TheShipleyCenter•TheShipleyCenter•The Shipley Center
The Institute for Excellence in Teaching & Learning is pleased to announce the 2025–2026 Shipley Academic Innovation Fund to support faculty-led initiatives that advance transformative teaching, interdisciplinary collaboration, student success, and innovation in curriculum and pedagogy.
The Shipley Academic Innovation Fund is designed to catalyze innovative approaches to teaching and learning, aligned with the university’s strategic priorities. Funding is available for projects that explore new instructional models, integrate emerging technologies, promote inclusive teaching practices, and create high-impact learning experiences for students.
Our Goals
To foster excellence at scale – harnessing the work of faculty across BU and advancing that work in ways that drive meaningful impact for students.
To promote and steer innovations in teaching and learning that catalyze advancements in practice and in the field.
To facilitate the development of cross-campus strategies and plans that build on the intellectual power and experiences among our faculty to enhance the student experience.
To promote foundational skills that support life-enriching opportunities for students.
To elevate BU’s reputation as a thought-leader in teaching excellence.
Elevating Impact
Generally our programs will advocate and seek out initiatives in several thematic areas including those that focus on the ability to:
Deliver education that allows learners to participate and gain experience from an interdisciplinary and global perspective.
Innovate and transform curriculum to drive student success for individuals of all backgrounds.
Engage in action-based, innovative approaches that provide opportunities for meaningful career, internship and lifelong learning experiences.
Advance teaching and learning in the AI era and through applications that engender meaningful high impact learning experiences, including at the curricular level and across the university.
Leverage the interdependence of the faculty and student experience.
NOW ACCEPTING PROPOSALS
The Shipley Center, which is part of the Institute for Excellence in Teaching & Learning, is now accepting proposals for enhancing curricula through creative applications of Generative AI (GenAI). We are seeking innovative ideas that explore new ways of teaching, learning, and assessment using GenAI tools and approaches.
Faculty from all disciplines are encouraged to apply.
Proposal 1: Course Level Innovation – Incorporating Gen AI to Meet Hub Learning Outcomes
Curriculum Innovation and Enhancement for the BU Hub with AI
The BU Hub is Boston University’s innovative general education program for all undergraduate students. The Hub works in close partnership with faculty, and plays a key role in providing students with opportunities to explore, experiment, and harness AI’s potential to prepare for a complex and diverse world.
The Shipley Center, in collaboration with the Office of Undergraduate Affairs, invites applications from across the BU community to propose innovative ways in which GenAI literacy can be incorporated into Hub courses across a department or program curriculum.
For Hub-specific courses, the focus is on bringing program/department faculty together to collaboratively determine how best to capitalize on existing Hub courses to provide students with opportunities to develop fluency in GenAI literacy and innovation.
This is a great opportunity for faculty and departments interested in integrating GenAI into their curriculum now. For instance, certain Hub courses may be revised to critically examine the ethical implications of GenAI, while others might adopt innovative curricular approaches to foster creative engagement with the technology. Additionally, some courses could be redesigned to equip students with the skills and frameworks necessary to leverage GenAI responsibly and imaginatively.
AWARD DETAILS
Award Size: $2,000 to $5,000
Use Cases: Redesigning an assignment, testing AI in a Hub course, reimagining a new way to approach the curricular design with AI, etc.
Recipients: Individual faculty or small teams
Funding Covers: Faculty or Team stipends
Proposal 2: Catalyzing AI Advancement in Teaching & Learning through Faculty Collaboration
Curriculum Innovation and Advancement Using AI to Support Teaching and Learning
AI is not just a technological shift – it necessitates a pedagogical one. Whether in humanities, STEM, business, or the arts, AI is reshaping every field. This is a great opportunity for faculty to ask, “What new opportunities does AI open up for teaching and learning in my discipline?”
The Shipley Center, in collaboration with the AI Development Accelerator, invites applications from across the BU community to propose innovative approaches — through pilots, prototypes, and creative experiments — that will help to shape the future of learning with AI.
Projects or initiatives could take on a range of different types of applications –AI as a writing collaborator, AI tutors for problem solving, AI in peer review, simulated labs with AI, AI in STEM capstone projects, etc.
We strongly encourage faculty to collaborate within departments or programs to develop proposals that are ambitious, creative, and scalable.
AWARD DETAILS Award Size: $5,000 – $10,000 Use Cases: Redesigning an entire course / program to integrate AI; developing frameworks or new AI in teaching and learning approaches in select curriculum or program areas Recipients: Multi-faculty teams or departments Funding Covers: Faculty or Team stipends
Proposal Requirements
In support of your application, please upload a 2- to 3-page narrative proposal that addresses the following:
Project Description
What is the innovation or change being proposed?
What AI tools or approaches will be used?
What teaching and learning need does it address?
Goals and Outcomes
What are the goals?
What learning outcomes or teaching practices will be enhanced or improved?
*Hub applicants only: For already existing Hub courses, do you plan to change Hub areas or just revise Hub areas?
Implementation Plan
Timeline and phases (*Hub applicants only: If changing Hub areas in a course(s), factor in GEC timelines: for fall courses, Nov. 15, for spring courses, March 15).
Course(s) or programs involved
Activities, deliverables, milestones
Evaluation & Impact
How will success be measured?
What evidence will you collect (i.e., student feedback, learning data, peer review)?
How will the project contribute to broader learning objectives?
Sustainability/Scalability
Please describe your plan for sustaining the impact of the project beyond the life of the grant.
What strategies will you use to sustain and build upon the project to contribute to ongoing academic innovation?
How will this work continue to benefit students, faculty or other stakeholders at BU?
Budget and Justification
Faculty or team stipends
AI tools or licenses (also including a review of how these will be vetted for use)
Evaluation and justification
Support Needs
What support or resources do you need to make the project successful?
Ethical Use of AI
Include a short paragraph on how you will ensure the responsible and ethical use of AI to promote responsible innovation
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS EXTENDED! NOVEMBER 21, 2025
