2026-27 Analytics Mini Grant Proposals Due 6/5/26

Once again, the Division of Information Technology (DoIT), in partnership with the Office of the Provost, invites UMBC faculty and staff to submit analytics proposals for the 2026-27 academic year. Also, this year, a new focus will include proposals that aim to improve administrative efficiency and effectiveness. Regardless, the goal is the same – to use current or past data to inform future interventions or “actionable intelligence” that can solve a current problem or create a new opportunity to achieve a desired outcome.

Grant Overview
Award: $2,000 professional development award, renewable annually, transferred to your department’s PeopleSoft chart string.

Focus Areas

• Student Success and Retention: Projects exploring relationships between activities or learning in one course and outcomes in other courses, particularly critical progression points, low-success courses, or foundational skills.
• Faculty Development and Support: Proposals that leverage institutional data (via REX and Tableau) to inform instructional practices, contributing insights to the LA Community of Practice.

• Administrative Efficiency and Effectiveness: Projects focused on improving administrative efficiency & effectiveness, especially return on investment (ROI) to do so.

Eligibility

• All UMBC faculty (including adjunct faculty, lecturers, and tenure-track faculty) and staff members.

Expectations for Grant Recipients

• Engage actively with the UMBC Analytics Community of Practice (CoP).
• Produce and present a final report or scholarly product (conference presentation, external grant proposal, or publication).

• Consider leveraging results to apply for a Hrabowski Innovation Fund award.

Application Components:
Proposals must include:

1. Brief Abstract: Suitable for publication on UMBC’s website (maximum 200 words).
2. Project Proposal: Clearly outlining objectives, methodology, expected outcomes, and relevance (maximum 3 pages).
3. FERPA training completion certificate (more info)
4. Signed acknowledgement of support: Department Chair or Leader (through DocuSign)

Timeline

• Proposal Deadline: Friday, June 5, 2026
• Notification of Awards: Early July 2026
• Grant Period: July 2026 – June 2027

Support and Resources

• REX Data Warehouse (available to all faculty & staff who’ve completed FERPA training)
• Tableau training and support provided by DoIT
• Access to online, self-paced “Analytics @ UMBC” Blackboard training site.
• Access to prior workshops and resources to inform proposal development.

Please submit proposals here. For proposal guidance, questions, or further information, please contact:

Robert Carpenter
Associate Provost for Analytics & Deputy CIO
bobc@umbc.edu

John Fritz
Associate Vice President, Instructional Technology
fritz@umbc.edu

Tom Penniston
Coordinator of Learning Analytics
penniston@umbc.edu