Applications due Dec. 10, 2024
These instructions are for VU investigators. VUMC investigators should contact LSO@vanderbilt.edu for more information.
Vanderbilt University may submit one application in either the Institutional Impact or Capacity-Building category to The Educating Character Initiative, managed by The Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University.
Overview
The Educating Character Initiative, a project of the Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University, has launched its second Invitation to Community and 2025 Request for Proposals.
The Educating Character Initiative aims to equip a wide range of public and private institutions of higher education with the resources, funding, and support needed to integrate character education into their distinctive institutional contexts, curricula, and cultures. The broader aspiration is to foster a robust network that recognizes the value of educating character within higher education.
The Educating Character Initiative welcomes diverse approaches to moral, civic, and/or intellectual character and encourages engagement that is motivated to promote character development according to the mission and vision of each institution and to meet each institution’s unique population of faculty, staff, and students in context-sensitive ways.
In 2025, The Educating Character Initiative will award up to 10 Institutional Impact Grants of between $100,000 and $1,000,000, as well as 20 Capacity-Building Grants of up to $50,000. Successful grantees will be teams of faculty, staff, and administrators at U.S. colleges and universities with outstanding proposals for developing the moral, civic, and/or intellectual character and capacity of faculty, staff, and students.
- Institutional Impact Grants
- Up to 10 Institutional Impact Grants of between $100,000 and $1,000,000 will be awarded to institutions who wish to undertake a substantial and sustained effort to educate character in undergraduate populations across their institution.
- These three-year grants will provide support to enable institutional leaders, faculty, and staff to infuse character in undergraduate curricula and programming in ways that align organically with their college or university mission, context, and culture. Institutional Impact Grants may be especially useful for institutions that have already begun educating character in their context and/or that have faculty and staff with the relevant expertise to undertake a major initiative dedicated to character. The sponsor imagines these grants will be focused primarily on coherent implementation rather than initial exploration, though they welcome innovative ideas that have not been fully tested.
- See the full solicitation for a list of potential project activities.
- Capacity-Building Grants
- Among the persistent challenges for faculty, staff, and administrators seeking to cultivate character at their institutions is a lack of resources, including difficulty integrating character across their curriculum or culture without more institutional and financial support. To address this challenge, up to 20 Capacity-Building Grants of up to $50,000 will be awarded to institutions who wish to strengthen their ability to educate and embed character in their distinctive contexts.
- These grants may be especially useful for institutions that are just beginning to explore how to educate character, that are envisioning discrete projects that do not require substantial funding, and/or that need support to plan for a larger grant application to the Educating Character Initiative or another funding organization in a future year.
- See the full solicitation for a list of potential project activities.
Eligibility
The project leader(s) must be in or contracted to a long-term faculty or staff position at an accredited college or university in the United States. All applicants agree to register as a member of the Educating Character Initiative community.
See the program webpage and full RFP for more information.
Internal Submission Instructions
Interested faculty should click here to submit an application for the internal LSO competition and to find additional information about the opportunity. The deadline for the internal competition is Dec. 10, 2024.
Any questions about this opportunity or the LSO process may be directed to VU-LSO@vanderbilt.edu.
