Waterloo – The President’s Innovation Seed Fund (PISF) is accepting proposals for innovative programs that can help Laurier generate new revenue and/or reduce operating costs.
Members of the Laurier community are invited to submit concept proposals for evaluation by the fund’s implementation committee by May 31. The committee is interested in concepts that support internationalization, environmental stewardship, student success and teaching innovation.
Established in 2009 as a pilot project, the PISF provides seed money to initiate ideas and help them become self-sustaining programs. It supports positive, forward-thinking initiatives that have the potential to produce new revenue and/or reduce the university’s operating costs. This is the sixth round of the PISF.
“The program has been extremely successful, and we have been very impressed with the proposals received to date,” said Steve Farlow, chair of the fund’s implementation committee and executive director of Laurier’s Schlegel Centre for Entrepreneurship. “We strongly encourage faculty, staff and students to submit more ideas in this current round of funding.”
Successful projects have ranged from an English as a Second Language program that generates revenue while attracting international students to Laurier, to a summer acceleration program that increases the number of college transfer students recruited by Laurier Brantford.
The implementation committee, which consists of a representative mix of faculty and staff from various departments and campuses across the university, will consider and review the proposals as they are submitted.
Applicants whose proposals are approved will be invited to submit a business plan. Assistance is available to help craft the business plan.
The PISF is guided by principles of revenue sharing and fund sustainability. It is intended that net revenues realized from a specific project will be divided equally between the originator’s faculty/department, the fund itself, and the university.
