Global Futures Fund

Final proposals will be adjudicated by the Steering Committee based on the following criteria:

1. Impact on one or more Global Futures as per Waterloo at 100 and the articulation of the five Global Futures: Societal, Health, Sustainable, Technological, and Economic. Initiatives proposed or submitted for support for existing or expanded activity should address how one or more Futures are being advanced and how impact will be demonstrated and measured.
2. Leverage existing and emerging strengths. Proposals should describe how UWaterloo’s academic, research, and founding differentiator strengths are being leveraged.
3. Activities across disciplines and units. As per Waterloo at 100 and the Provost’s Advisory Committee on Building a Resilient University of Waterloo, proposals should describe existing or planned efforts to work effectively and efficiently across faculties and/or academic units to create interdisciplinary initiatives in education and/or research/scholarship. These should highlight where and how initiatives are a result of collaborations across academic and academic support units (ASUs) at UWaterloo. Specific references to the PAC recommendations are suggested, where applicable.
4. Engagement of external partners. Proposals should outline how external stakeholders will be engaged. This critical effort in outreach, relationship building, and partnership development indicates both the desire to be connected to real world challenges and forecasts how present and future resource needs will be addressed for sustaining and expanding activity. To the extent possible, references can be made to how funding needs will be diversified through such external engagement.

Each cycle of initiatives supported by the Global Futures Fund will represent a portfolio of diverse activities in:

1. Research/scholarship and education. A key goal of the Global Futures is to focus on the university’s collaborative, interdisciplinary approaches across academic programs and research/scholarship. Within academic programming, innovation is highly encouraged. References can be made to partial/full cost-recovery and surplus revenue generation models. References on leveraging administrative supports in academic programming are encouraged. Where service-oriented activities are proposed (i.e., those that do not explicitly map to the teaching and/or research mission of the University) a clear connection to core mission activity will be needed.
2. Pre-seed, leverage, and scale. Funding decisions will also consider the range of ideas and initiatives coming forward. In particular, one goal is to achieve a good balance of funding across the continuum of pre-seed ideas to scaling initiatives.
3. University constituents/partners. Internally, the University consists of a broad and wide-ranging community of faculty, staff, students and alumni, and externally, includes the full spectrum of partners from the local community to global university peers, non-government and civil society partners, and to government and industry stakeholders. The Steering Committee will favor an overall cycle of funded initiatives that engage a range of constituents/partners internally and externally. 
4. Impact through local to global pathways. Waterloo at 100 outlines three guiding principles critical for the Global Futures. One of those principles, “lead globally, act locally,” means that we contribute to local needs as we work on global issues. Waterloo at 100 also focuses our attention to our local communities through collaborative relationships and activities. Change starts at home. The Committee will seek an overall cycle of funded initiatives that exhibit this local-to-global principle in action.
5. Faculty and ASU contributions. One of the key enablers to ensuring sustainability is to seek and/or secure internal contributions. Strong applications will reflect this lever, drawing on supports aligned to goals from within one’s Faculty and/or ASU. Supports can come through financial and in-kind resources and can be identified or committed through the proposal in the second part of the submission process.