Education Development Fund (EDF)

As the EDF is designed to encourage faculty members who are transitioning to or newly engaged in education scholarship, it is important to distinguish between and among potential roles for team members.

Faculty members who serve in senior administrative or research positions (Vice Chairs, Program, Curriculum and Course Directors, Clerkship, Pre Clerkship Directors, Research Directors and those considered to be Senior Education Scientists and Consultants) MAY ONLY be listed as "Senior Advisors".

In addition to listing team members and providing contact information for departmental contacts, the EDF application will ask you to provide a brief description of the team including roles and responsibilities of team members.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (PI) and CO-PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (Co-PI):

The PI and the Co-PI (if applicable) must be a faculty member who is newly engaged in education scholarship in basic, clinical or rehabilitation sciences at the University of Toronto, Temerty Faculty of Medicine. The PI and the Co-PI will take responsibility for the overall project design, development and completion. The EDF Adjudication Committee defines 'newly engaged' as a faculty member who has not served as PI or Co-PI on more than two previously funded education research grants. Education Scientists are eligible to apply as PI or Co-PI only within the first three years of their academic appointment and must not have received more than one previously funded education research grant.

At the application stage, the PI and the Co-PI agree to disclose all other sources approached for funding the project. If the PI or Co-PI has previously been awarded an EDF grant, they are eligible to apply for funding for a new project (or component of an earlier project) only if they have fulfilled all of the obligations and conditions for the previously awarded project.

It is in the spirit of the Education Development Fund to encourage collaborations between Clinician Educators and Education Scientists and therefore applicants are asked to please consider the following:

i. Education Scientists who apply as the Principal Investigator or as Co-PI are strongly encouraged to ensure that their project teams include Clinician Educators in order to assist with the translational and practical application of their projects.

ii. Clinician Educators are strongly encouraged to consult with either departmentally sourced or hospital based Education Scientists and resources as they may have valuable input and would be able to strengthen project methodology, project evaluation and research dissemination.

PROJECT COLLABORATORS:

A collaborator must be a faculty member, learner, OR staff within the Temerty Faculty of Medicine or its affiliated hospitals and engaged in the educational activities in basic, clinical or rehabilitation sciences at the University of Toronto, in either an administrative, project management or research capacity. Assigned roles and responsibilities for each of the project collaborators must be clearly outlined in the project application.

SENIOR ADVISOR:

A Senior Advisor must be a faculty member engaged in the educational activities in basic, clinical or rehabilitation sciences at the University of Toronto, Temerty Faculty of Medicine. They must also agree to serve in an advisory or mentorship capacity to the overall project design, development and completion.

Faculty members who serve in senior administrative or research positions (Vice Chairs, Program, Curriculum and Course Directors, Clerkship, Pre Clerkship Directors, Research Directors and those considered to be Senior Education Scientists and Consultants) MAY ONLY  be listed as Senior Advisors/Mentors. 

EXCLUSIONS

Members of the senior decanal team i.e., Vice, Associate or Assistant decanal, Departmental Chairs, Division Chiefs and/or EDF committee members are not eligible to apply for EDF projects in any capacity.

Those who are listed as being compensated as project managers, research assistants completing transcription and analysis, or for providing consultation services within the project budget MAY NOT be listed as PI, Co-PI, or Collaborator.

Those who are supervisors of resident or graduate student projects are not eligible to serve as PI or CO PI. They may serve as a Senior Advisor.

2021 EDF Budget Criteria.pdf

Applicants are required to upload a proposed budget using a provided template with their application (see section below titled "Application Process and Templates".

The details below are provided to help guide your development of your proposed budget and explain allowable and not allowable expenses for EDF funds. Budgets will be carefully reviewed for appropriate use of project funds and may require adjustment at the request of the Education Development Fund adjudication committee. Funded PIs and Co-PIs are required to provide updates on expended funds as part of the reporting requirements.

It is recommended and encourged that EDF recipients utilize existing University of Toronto resources where appropriate i.e., student participation, technical support services, professional services, etc.  The application will ask you to describe the anticipated resources available and required (financial, expertise, technology) to complete your project. The application will also ask for you to disclose intended vendors with appropriate quotes if feasible.

Budgets must reflect a true 1:1 match within budget columns.  Academic department funds could include funds from other granting agencies and sources received by the supporting academic department.  In the spirit of transparency, applicants are encouraged to list ‘other’ funds outside of the 1:1 match within their budget. University base budget or operating funds cannot be used to provide the match.

All funds, other than costs related to project dissemination, are expected to be disbursed by the end of the first year and all costs, including dissemination costs are to be disbursed by the end of the second year. Any unused funds, as outlined in the final project report, will be required to be returned to the EDF to fund future projects. Requests for funding extensions after 1 year (for funds other than dissemination costs) must be made in writing to the Education Development Fund Committee, for consideration. Requests for changes to the originally approved budget must also be made in writing to the Education Development Fund Committee, for consideration.

Successful applicants must meet all requirements for the transfer of funds including the declaration of all other sources of relevant funding, receipt of ethics approval, provision of necessary FIS numbers to facilitate the transfer within 4 weeks of the application approval. It is the responsibility of the applicant to submit required information by July 9, 2021 or the offer of funding will be withdrawn.

ALLOWED

Costs associated with project dissemination (ie. poster layout and printing costs to a maximum of 250.00)

Conference Travel - maximum of 1000.00* of EDF funds may be used to off-set travel where EDF project/work is to be presented. *This amount should include both travel and accommodations.

Research Assistant ($25-35/hr)

Costs to run interviews and focus group

Transcription

Data analysis and hand coding of transcribed text

Summarizing of data and assistance with manuscript development

IT/eLearning related projects: Technological consultation, needs assessment, content writing, evaluation, graphic design and animation (approx. $75.00/hr)

Learning Portals/Websites: Programming, learning management/content management systems (approx. $2,500.00 – $15,000.00)

Illustrations

Costs for simulation (all modalities)

i.e. anatomical models

Incentives (i.e., gift cards, honorariums, stipends for focus group/study participants) up to a maximum of 5% of the total budget (including matched funding). For example, if the total project budget (including match) is $10,000.00, $500.00 of your budget may be used toward incentives.

NOT ALLOWED

Publication costs i.e. Open Access and like journal publication fees or costs associated with manuscript publication.

Payment to Educational Research Consultants, U of T Staff and Faculty for duties/tasks performed related to the project.

Incentives (ie. gift cards, honorariums, stipends for focus group/study participants) exceeding 5% of the total budget.

Catering

Reimbursement for participant travel/parking

Conceptualization and design of representative imagery.

The EDF application process requires PIs and Co-PIs to attest that they are aware of and agree to their role and responsibilities as PI and Co-PI and also attest that they have not received more than two previously funded education research grants (or in the case of Education Scientists, that they have not received more than one grant).

Applicants are required to upload a signed attestation using a provided template with their application (see section below titled "Application Process and Templates").  In the case of Co-PIs, each Co-PI is required to sign their own attestation form and upload to the application site.

The application process is conducted entirely online using a provided template.  The application process will open on December 11, 2020 and will close at 11:59pm on Friday, March 19, 2021.

Applications will not be considered if they do not follow the submission guidelines.

For the purposes of developing content, the EDF application is also available in Word or PDF versions. However, only applications received through our online process will be accepted.  For your information only, you may refer to the application documents below.  DO NOT SUBMIT.

2021 EDF Application.docx 2021 EDF Application.pdf

A complete application will include:

1.  The completion of the application online.
2. 2021 EDF Budget Template.xlsx
3. 2021 EDF Project Timeline Template.docx
4. 2021 EDF Attestation.pdf 2021 EDF Attestation.docx
5. Uploaded Department Chair's letter of support
6. Uploaded Confirmation of ethics application submission, ethics approval or ethics exemption
7. Uploaded CV of PI and Co-PI (if applicable)

(Optional): Applicants may also submit a list of supporting references of up to 1 page.

NOTE: We do not accept additional supplemental material at the application stage. Should a project be selected for funding, the Adjudication Committee may ask for supplemental information before funding is released.

No late or incomplete applications will be reviewed or accepted. You MUST hit "submit" on the last screen of the online application for your application to be considered submitted.