper recognition of authorship or acknowledgement."

LITE Seed Grant – Authorship and Attribution

Before starting to work on a proposal, we recommend that applicants verify the GenAI policy of journals where they would usually publish the results of their investigation, to ensure they abide by their specific requirements for each step of the research process. Some journals entirely prohibit the use of GenAI, while others restrict certain applications.

For LITE Seed Grants, applicants must always disclose the use of GenAI (akin to the use of other research tools like NVivo, SPSS, and R), detailing the: 1) use; 2) prompt; and 3) nature of the content it generated.

To do so, use the Artificial Intelligence Disclosure (AID) framework. If no GenAI tools were used, use the following statement: “No GenAI tools were used in the preparation of this proposal.” Any statement regarding AI usage should be placed at the beginning of the proposal. 

Writing and authorship: GenAI tools cannot be listed as an author of a proposal (Committee on Publication Ethics) and cannot write a proposal. Applicants “are fully responsible for the content of their manuscript, even those parts produced by an AI tool, and are thus liable for any breach of publication ethics” (Committee on Publication Ethics).

Data analysis: GenAI must not be used to conduct data analysis. As most LITE grant projects examine human subjects, applicants must adhere to principles of data privacy and confidentiality as detailed in the TCPS2 guidelines. 

The majority of GenAI systems cannot be used for data analysis, as information may be collected, stored, and used to train future models, potentially breaking confidentiality and privacy guidelines.. There are exceptions (e.g. NVivo) that incorporate GenAI but are locked down, making them permissible for data analysis.

If you have an AI agent that you believe adheres to these GenAI protocols, seek confirmation from the Research Team (lite@uwaterloo.ca).

Bibliography: While GenAI tools can be used to identify relevant sources, they are also prone to hallucinations, and can produce lists of sources that look credible but do not exist. Proposals containing non-existent sources will be rejected.

Allowed uses: GenAI tools can be used to:

• generate ideas or identify a gap in literature
• build a corpus of secondary sources in combination with research databases
• proofread your work
• assist you with the budget
• create a timeline for your project.  

Please review the following resources to familiarize yourself with University protocols regarding the use of GenAI:

• Responsible Use of AI Tools with University Data 
• Copyright concerns with generative artificial intelligence 
• AI tools 
  • Note that Microsoft CoPilot (used with your UWaterloo account) is the recommended GenAI platform at the University of Waterloo

Any breach of the Tri-Agency Framework: Responsible Conduct of Research (2021) will be reported to the Associate Vice-President, Research Oversight and Analysis, and the proposal will be rejected before it is transferred to the adjudicators. A documented breach of research ethics can lead to a loss of current and/or future funding. For more information on these processes, review research integrity from the Office of Research. 

LITE Seed Grant – Adjudication

The use of GenAI tools for evaluating grant proposals is strictly prohibited.

From the Tri-Council’s “Guidance on the use of generative AI in the preparation of grant applications”:

"In the evaluation of grant applications, reviewers should be aware that inputting application information into generative AI tools could result in breaches of privacy and in the loss of custody of intellectual property. Examples include transmission of application text to online tools such as ChatGPT and DeepL, which may store and reuse the data for future enhancement of the tool. This would place a reviewer in breach of the Conflict of Interest and Confidentiality Agreement for Review Committee Members, External Reviewers and Observers. Therefore, use of publicly available generative AI tools for evaluating grant proposals is strictly prohibited."

Reviewers cannot use GenAI to assess grant proposals. Reviewers must read proposals fully and write the content and argument of their reviews by themselves. Like applicants, reviewers must adhere to principles of data privacy and confidentiality as detailed in the TCPS2 guidelines.  

When in doubt, email us!  

References 

Government of Canada. (2026, January 6). Guidance on the use of Artificial Intelligence in the development and review of research grant proposals. Canada.ca.

Artificial Intelligence Disclosure Statement

• Artificial Intelligence Tool: ChatGPT v.4o and Microsoft Copilot (University of Waterloo institutional instance);
• Conceptualization: ChatGPT was used to research “Common Elements of GenAI Use Policies for Scholarly Publications and Conferences”;
• Information collection: ChatGPT was used to find relevant journal articles and other sources;
• Writing – Review & Editing: Grammarly and ProWriting Aid were used to provide sentence level revisions. 

The authorship section has been adapted from the submission guidelines of The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and the proposal review section from the Association for Computational Linguistics’s Policy on Publication Ethics

A new collective agreement between the University of Waterloo and CUPE Local 5524.01, a union representing Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) and Graduate Research Assistant (GRA) employees, was ratified on February 26, 2026. 

The implementation of the new collective agreement for unionized GTA and GRA is changing how graduate student employment is organized at Waterloo. Because many LITE-funded projects rely on graduate student contributions, these changes may affect project timelines, hiring processes, and budget planning. In particular, graduate students must now be hired through formalized processes governed by the collective agreement rather than through some of the more flexible arrangements used previously. The LITE team is working with University partners to understand the implications for grant-funded projects and will communicate updated guidance as procedures continue to evolve. 

Undergraduate students are not covered by the collective agreement. 

Please note that the information on this page is provided for guidance purposes only. In the event of any inconsistency or discrepancy, the terms of the collective agreement take precedence. 

As you plan your LITE project, please be aware of the following considerations: 

1. Researchers cannot hire GRAs outside of the new process.  

• LITE grant recipients who want to hire a graduate student must work with their department’s employment supervisor, the individual who holds formal managerial authority over the employment relationship. The role of employment supervisor is distinct from the role of the academic supervisor (i.e., the individual overseeing the student’s academic or research work) and the role of functional supervisor (i.e.., the individual providing day-to-day direction and support for assigned tasks). 
• If you have any questions about this process, reach out to your department’s administrative officer or to your program’s Graduate Student Coordinator.  

2. Advertising timelines for positions: Application deadlines are August 1 (Fall term), December 1 (Winter term), and April 1 (Spring term), but for research assistant positions, compressed hiring timelines are permitted:  

• 15.02(b) “Where an appointment becomes available after the application deadline noted in 15.02(a) [August 1 (Fall term), December 1 (Winter term) and April 1 (Spring term)], graduate students within the relevant hiring unit will be sufficiently notified of the position and the timelines to apply.” 

• See HR’s Job description template to draft the job description, and read the Job Description Guidelines before you begin the writing process. 

3. Hiring priority

4. Offers of appointment must be provided no later than 10 calendar day prior to the start of the appointment. 

• 15.03 (i) Offers of appointment shall be provided to the employee no later than ten (10) calendar days prior to the start date of the Appointment and shall be accepted or declined within five (5) calendar days of the date of the offer. Failure to accept an offer of appointment by the above deadline will constitute declining the position for that term. 

5. It is best practice to have funding in place before you are hiring.  

• Depending on your project timeline, you may need to hire a graduate research assistant to support project activities before work with human participants begins.  

• If your project requires ethics clearance, LITE grant funds will not be released until ethics approval is obtained or an early release form is approved by the Office of Research.  

• If funding is needed before ethics clearance can be sought, you may request an early release through the Office of Research. This can allow you to post a position and begin GRA recruitment activities. Please contact Victoria Lynn Tough for more information. 

The following information is taken from the page Graduate student unionization: Understanding the basics. 

Hiring priority for GTA/GRA appointments: 

1. Graduate students with a specified guaranteed appointment 

• Full-time graduate students in their department/school/faculty who already have a guaranteed appointment for that exact term or year get first priority.  

2. Graduate students with an unspecified guaranteed appointment  

• Full-time students in the department/school/faculty who have a guaranteed appointment within their program time limit, even if the exact date/time and role was not identified ahead of time.  

3. Graduate students who require employment income to meet their funding commitment 

• Full-time graduate students who are enrolled in the specific faculty, department or school offering the appointment, and an appointment is required to meet their annual or total Employment Income commitment.    

4. Graduate students in the department/school offering the appointment 

• Full-time and part-time students from the department/school offering the position, but who do not fall into the categories above.   

5. Other graduate students 

• If positions remain available, graduate students outside the department/school/faculty may also apply. 

Offers of employment 

Graduate students offered employment as a GTA and/or GRA will receive a formal appointment letter outlining the key terms and conditions of employment, including:  

• Total hours of work (GTA appointments must outline whether it is a full or fractional appointment)  

• Length of the appointment  

• Vacation entitlement  

• Benefit entitlement (where applicable)  

• Union dues deductions  

• Notice that the employee is represented by CUPE 5524.01   

Appointment letters are generated through Workday when appointments are assigned. In most cases, students can expect to receive their appointment letter at least ten calendar days before the appointment start date and will have five calendar days to accept the offer.  

In addition, GTA and GRA employees will receive a completed Assignment of Duties form, normally within five days of the start of their appointment. The form will outline assigned duties and the corresponding time allocations for those duties.  

Training requirements 

Graduate student employees may be required to complete mandatory training as part of their GTA or GRA appointment. Based on Human Resources mandatory training and the Safety Office’s training matrix,  all employees are required to complete, at a minimum, the following training:   

• Employee Safety Orientation (SO1001) [60 minutes]  

• WHMIS 2015 [60 minutes]  

• Workplace Violence & Harassment Awareness (SO1081) [60 minutes]  

• Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) training [70 minutes]  

• Cyber Awareness Essentials [30 minutes]  

• Cyber Awareness for Knowledge Workers [20 minutes]   

The total time required to complete all six courses is five hours.  

Students who have previously completed one or more of these courses may not be required to complete them again. Training requirements are assessed individually, and the specific training required for each graduate student employee will be identified in their Assignment of Duties form.  

* This section is adapted from a memo circulated to Arts Faculty and Staff on June 29, 2026.