Innovedum Process

• Members of ETH Zurich who have a teaching assignment and are employed at least 50% as well as programme directors of ETH Zurich are eligible to apply.
• The proposal corresponds to the vision and goals of ETH Zurich (improving student education).
• The project duration is a maximum of 2 years.
• Teaching projects begin 3 months after submission at the earliest; focal point projects begin 1.5 months after submission at the earliest.
  
• The funds requested are used mainly towards building the competences of those involved in the project (faculty, doctoral Assistants, students, project staff).
• Personnel funds:
  • How many person-months are required for which tasks?
    
  • Who will perform these tasks?
  • What portion is to be covered by Innovedum? Provide a few lines per funding body.
    
  • Existing ETH staff who work full-time (e.g. doctoral students) may not be employed using Innovedum funds. Part-time positions may, however, be topped up using these funds provided that it can be plausibly demonstrated that the tasks connected with the  Innovedum project do not compete with normal research tasks. For doctoral students it is possible to use Innovedum funds to finance increases in workload due to additional (Innovedum) project responsibilities.
    
  • Guidelines for ETH salaries:
    •     Assistant: CHF 90,000.- (100% employment level)
    •     Scientific staff: CHF 100'000.- bis 120'000.- (100% employment level)
          Employer contributions are included in these amounts.
• Funds for consumables: Travel expenses, ap¨¦ros, catering and large investments in IT infrastructure, equipment etc. are not financed via Innovedum. The departments have their own budgets for these purposes.
• Any outsourcing (e.g. software development) requires at least one competing tender. The reasons for outsourcing must be supplied.

• Innovation for teaching and learning at ETH beyond the normal ongoing course development process
• Structured didactic and conceptual project design
• Inclusion of the student perspective in the project design and the planned project implementation
• Ensure the flexible usability and accessibility of the new learning media and materials (e-accessibility)
• Prospect of success based on successful delivery of the project plan (realistic implementation plan: clear and convincing project goals and project plan, necessary resources are available)
• Sustainability / continued use of the project results beyond the end of the project (possibility follow-up projects)
• Transferability and possible dissemination of the educational innovation to a wider audience (e.g. other universities, course or departments)
• Project communication: Project insights will be made accessible to interested ETH lecturers.
• Coherent evaluation plan
• If applicable: Plan for managing personal data
• Appropriateness of the planned costs (such as the expected efforts, expect results in relation to the number of students affected)
• Only Focus topics: Project investigates aspects of a specific focus topi
• Funding for summer or winter schools is only possible if new teaching concepts are tested within them. Furthermore, repeated implementation and sustainability of the concepts must be guaranteed
• Consideration of the strategic change project "Examinations and Academic Calendar at ETH" (PAKETH): the consistent integration of course units and performance assessments and the corresponding handling of student workload, learning objectives (competencies) and activities.
• Especially relevant for teaching projects PAKETH Edition: Embedding of the project within the curriculum adaptations resulting from PAKETH.

Please take note of the following general conditions when undertaking an Innovedum application:

1. Pursuant to Art. 36, Para. 1 of the ETH Act, all rights to intangible assets created by ETH Zurich employees during the course of their official activities there belong to ETH Zurich, with the exception of copyrights. User rights to computer programmes belong solely to ETH Zurich.
2. Should inventions be generated within the framework of the Innovedum project, the ETH Board Regulations on Intellectual Property and Equity [Regelungen der Immaterialg¨¹ter- und Beteiligungsverordnung des ETH-Rates] (RSETHZ 125) and the ETH Zurich Financial Exploitation Guidelines [Verwertungsrichtlinien der ETH Z¨¹rich] (RSETHZ 440.4) apply.
3. Should copyrighted works generated by the Innovedum project (e.g., textbooks) assume commercial value, any incomes which they generate go to the respective ETH unit (department, institute, chair etc.).
4. Out-licensing of software (e.g. for open source) that is created during an Innovedum project is possible. The IP & Licensing Group at ETH is available as a contact for out-licensing and spin-offs in general.

If the interest is well grounded, the Rector reserves the right to transfer to ETH Zurich the intellectual property rights to results of projects financed by Innovedum funds. In this context those responsible for the project must, after approval of their application by the Rector, sign the following declaration of consent regarding the transfer of rights:

¡°The undersigned hereby transfers to ETH Zurich all intellectual property rights to results of projects financed by Innovedum funds, should financial exploitation rights not already lie legally solely with ETH Zurich (computer programmes). Excepted are copyrighted personal rights, if not legally transferable. ETH Zurich may utilize project results (e.g., teaching materials, documentation and learning software) without temporal, spatial or material restrictions. This consent covers all current and future potential application rights to use, publication, expression, duplication and alteration.¡±

With the consent of the Rector you will be informed as to the legal situation of the project in question.

The evaluation process consists of the following steps:

Selection

• The formal criteria are examined.
• Reviewer (Educational Developers) and Referees (members of the ETH Zurich Teaching Commission)  and/or other experts are designated. 

Review

• Reviewer assess the project according to the evaluation criteria and writes a report.
  
• Referees prepares a report which comprises all assessments.

ETH Teaching Commission

• A referee presents the report and the referees¡¯ recommendation.
• The Teaching Commission discusses the recommendation.
• The Teaching Commission prepares a recommendation for the Rector.

The Rector makes the decision

The applicant gets informed of the decision in writing

• A contact person at UTL organises a meeting at the start, in the middle and at the end of the project term and is available to answer questions during the project.
• Please contact in good time if you have any questions about funding or would like to extend the project duration, for example.

• Final report: At the project end a form for the final report must be filled in the submission system.
• You can apply to present your project at the Innovation in Learning and Teaching Fair, as well as contribute to Refresh Teaching.
  We look forward to your participation!