Office of the Vice Chancellor for Public Engagement Request for Proposals
Submission Deadline: Monday, November 2, 2009
The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Public Engagement is seeking proposals from faculty, students, and staff to fund community-related projects, scholarly work, creative endeavors, course development and other activities within the broad framework of public engagement. Grants up to $20,000 will be made available on a competitive basis. Grant decisions will be announced no later than December 15, 2009. Projects must be completed and a final report submitted by December 15, 2010.
OVERVIEW
As recognized in the campus strategic plan (March, 2007), the University’s vision is to become the preeminent public research university. In today’s knowledge-based, creativity-driven society, an effective public engagement capability is essential to attain research preeminence as knowledge creation needs to be interlinked with broader societal needs and capabilities. This is reflected in the strategic plan’s value statement which identifies the importance of:
A Land Grant Tradition re-invented for 21st century America
– that effectively puts our learning and research into the service of a just and prosperous
society;
– that builds partnerships with local constituencies that strengthen the community as a living and learning environment;
– that extends beyond the boundaries of the campus and Illinois.
The goal of this Request for Proposals is to enable faculty, students, and staff to increase and sustain our public engagement capabilities. In this solicitation, a broad definition of engagement is employed. For example, the Council on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), which is comprised of each Big Ten University plus the University of Chicago, provides the following definition of engagement:
Engagement is the partnership of university knowledge and resources with those of the public and private sectors to enrich scholarship, research, and creative activity; enhance curriculum, teaching and learning; prepare educated, engaged citizens; strengthen democratic values and civic responsibility; address critical societal issues; and contribute to the public good.
Illinois has a heritage of public engagement – where its scholarly capabilities are employed to address needs and opportunities of importance in society. And where those needs and opportunities enhance the research and educational agenda of the university. In recognition of this heritage, Illinois recently was recognized for its engagement accomplishments by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The full University of Illinois Carnegie report is available at: Carnegie Community Engagement Classification Report. This report provides an overview of the breadth and depth of engagement at Illinois.
The goal of this Request for Proposals is to foster additional initiatives to extend and sustain our campus capabilities in public engagement. Grants up to $20,000 will be made available on a competitive basis to fund community-related projects, scholarly work, creative endeavors, course development and other activities within the broad framework of public engagement. It is expected that 10 to 12 projects will be funded.
The funded projects will be conducted, produced, presented or performed during the 2010 calendar year. ILLINOIS faculty, students and/or staff, individually or in teams, are eligible to apply.
Participation of community partners is encouraged. Projects can build on existing efforts or be entirely new. Grant decisions will be announced no later than December 15, 2009.
Contingent upon funding availability and the experience of this fall’s RFP process, it is anticipated that a similar RFP process will be conducted in the spring semester of 2010.
The entire RFP, including submission guidelines, can be downloaded here: RFP.
