FSW Grassroots & Grass shoots grants
Are you an FSW lecturer with a great idea to innovate your teaching? Put your idea into practice with a Grassroots or Grass Shoots grant!
Application round for 2025-2026 open!
Starting next academic year with an innovative educational idea? Then now is the time to submit your application for a Grassroots or Grass shoots grant. The deadline for your application is 3 January 2025.
Read more and apply!Applications within a theme
For 2025-2026, as always, grants are available for innovations of your own idea. But we also welcome innovations that fit within this years' theme: ‘How can we use educational innovation to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of teaching (and thus reduce workload) while maintaining or improving educational quality?’
For this theme, consider, for example:
- Less revision work through the use of formative testing and peer feedback.
- Using generative AI to practice skills.
- Deploying team-based learning.
- Increasing study efficiency.
Innovating your education with a Grassroots- or shoots can be done in many ways. For example:
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Embedding blended learning into your course, for example by using a digital application to practice skills or further process lecture material.
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Selecting and/or developing and offering open learning materials.
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Experimenting in teaching or testing with digital tools and/or new working forms for improving (peer) feedback to students, or encouraging self-regulated learning.
Previous participants worked with knowledge clips and peer feedback, created an online eLearning module and used VR to give students conversational experience.
Grassroots projects (maximum €2,000) are intended to carry out promising experiments or implement educational innovations of modest size. Teachers are completely free to choose a topic. There are conditions regarding feasibility, planning and budget.
- You can apply for €2,000 per project.
- The project will be carried out in the academic year 2024-2025.
- Your project proposal contains a concrete outline to evaluate your experiment or innovation.
- Each project proposal must be approved by your Programme Director; make sure to discuss your idea with them in due time.
Grass shoots projects (maximum €8,000) are intended to implement educational innovations of considerable size. We ask that you carefully consider 1) the impact on student success, 2) the likelihood that applicants will be able to successfully complete the project, and 3) the scale at which the project will be implemented.
- You can apply for €8,000 per course.
- The project will be carried out in the academic year 2024-2025.
- The project proposal contains a rationale for the expected effects, based on literature or previous results – for instance results obtained from digital innovations during the COVID-19 crisis.
- Your project proposal contains a concrete outline to evaluate your experiment or innovation.
- Each project proposal must be approved by your Programme Director; make sure to discuss your idea with them in due time.
The Grassroots and Grass shoots grants are an initiative of SOLO. For the 2025-2026 edition we have a total budget of €25,000.