SUN Grants

i2a SUN Grants

The University of Louisville’s quality enhancement plan, Ideas to Action (i2a), is a multi-year effort supported by the Provost to improve student learning by sharpening our institutional focus on building undergraduate students' critical thinking skills. The university’s QEP was approved by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) in 2007.

The two specific outcomes identified for i2a are:

1. Students will be able to think critically.
2. Students will develop the ability to address community issues.

The i2a SUN Grants program was created in 2008 to support the development and integration of i2a innovations at UofL. In 2010, the SUN Grant program was revised and expanded to fund small-scale individual projects and large-scale departmental projects.

For the second phase of i2a, which began in summer 2013, undergraduate schools and colleges created i2a Leadership Committees to support the sustained integration of the two i2a outcomes at the unit level. The SUN Grants program was again revised to incorporate the units’ new i2a leadership structure.

This year, in 2016, the SUN Grant cycle will be the final opportunity for units to submit a SUN Grant proposal to ensure the sustainability of explicit i2a-related instruction and curricular components in their undergraduate programs through 2017 and beyond. The i2a Steering Committee will award monies to select proposals submitted for funding consideration by the unit’s respective i2a Leadership Committee chair. Successful proposals will outline relevant i2a projects to be implemented that support, sustain, or enhance i2a integration. The SUN Grants ad hoc review committee will fund successful proposals up to $4,000 each that are submitted by the unit i2a Leadership Committee for funding consideration.

Funding is intended to support projects that support, sustain, or enhance undergraduate units’ ability to sustain i2a integration through 2017 and beyond.

Examples of projects which support sustained integration of i2a at the unit level include:

• Implementing and reporting out on unit/program assessment activities and tools that foster and measure learning related to i2a
• Developing, enhancing and/or implementing new or revised assignments in key programs/courses to support i2a integration
• Adapting or developing resources or materials that systematically introduce i2a and its concepts and tools to students, faculty and staff across the unit or undergraduate programs
• Developing protocol at the unit or program level to strengthen the measurement of i2a student learning outcomes (SLOs)
• Modifying and implementing the unit’s academic orientation course to align with i2a integration and permeate the educational environment for students in the unit

Proposed project efforts are expected to be launched in the upcoming academic year, from July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017, and will need to include an explanation of the ongoing impact of the project’s efforts beyond 2017.

For more information, see the 2016 SUN Grants Call for Proposals.

To view project summaries of past SUN Grant winners, see the Annual i2a SUN Grant Project Summaries.