The Dean’s Innovation Fund (DIF) for Student Experience and Operational Excellence is a discretionary fund that catalyzes and encourages experimentation and innovations to enhance the Faculty of Engineering’s student experience and operational excellence.
Each year, DIF will invest in employee-generated, creative solutions that directly impact the Faculty of Engineering community and align with the Faculty’s goals toward lasting operational excellence and an outstanding student experience.
Ideas should identify a critical challenge around the Faculty’s operations or student experience. This is a chance for faculty and staff to use their institutional knowledge and expertise to experiment, try some new ideas and see what works!
Eligibility
Proposals can be led by any regular employee (faculty or staff) either individually or as part of a team. Each proposal must have a team lead who is responsible for reporting to the Dean’s office on the proposal’s progress.
Prize amount
The Dean’s Office will allocate $50,000 to DIF annually. Successful individuals and teams can receive up to $10,000.
Criteria
Proposals will be judged according to the following criteria:
- Represents an innovative approach to an operational challenge
- Expected to have a measurable impact once implemented
- Highlights a persistent operational problem worth solving
- Outlines action the team can execute within a year
- Proposed budget is informed, practical, and reasonable in alignment with the scope of work and the goals of the project
Proposals that incorporate cross-departmental/school and cross-functional collaboration and ideas that enable us to realize the Faculty’s full potential as a diverse and inclusive workplace are especially valued.
Proposal development
Proposals should include the following elements:
- Name of innovation or project
- Describe innovation or project in 2 to 3 sentences
- Ensure your description answers the question “what are you trying to accomplish?”
- Define the problem your proposal is attempting to solve
- Outline of budget requirements and their justification (i.e., cost of hiring co-op students, TA’s and/or project materials)
- Outline your plan to develop the solution
- Ensure your outline answers the questions:
- “Why and for whom this is important? Who will benefit?”
- “How is this advancing operational excellence or student experience in the Faculty of Engineering?”
- “How is this idea innovative?”
- Describe how impact and success will be measured (i.e., timeframe, metrics you will use to measure success, key milestones, project sustainability)
Proposal evaluation and selection
The adjudication committee will include the following members from the Faculty of Engineering:
- Dean
- Associate Dean, Resources and Planning
- Associate Dean, Teaching and Student Experience
- Executive Officer
- Faculty Administrative Officer
The adjudication committee will review each application and provide a rating score based on the evaluation scheme. An adjudication committee meeting will ultimately decide which proposals to fund.
If a proposal is not selected, feedback will be provided to the proposal lead to consider for the following application cycle.
Reporting structure
Proposal leads must submit a progress report on their proposal status at the six-month mark and deliver a final report after one year. The adjudication committee will review these reports.
The dean’s office understands that project failure can happen. Failure is the foundation of innovation.
If you find that your project has not met its original objectives at the one-year mark, we encourage you to be open about your process and what you would consider doing differently in the future. Then, perhaps your learnings can be applied to your next proposal to DIF!
Deadline
The Dean's Fund is not currently accepting proposals. Please contact jweatherston@uwaterloo.ca if you have any questions.