Opportunities / MEG

New Jersey Dental School Master Educators’ Grant Program for Educational Innovation and Academic Enrichment Projects

Application Form*
http://dentalschool.umdnj.edu/opportunities/meg-app.pdf

*You MUST HAVE Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to view the application form, which can be downloaded by clicking on the "Get Adobe Acrobat Reader" icon on the bottom of the page.

Dean Cecile Feldman and the Master Educators of the New Jersey Dental School are proud to announce sponsorship of an exciting awards program. Grants will be awarded for proposals that enhance the development and delivery of dental education, and that promote student mentoring and interest in academic dentistry as a career.

I. Types of Projects Encouraged

Proposals designed to enrich dental education, both pre-clinical didactic and laboratory education, and patient care-based education, will be considered. Grants will be offered for proposals that address issues in one or more of the following areas: curriculum development and evaluation, faculty and student development, and information technology. Proposals should be designed for widespread implementation within the Dental School. Proposals that are heavily technology-based will be evaluated for their use of technology to improve the teaching/learning processes at the Dental School. Grants that cross disciplines and encourage a multi-disciplinary approach to dental education are encouraged.

II. Characteristics of Supported Projects

Successful projects will have several characteristics. Priority will be given to proposals that:

• are tied to and congruent with the strategic educational goals of the University and the School of Dentistry
• are closely integrated with the directions that the Dental School curriculum is taking
• involve faculty, staff, and/or students from more than one discipline within the Dental School
• encourage active learning and critical thinking by students
• use DVD-based technology to teach material in new ways
• use technology to provide learning experiences normally unavailable to students
• encourage the development of interactive multimedia instruction
• use the World Wide Web to deliver innovative education
• use videoconferencing capabilities for clinical education
• utilize case-based clinical teaching methodologies
• encourage faculty mentoring of dental students
• encourage interest in academic dentistry as a career
• advance standardization/calibration of faculty
• encourage students to use technology to search for information

III. Eligibility

Faculty with full-time and part-time appointments are eligible.

IV. Uses of the Grant Money Awarded

Grants include access to shared hardware, instructional design, faculty training and seed money. The funds awarded will finance resources required to produce a project. Examples include: software to implement educational change, work-study students/assistants, and programming costs. Travel funds are not included in this grant. Salary may not be requested for the principal investigator or other full-time or part-time UMDNJ faculty members or staff. Furniture and office supplies will not be funded. Money may be requested for fund acquisition of incidental hardware necessary for a system upgrade. Some hardware, such as high-end scanners and digitizers will be purchased centrally for shared use by funded projects. All hardware purchased through this grant is the property of UMDNJ and will be re-allocated by the Dental School for future projects.

UMDNJ policy requires all programming associated with instructional design to be done in-house except in those circumstances where the project is beyond the scope of in-house resources. Grant requestors are asked to provide a budget narrative with justification and itemization of anticipated expenses including programming costs.

V. Requirements

Grant requestors will submit to the evaluators a short narrative describing project goals, methodology, specific outcomes measurements to be used and budget. The Grant Narrative portion of the proposal should not exceed ten pages, single spaced; the font should not be smaller than 10 point type. It should include the following information:

• Abstract of the project (approximately half-page):
  
  • The need for the project, its educational goals and objectives, anticipated outcomes, and if applicable, the use of technology to reach those goals and the way the project will be integrated into the curriculum.
• Remaining narrative should fully describe the points listed in the abstract and also discuss:
  
  • What makes this proposal innovative
  • Methods proposed to meet the objectives
  • Outcomes to be achieved and how they will be measured. Examples include, but are not limited to: improved scores on class evaluations, number of students affected, degree of academic improvement, number of faculty and student hours redirected, number of dollars saved.
  • Evaluation of methodology. A description of how you plan to evaluate the educational effectiveness of the project, including its impact on educational costs. Evaluation instruments, where applicable, should be included.
  • A list of the people involved in the project and their roles and relevant qualifications.
  • Estimated timetable for each stage of project development. Where applicable, the proposal must include a schedule for content and image preparation, story boarding, programming and product testing, revision and roll out. - Implementation methodology. How the project will be implemented among the target classes.
  • An explanation of the importance of the conclusions or results - How the project advances the missions and goals of the University and Dental School - How the project will be sustained after the grant period ends.

• The Budget Justification must include a rationale for each line item.

VI. Completion of Project

Projects must be accomplishable within one year following the date that the grant was awarded.

• Final Narrative Report: Within 120 days following the expiration date of the grant, a Final Narrative Report with assessment of outcomes and itemized list of expenditures must be furnished by the grant recipient to the Dental School Master Educators. The written report will also give details of activities, conclusions drawn, how a future iteration of the project might be handled, and etc. The grant recipient's reports and contact information will be posted on a faculty development Web site so that faculty interested in pursuing similar projects may contact them for information and advice.
• Final Financial Report

VII. Application Forms, Submission and Deadlines

Up to eight grants will be awarded per year. Project budgets should not exceed $3,000. The deadline for submitting grant requests is October 1, 2006. Awards will be announced on December 1, 2006 to accommodate a January 1, 2007 start date for proposals. Grant application forms may be obtained from the Office of Academic Affairs of the Dental School. Alternatively, grant applications may be accessed and downloaded at http://dentalschool.umdnj.edu/opportunities/meg-app.pdf*

*You MUST HAVE Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to view the application form, which can be downloaded by clicking on the "Get Adobe Acrobat Reader" icon on the bottom of the page.

For further information about this grant program, please contact the Dental School Master Educators: Drs. Deborah Cleveland, Joel Martin, Patrick Quaranta, Ronald Haeberle, Marc Rosenblum and Asha Samant.

VIII. Renewal Applications

Applications requesting a renewal of a grant must include:

• a narrative progress report prepared by the principal investigator or author including a justification for continuing support
• a list of other funding sources that have been approached and the status of those requests (including decisions not to fund and the reasons for such)
• plans for future funding

IX. Application Review Procedures

All grant applications will be critically reviewed by the Dental School Master Educators, the Chief Academic Officer of the Dental School, and other individuals with appropriate technological or educational background as may be needed. Deficient applications or those of insufficient merit or quality will be returned to the author/s. All proposals with a major component of information/computer technology must be given prior technical review by the Chief Information Technology Officer of the Dental School. Final grant awards will be decided by the Dental School Master Educators.

X. Notice of Award

The Dental School Master Educators will announce their decisions to the President of the University, the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs of the University, the President of the UMDNJ-Stuart D. Cook, M.D. Master Educators' Guild and the grant applicants by the end of each calendar year.

XI. Grant Period

The funding period of each grant is one year. Grant extensions for a maximum of one year with no additional funds will be considered. Investigators or authors receiving extensions are required to submit a copy of the progress report described above to the Dean/Dental School 12 months from the effective date of the grant.

XII. Publicity

The Dental School reserves the right to publicize its grant awards in cooperation with the University and the UMDNJ-Stuart D. Cook, M.D. Master Educators’ Guild Web Site.

XIII. Acknowledgement of Support

All print, video, and audio materials related to the grant project or program must identify and credit the Dental School and Master Educators' Grant Program for its support. Copies of descriptions of all materials arising from NJDS Master Educators' Grant Program must be supplied to the Dental School by the grantee in accordance with the University's internal procedures.

XIV. Grant Changes

Budget Changes: Funds may be re-budgeted with the approval of the Dean and the Dental School Master Educators.

Changes in Grant Period:

• Effective Date - The start date of a grant may not be changed without written consent of the Dental School Master Educators. Requests must be in writing and provide an explanation for the delay of the start of the project.
• Expiration Date – - If additional time is required beyond the established expiration date to assure completion of a project, such a request for an extension must be submitted in writing at least 30 days prior to the expiration date to the Dental School Master Educators, who must approve the extension. Such requests must include a progress report, an explanation for the delay of the completion of the project, plans to complete the project and an interim financial report. The number of grant extensions a principal investigator or author may request is limited to one (1) one-year extension.

XV. Receipt of Additional Funding from Other Sources

The principal investigator or author must immediately notify the Dental School Master Educators when funding from another source is received that provides support for the project or for any budget item included in the grant. The Dental School Master Educators reserve the right to reduce the amount of the grant award by the amount duplicated by outside funding.

XVI. Repayment of Unused Funds

Any portion of grant funds unexpended and not committed at the completion of the project or at the end of the grant period, including any authorized extension thereof, must be returned to the Dean/Dental School immediately upon preparation of the Final Financial Report. Funds awarded on a last dollar basis must be returned as soon as it is determined that all or any portion of the funds will not be needed.

XVII. Patent Policy Regarding Original Research

All research funded by the NJDS Master Educators' Grant Program must be conducted in full compliance with the policy of the University regarding patents, copyright and materials transfer. Therefore, any research grant is made on the conditions that:

• the grant will only be used for performing original research as long as the grantee remains an employee or appointee of the University; and
• such grantee agrees to comply fully with all the policies of the University and with the conditions of his/her employment or appointment at the University, which are in force at the time the grant is made.