The Academy of Educators (AOE) seeks proposals from AOE members for educational research grants (at least one member of the team should be an active AOE member to be eligible to apply). Resident/ fellow/postdoctoral members are encouraged to work with experienced Faculty, Staff, and Director Principal Investigators (PIs) on proposals. We encourage proposals from individuals but will give preference to teams. Proposals must involve participants or curricula within the UNC School of Medicine. We will prioritize proposals that seem likely to yield publications and other methods of broad dissemination to the larger academic community. We will also give preference to interdepartmental or multi-institutional proposals. Awardees will be required to present their findings at an annual research event and provide verbal and/or written updates to the AOE Leadership Council. Awardees can submit proposals for projects requiring funding between $500 and $7000, and practicality and efficiency of budget to implement planned work will be considered (e.g., preference for higher costs resulting in proportionally more robust expectations for deliverables, products, and/or dissemination).

The AOE has two grant categories:  Educational Innovations and Educational Research.

Educational Innovations

Educational Innovation grants support the development of innovative educational CME, GME, UME, BBSP, postdoctoral, and other graduate programs that serve trainees based in the SOM to fill curricular gaps through changes in delivery or methodology. Educational innovation grants can also support novel pilot programs in biomedical graduate education, medical education, or postdoctoral training. The Educational Innovations category is not intended to provide ongoing support for curriculum but rather to help create a proof of principle for educational interventions. This could include significant adaptations of teaching practices that warrant testing to determine if they would accelerate achievement, improve participation, or greatly increase the efficiency of an educational project or curricula. Educational innovations will be assessed on innovation, feasibility, cost-effectiveness, and the evaluation plan. Preference will be given to projects with evaluation plans, including retention or skill acquisition, over those focusing only on subjective measures such as learner comfort or perception of improvement.

Educational Research

Educational Research grants include evaluation of the transfer or acquisition of knowledge, attitudes, or skills relevant to CME, GME, UME, BBSP, and other graduate and postdoctoral programs within the SOM. Educational Research grants can address contemporary issues and questions in biomedical and medical education and/or assess and reform the culture of biomedical graduate, postdoctoral, and/or medical education. The Educational Research grants can investigate the impact on patient care outcomes. In thinking of biomedical and medical education as complex ecosystems, factors that can be studied include curriculum design, instructional format, learning delivery models, faculty selection and efficacy, learning environment, and culture. Educational Research grants will be assessed on research design and methodology, feasibility, and cost-effectiveness. As such, metrics that focus on objective measures of success, such as improvement in skill acquisition or retention, must be included as a part of the data collected. Projects that focus solely on subjective measures such as learner comfort or perception of improvement will not be funded.

Application & Review Process:

The AOE will convene a grant review sub-committee, and it will evaluate letters of intent and full applications for significance, appropriateness of research strategy, and likelihood of success.

The sub-committee may ask award recipients to modify their proposals or research questions or to work with other award recipients on joint projects. If we make such requests, we will do so in the spirit of collaboration with the goal of generating the most valuable work for all stakeholders.

The AOE strongly encourages applicants to form multidisciplinary teams of faculty who can bring different strengths to the application, such that each application benefits from synergy.

Timeline:

We anticipate awarding the grants no later than mid-April of 2025 (see “important dates” below). The project should be completed and reported by April 1, 2026, so applicants should develop practical, modest, doable projects that can be finished quickly.

Award Period:

One calendar year

Important dates:

December 17, 2024: Release of RFP

February 3, 2025: Letters of intent due

Beginning of March 2025: The Review Committee will notify top applicants and request full proposals

March 31st, 2025: Full proposals due (no extensions or exceptions)

Mid-April 2025: Awards announced

The grant recipients will be responsible for a midterm report in December 2025, presenting their work in poster form at the May 2026 Evening of Scholarship and as a short oral presentation at an AOE session scheduled between November and December 2026.

• The Letter of Intent (LoI) should be:
  • Limited to 2 pages (team member details, references and budget not included in page count)
  • Single-spaced
  • Arial font, size 11

Application Format

• The Letter of Intent should include:
• • Research/Project Proposal Overview: (1-2 pages max)
    • Title: Title of project
    • Category: Education Innovation or Education Research
    • Introduction:  Brief review of literature and background info
    • Aims: Study objectives and research question/hypothesis (broadly)
    • Methods: Brief overview of proposed Instructional Innovation, Course Design, Program Evaluation Metrics, or Research Methods
    • Analysis: Proposed evaluation criteria or analysis plan (broadly)
    • Deliverables: Anticipated outcomes/products (examples)
  • Qualifications/Experience*: Team members’ qualifications and experiences
  • Budget*: Budget total with proposed itemized estimates (1 page max)
  • References*: List of citations included in LOI (1 page max)

Full Applications (by invitation only, after evaluation of the LoIs) should be:

• • Research /Project Proposal is limited to 5 pages (not including qualifications/experience, abstract, or reference, or budget sections)
  • Single spaced
  • Arial font, size 11

Full Applications should include:

• • Abstract:* Abstracts should briefly summarize project, team strengths, proposed analysis and dissemination plans (limited to 150 words; 1 page max)
  • Qualifications/Experience*: Relevant qualifications and experience of the research team (150 words; does not count in page total; 1 page max)
  • Research/Project Proposal: (5 pages)
    • Introduction: Introduction of the topic, background information, and expanded literature review
    • Aims: Research question, and specific aims
    • Deliverables: What the research will produce (be clear about products)
    • Methods: Methods should be described fully, such that review team can clearly identify your team’s strengths and capacities
    • Analysis: Analysis and reporting plan (include publication plans)
  • References*: Works cited in Research/Project Proposal (using citation style of authors’ choice; 1 page max)
  • Budget:* Itemized budget and budget justification (1 page max)

*Note: Categories denoted with an asterisk do not count toward the LOI or Research/Project Proposal page limits

Note: Full Applications should address feedback provided by the review committee during the Letter of Intent stage

Funding Restrictions:

The entire budget must be devoted to actual research expenses. No PI or Co-I salary support is allowable, although proposers could ask to fund a research assistant or project manager. We cannot allow support for travel to meetings, the purchase of equipment

LoI and the full proposal must be submitted to aoe@med.unc.edu

Additional Resources:

Odum Institute

NCTracs

Sheps Center