Fund for Academic Collaboration and Transformation (FACT)

Do you have a teaching, learning or assessment-related challenge that you want to tackle?

Are you interested in working in partnership with students to take a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning - based approach to investigating that challenge and innovating solutions?

If so, OCAED’s Fund for Academic Collaboration and Transformation (FACT) could be for you.

OCAED is now inviting staff to submit expressions of interest for one of four awards of £500 (plus 30 hours of Student Partner time, worth an additional £500) that aim to enhance teaching, learning or assessment in a module, on a programme or in a discipline.

What is FACT?

The Fund for Academic Collaboration and Transformation aims to support students and staff in working together to investigate TL&A challenges and enhance the student academic experience.

Staff bring the initial challenge, explaining what the problem is, how we know it is a problem, and what expertise students could bring in investigating it and finding solutions.

Students and OCAED staff will review the suggested challenges and select four to work on based on the outline criteria. The successful project teams will be matched up with an OCAED Student Partner, and as co-investigators you will together design and carry out a small-scale Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) project, with a budget of £500.

FACT staff and student teams will present their findings at the Brookes International Teaching & Learning Conference: ‘The Political Power of Partnership Working’ in June 2026.

OCAED will support FACT teams with:

Collaborative and scholarly project design.
Budget management.
Evaluating and evidencing the impact of academic enhancement.

This will include attending several EXPLORE sessions, the dates of which are available below.

What are the criteria?

A clearly defined challenge relating to teaching, learning, or assessment.
A clear rationale, supported by evidence, for why this challenge is worth investigating.
Alignment with the IDEAS curriculum model.
Alignment with Oxford Brookes’ strategy (Strategy 2035, Education & Enterprise Pillar, Faculty plans, APP, or a current initiative e.g. assessment reset).
Explain the value of partnership.
Commitment to engage with relevant academic CPD (the EXPLORE workshops).
Commitment to presenting at the Oxford Brookes University International Teaching and Learning Conference in June 2026.

Who can apply?

We welcome applications from individuals or small teams of colleagues at all career stages, from all academic departments, and anyone working within the directorates. We are particularly keen to receive proposals from colleagues who have not previously conducted a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) project and are seeking to extend their knowledge and expertise.

Please note that to be eligible at least one member of the project team must hold Advance HE professional teaching recognition, either Associate, Fellow, Senior Fellow or Principal Fellow.

How to apply

Staff are invited to:

suggest a pedagogic challenge, issue or problem to investigate
explain what expertise students would bring to the project, and how they would work together.

Submit your Expression of Interest form by 12 December 2025.

A copy of the application questions and the shortlisting rubric (Brookes login required) are available to assist you with drafting your submission, but please use the google form to submit.

Key dates

Date	Activity
3 November 2025	Call for EOIs opens.
13 November, 12.00pm - 1.00pm	Briefing session (add this event to your calendar)
12 December 2025	Application deadline.
19 December 2025	Applicants notified.
Week begining 19 January 2026	Project kick-off-introductions to student partners.
By 30 January 2026	Watch a recording of EXPLORE workshop: Academic Enhancement 1: Designing Scholarship of Teaching and Learning for impact.
9 February 2026, 9.00am	Project proposals due.
13 February 2026	Project approvals.
25 March 2026	EXPLORE workshop: Academic Enhancement 3: Disseminating SoTL findings for impact 25 March.
13 or 15 April 2026	EXPLORE workshop: Academic Enhancement 2: Evaluating and evidencing impact of SoTL and Teaching Innovation 13 and 15 April.
May 2026	Conference submission deadline.
June 2026	Oxford Brookes University International Teaching and Learning Conference.
31 July 2026	Final project evaluation due.