Herz Faculty Teaching Development Awards

The Herz Faculty Teaching Development Awards program supports faculty activities designed to improve the quality of medical education by enhancing faculty teaching skills. Proposals should identify significant needs for improving the quality of education at the University of Minnesota Medical School and should describe activities designed to enhance the development of an individual or group of faculty members as educators and teachers.

Eligibility

Appropriate projects include:
  • Individuals or groups conducting site visits or attending workshops on such topics as curriculum design, instructional methods, evaluation methods, or teaching methods for specific Medical School curriculum areas.
  • Bringing experts to the University of Minnesota to improve teaching through workshops and/or mentoring with individuals or groups of faculty.
  • Education projects focused on improving the teaching or curriculum development expertise of faculty through work with local or national experts in education.
Highest priority will be given to:
  • Proposals by faculty members who have demonstrated interest, excellence, leadership, and/or innovation in education.
  • Programs of professional development for individual faculty or groups of faculty that suggest a high probability of significant impact on the education of medical students and on teaching colleagues.
Proposals should describe:
  1. important educational goals or needs
  2. activities designed to develop faculty education skills related to these needs
  3. how these skills will be used to improve the education of medical students
  4. relevant qualifications of the faculty authoring the proposal
  5. a plan for evaluating the value of the program
  6. a proposed budget for the project
  7. a letter of support from the applicant’s department head
Budget:

$25,000 is available for distribution among the selected projects. Generally, the award will not fund faculty or graduate assistant salaries simply to develop educational materials.

Application process

Proposals will then be reviewed and ranked by members of the Medical School Honors and Awards Committee. Final decisions regarding funding will be made by the Committee in conjunction with Medical Education leadership.