Funding available for educational projects at Penn State College of Medicine

Full- and part-time faculty are eligible to apply as principal investigator. Fellows, trainees or students may be included on proposals as co-investigators.

While a wide variety of educational topics will be considered for this program, priority will be assigned to applications whose central focus is on one of these Woodward priority areas:

• Curricular integration (e.g., basic sciences, clinical sciences, health systems sciences and humanities)
• Course/program redesign
• Active learning
• Diversity in educational programs
• Clinical reasoning

Proposals should be no more than three pages in length (12-point Times Roman font or equivalent, 1-inch margins), and should include the following sections:

• Specific aims
• Significance (including how the proposal fits one of the Woodward priority areas if applicable)
• Methods (should include data collection and relevant measurement strategies, data analysis and other sections as appropriate for the project)
• Project team and expertise
• Project management plan (including Gantt chart or equivalent timeline)
• Dissemination plan
• Detailed budget, including justification of budgeted items

Proposals should be emailed to WoodwardCenter@pennstatehealth.psu.edu. Any proposals not adhering to the instructions for formatting will not be reviewed.

Proposals will be reviewed by an internal review panel who will score each proposal based on the following criteria:

• Scope and focus of the project: Is the proposed project or research question sufficiently focused, and can it be completed by the proposed team within the stated timeline?
• Importance: Does the project address one of the Woodward priority areas? Does the project have potential to make a substantive impact on educational programs at Penn State College of Medicine?
• Methods: Are the methods rigorous and aligned to sufficiently achieve the specific aims of the project?
• Project team: Does the team possess the necessary expertise and experience to complete the project?
• Management plan: Given space limitations, does the plan contain sufficient detail to predict success in completion of the project?
• Potential for scholarly dissemination: What are the chances that this project and team will successfully disseminate lessons learned from this project in peer-reviewed outlets (e.g., journals, MedEdPORTAL, etc.)?

The Woodward Center strongly suggests that potential applicants contact the program officer to ask questions or discuss their project and potential proposal. Questions can be emailed and appointments can be made with the program officer by emailing WoodwardCenter@pennstatehealth.psu.edu.

Please note that if a project chosen for funding requires human subjects approval, the project will need to be approved by the Penn State Health/Penn State College of Medicine IRB before funds will be released.