Apply for a Mini-Grant

Background | How to apply | Award levels | Eligibility | Expectations | Additional Support | Review criteria

Background

The Miller Open Education Mini-Grant Program, inspired by the Miller Faculty Fellowship Program, was created to promote the growing number of instructors utilizing Open Educational Resources (OER) at Iowa State University. Similar to the Miller Faculty Fellowship Program, these grants aim to support faculty development through the use of new and innovative resources in the classroom. This mini-grant program is co-sponsored by the Iowa State University Library, the Center for Excellence in Learning & Teaching (CELT), and the Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost (SVPP). 

The goal of the Open Education Mini-Grant Program is to encourage instructional innovation at Iowa State by providing instructors with the time and resources they need to redesign their courses around the use of OER. Examples of OER currently in use at Iowa State can be seen in the profiles of our Iowa State University OER Trailblazers.

How to apply

Prepare your proposal in your preferred format, following the structure outlined in the Miller Open Education Mini-Grant Proposal Form: 

Download a Fillable Proposal Form (PDF)   Download a Blank Proposal Form (DOC)

Schedule a meeting with the University library's Open Education Services Librarian, Abbey Elder, to review your proposal prior to submission.

Submit your proposal via the Mini-Grant Submissions Dropbox by April 15, 2026, at 11:59 p.m.

Download and review the Mini-Grant Proposal Preparation Instructions (DOC) for an overview of these steps.

Award levels

The award levels outlined below provide guidance for applicants on the amount of funding that may be approved for different types of proposals. Please note that budgets listed as up to a specific amount will require applicants to justify all necessary expenses. To fund the largest number of high-quality projects, PIs are recommended to request only the amount of funds necessary for their specific needs.  

Approved projects will be allotted funding depending on the scale of the work. The funds from this grant may be spent on any item that the PI deems necessary (e.g. paying for student assistants, editing, or graphic design support). The funds may also be paid to the grantee(s). Note that the funding should be considered a stipend in recognition of the effort involved; it is not intended to fully cover the hourly labor of the applicants or all of the potential costs of a project. 

Eligibility

To be considered for this grant, proposals must meet the following criteria:

• Submitted by one or more Iowa State University employees with teaching responsibilities.
• Includes the intent to use an open educational resource (OER) in a credit-bearing course.
• The PI(s) agree to the expectations listed below.

Additionally, applicants may only submit one (1) proposal per academic year.

This grant may NOT be used for:

• The adaptation or creation of a resource for commercial publication.
• The adaptation or creation of educational resources without the accompaniment of a Creative Commons license.
• The release of a resource under a Creative Commons license that includes a "No Derivatives" provision.

Expectations

All grant recipients must: 

• Attend an orientation workshop to meet other grant recipients and discuss the timeline expected for awarded projects.
• Spend their awarded grant funds for their projects by the start of the next fiscal year (e.g. July 1, 2027 for grants awarded in 2026).
• Complete projects and use resources in a credit-bearing course within 2 years from the award date (i.e. May 2028 for grants awarded in 2026).
• Assess the grant project's impact on Iowa State students and submit a Final Report on Mini-Grant Deliverables [DOC] following the completion of the grant.
• Showcase the outcomes of the project on the Iowa State University OER Trailblazers website.

For adoption projects: 

• Complete and submit a review of the OER to be adopted using the Open Textbook Library Review Criteria.

For adaptation/creation projects:

• Publish completed OER under a Creative Commons license that allows modification.
• Publish OER created through a grant in an open, editable format. Text-based OER created through the grant will be published through the Iowa State University Digital Press, unless the Press declines to publish the material.¹

For open pedagogy projects: 

• Meet with support staff to develop your open pedagogy course design around best practices to support freedom of student expression.

Additional Support

In addition to funding, grantees will receive support from the Open Education Services Librarian; this support will be tailored to the project's needs and may include any of the following: 

• Planning support and regular meetings to review progress on the grant project
• Copyright consultations on using existing materials and licensing new ones
• Guidance on project formatting and development to meet Digital Press guidelines
• Help locating existing open content to adopt, adapt, or remix as part of the project
• Referrals to other support staff in the library and across campus depending on the needs of the project 

Review criteria

The proposals will be reviewed by a subcommittee made up of representatives from the Open & Affordable Education Committee, CELT, the University Library, and faculty. Reviews will be based on a rubric covering the following areas: 

• Feasibility of Project Plan and Timeline
• Significance and Need for the Project
• Clarity of Objectives
• Cost Savings (Projected)
• Student-centered Design
• Quality of Assessment Plan

Priority will be given to projects submitted by applicants who have not received a previous Miller Open Education Mini-Grant, or those who have not received a Mini-Grant in the past 2 years.

1. Mini-grant recipients may receive permission to publish their text-based projects elsewhere if they have sufficient reason for doing so. For example, a Statistics OER with a heavy emphasis on code may be better served utilizing Jupyter Notebooks than the ISU Digital Press' publishing software.