The Office of the Provost and Vice-President, Academic, helps connect faculty members with funding opportunities across all disciplines.
Academic Excellence Funds - UBC Vancouver
The Academic Excellence Funds provide significant resources for initiatives that help UBC attract the best faculty and students, support world-changing research and deliver an exceptional learning experience. Find out more about the fund and how it is allocated.
Teaching & Learning Funds
Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund
Each year, the Office of the Provost and Vice President Academic invites UBC Vancouver Faculties and Colleges to apply for Teaching and Learning Enhancement funding for initiatives that will improve student learning experiences at the university. The TLEF is financed entirely by a portion of tuition paid by UBC Vancouver students.
Large TLEF Transformation projects are large, multi-year projects that are intended to advance UBC’s strategic goals relating to transformative learning. These projects typically aspire to impact multiple courses or programs, have the potential to involve collaboration across departments or Faculties, and align with one or more strategies or priorities in UBC’s Strategic Plan. Large TLEF Transformation projects can request up to $200,000 over the life of the project and can run up to three years.
Small TLEF Innovation projects are grassroots projects that are intended to support experimentation with pedagogical approaches that have strong potential to enhance the experiences of learners. While these projects should also align with UBC’s strategic priorities relating to transformative learning, they are typically smaller in scope and scale. Small TLEF Innovation projects can request up to $50,000 over the life of the project and can run up to three years.
For more information on criteria, applying and deadlines, visit the TLEF website.
Continuous Learning Advancement Fund
The Continuous Learning Advancement Fund (CLAF) supports the creation, renewal and expansion of non-degree learning opportunities at UBC Vancouver. Initially launched in 2019 as the Online Learning Advancement Fund (OLAF), CLAF’s renewed focus is on growing UBC Vancouver’s capacity to serve continuous learners in British Columbia, as set out in the university’s strategic plan.
CLAF supports the creation, renewal and expansion of non-degree, fully online learning opportunities for continuous learners seeking to change (reskill) or advance (upskill) their careers in high-demand sectors. Learning opportunities align with industry, employer, community and/or Indigenous community needs, with the goal that learning can be assessed and recognized for employment, complements current offerings, or offers pathways in BC’s post-secondary system.
For more information on criteria, applying and deadlines, visit the CLAF website.
Open Educational Resource (OER) Fund
The UBC Vancouver OER Fund, established through the UBC Academic Excellence Fund in 2019, aims to support affordable and inclusive access to learning materials through the adoption, adaptation, development, and integration of open educational resources in UBCV credit courses. At launch, UBCV committed $1-million over a four-year period to support OER initiatives. Funding is in two streams:
- OER Implementation Grants provide funding and staff support to UBC faculty up to $25,000 over the life of the project to incorporate open educational resources as the required materials into UBCV undergraduate credit courses.
- OER Rapid Innovation Grants of up to $2,000 per project are available to UBC Vancouver students, faculty and staff for a wide range of innovative activities and events that increase OER development, awareness, and capacity building.
For more information on criteria, applying and deadlines, visit the OER Fund website.
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)
The UBC Institute for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISoTL) and the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT) offer a support program for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). The SoTL Seed Program provides graduate research assistants, collegial collaborations, and complementary funding for projects, for faculty interested in exploring and understanding the impact of their pedagogical choices.
SoTL Seed projects should ask meaningful questions about student learning or teaching activities designed to facilitate student learning, with the goal of gathering evidence to answer those questions, and then sharing the results to contribute to broader bodies of knowledge on student learning.
For more information on criteria, applying and deadlines, visit the SoTL Seed Program website.
In addition, a SoTL Dissemination Fundis available to faculty for expenses related to presenting or publishing SoTL work.
Students as Partners (SaP) Fund
Announced in Fall 2021 and funded by the Student Support Initiative, the Students as Partners fund provides Students as Partners in Course Design grants to advance faculty and undergraduate-student partnerships to redesign UBCV undergraduate courses. Applications from faculty, students, or preferably faculty-student collaborators are welcome. Up to 40 projects of up to $7,100 per project will be funded between 2022-2024; there is also a dissemination fund to offset costs for sharing funded works.
For more information on criteria, applying and deadlines, visit the Students as Partners website.
Research Funding & Support
Canada Research Chairs
The Government of Canada established the Canada Research Chairs program to enable Canadian universities to achieve the highest levels of research excellence and become world-class research centres.
UBC currently has an allocation of 194 Chairs that are nominated by the Deans when vacancies arise within their faculty’s allotment. Visit the UBC Canada Research Chairs web page for more information about UBC’s allocation of chairs and important deadlines.
Other Research Funding
Need funding or help with developing, budgeting or managing your research projects? UBC offers significant support and resources to help faculty identify, secure and manage research funding. Learn more.
EDI & Sustainability Funding
Equity Enhancement Fund
The Equity Enhancement Fund helps promote initiatives that significantly contribute to the enhancement of equity and diversity at UBC’s Vancouver and Okanagan campuses. Any academic or administrative unit, with the endorsement of the unit’s Head, may submit proposals for one-time funding of equity initiatives of up to $25,000 per project.
Student clubs and societies, unions and associations, and other faculty and staff groups are also invited to submit proposals through their respective senior leadership. For more information on guidelines, deadlines and requirements, visit the Equity Enhancement Fund website.
Sustainability Education Fellows Grants Program
The Sustainability Hub’s application process for the Sustainability Education Fellows grants program is now open. The grant program provides up to $20,000 in funding, over two years, to Vancouver faculty members looking to advance and diversify sustainability education opportunities for students across campus in all disciplines. Funding supports curriculum development centred on transformative learning that incorporates experiential, applied and interdisciplinary sustainability education principles. Grant recipients become Sustainability Fellows for the duration of the grant and join a cohort of faculty that meet monthly to exchange ideas and collaborate to advance sustainability education at UBC.
Climate and Wellbeing Education Grants
Climate and Wellbeing Education Grants provide up to $6,000 to UBC faculty members to incorporate climate change and wellbeing content and pedagogy into existing undergraduate and graduate courses. The program aims to improve the depth and delivery of climate change content in existing courses, bolstering topics such as climate adaptation and resilience, climate justice, climate science, climate economics, climate law, planning and policy, complex systems thinking, and the nexus between climate and human health and wellbeing. All areas of inquiry related to climate change and teaching are eligible.