Open Education Incubator Fund

Support for Grant Writing

The slides from workshops that have already taken place are available to all to take a look at, and highly recommended to prospective applicants of the Incubator Fund.

• Getting started with Open Pedagogy: Use of OER for teaching
• Open Pedagogy for Learner Agency: Empowering Co-Creators in the Classroom
• Open Pedagogy beyond Classroom Walls: Co-creating Knowledge for the Benefit of All
• Crafting Your Open Pedagogy Proposal

Additionally, the following document by the Open Education Community of Practice can be used as a reference to implement Open Educational practices in a course.

If you would like support with aligning or redesigning parts of your course with Open Education in mind for your proposal, please feel free to contact Angelos Konstantinidis (Educational Advisor) at a.konstantinidis rug.nl

What to Apply For

Transformational Grant (Staff)

This grant supports teachers and educational support staff in structurally embedding Open Education into the curriculum, helping to realize our Open Educational vision. We welcome project proposals of all scales with funding available up to a maximum of €20.000. Smaller initiatives are explicitly encouraged to apply!

Funding may be used to:

• Compensate internal expenses, including but not limited to:

  - Own hour allocation to the project.
  - Involvement of embedded experts from CIT, EDU Support, AV-Support, Teaching Academy Groningen, etc. 
  - Rental and catering within RUG locations.

• Pay for external expenses, including but not limited to:
  - Externally hired videographer, animator, graphic designer, etc. 
  - Rental and catering outside of RUG locations 
  - Material costs, software license, etc.

Please note: Transformational grants aim to structurally embed Open Education within the regular curriculum. Applicants must justify how this one-time funding will create sustainable change in the regular curriculum and ensure project outcomes endure beyond the grant period.

Experimental Grant (Students)

This tier is for students to take initiative and ownership over their novel Open Educational project. Experimental grant proposals may apply for a maximum of €2.000.

This funding is intended to compensate costs incurred during the project and NOT for project participation. It may be used to:

• Compensate internal expenses, including but not limited to:
  - Involvement of embedded experts from CIT, ESI, AV-Support, Teaching Academy Groningen, etc. 
  - Allocate additional teaching hours for teacher and/or course coordinator 
  - Rental and catering within RUG locations.

• Pay for external expenses, including but not limited to:
  - Externally hired videographer, animator, graphic designer, etc.
  - Rental and catering outside of RUG locations 
  - Material costs, software license, etc.

Eligibility

Transformational Grant

Teaching and educational support staff from the University of Groningen (UG) and the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) can apply individually or as a team. Individuals may not apply with multiple projects, whether as a main applicant or co-applicant. The projects must lead to sustainable change in the regular curriculum, anchoring Open Educational practices in the regular teaching offer of the UG and/or UMCG. 

Experimental Grant 

Students from the University of Groningen (UG) and the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) can apply individually or as a team for extracurricular activities, or as a group for activities within the regular curriculum. 

To encourage and facilitate students to apply for this grant, the evaluation committee will reach out to pre-selected applicants to further discuss terms for eligibility. This is necessary to ensure compliance with relevant legal quality assurance requirements.

Evaluation of Proposals

Proposals (max 1.500 words) must use and fill out the complete application form. Proposals will be evaluated on basis of applicant eligibility, and adherence to the following requirements:

• Must be aligned with the Open Education Community of Practice’s vision for Open Education. 

• Must cover at least two of the three core action principles (Access, Learner Agency, Public Good). Check the following page for an explanation of the definition and the action principles.

• Must guarantee long-term open access and sustainability of project products, as justified in the licensing, sharing & sustainability section of the application form. For transformational grants, projects must result in a sustainable embedding of Open Educational practices in the regular curriculum.

• Project proposals must be well-structured and realistic, as justified in the timeline & budget section of the application form.

Applications will be checked for eligibility and adherence to the requirements by an evaluation committee consisting of academics and educational experts with expertise in Open Education. Proposals that check eligibility and requirements will be pre-selected for the grant awards lottery. The final selection will be made at random from the pool of pre-selected proposals.

Timeline and Application Procedure

February 2026

The call for proposals opens on the 18th February 2026. 

March 2026

Applicants are not required but strongly encouraged to participate in the Education Festival 2026 and join the relevant incubator fund writing workshop. Furthermore, the CIT Education Support and Innovation department offers courses that will allow prospective applicants to deepen their knowledge and sharpen their applications on the three action principles. We therefore encourage prospective applicants to sign up to the following courses:

• Getting started with Open Pedagogy: Use of OER for teaching

• Open Pedagogy for Learner Agency: Empowering Co-Creators in the Classroom

• Open Pedagogy beyond Classroom Walls: Co-creating Knowledge for the Benefit of All

May 2026
The call for proposals closes on the 22nd May 2026, 15:00. Applications must be submitted via the application form. 

For experimental grants (student-led projects), the evaluation committee will reach out to pre-selected applicants to discuss and clarify terms for eligibility. 

June 2026

Evaluation committee announces the winning proposals on the 17th June 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q: I am applying for (or have already received) another grant. Can I still apply for the Open Education Incubator Fund?

Yes.

Q: One semester feels too short for my proposed project. Can the project take longer?

Yes. While the standard project period is one semester, we offer flexibility. You may request an extended timeline, for example starting as early as 1 August 2026 and ending by 15 July 2027.

Q: It is difficult at this stage to form a detailed budget. How specific should the budget be? What if we need to make changes during the project if funded?

We understand that early‑stage planning has uncertainties. Please provide as much detail as possible. At a minimum:

• For personnel: indicate the expertise/role and the estimated hours and hourly or total amount for each person. Specific names are not required at this stage.

• For materials and other expenses: list each item (e.g., printing, graphic design, catering) with a reasonable cost estimate.

If your project is funded and you realize mid-project deviations from the original project plan, please reach out to us as soon as possible to discuss such deviations.

Q: How do I calculate the salary costs per hour for the personnel in my project?

One possible approach is to use the Handleiding Overheidstarieven (HOT), which provides average direct labour costs (excluding VAT) per salary scale. You can combine this with the standardised salary tables of the Universities of the Netherlands to estimate hourly rates for staff involved in the project.

A handy budget template that you could consult for calculating salary costs per hour is available here: https://www.nko.nl/sites/nro/files/media-files/Budget-form-2026---Comenius-Teaching-Fellows.xlsx

However, alternative approaches are also possible. Ultimately, the budget should realistically reflect how the programme coordinator or relevant department will allocate time and resources to enable staff to carry out the project activities.

Q: How should I evaluate the success of the project? What kind of evidence is expected?

Your evaluation should focus on evidence that your project fosters transformative open education. We ask that you consider at least two of the following key dimensions; for each dimension, we provide example indicators:

• Accessibility and inclusivity: All core materials are openly licensed or freely accessible; materials meet basic accessibility standards; assignments allow choice in format or mode of expression; learners report feeling able to participate and belong.

• Learner agency and co-creation: Learners can articulate how and why learning activities are designed; invest time beyond requirements; show enthusiasm; participate actively in class and co‑creation activities; take initiative; make meaningful choices; advocate for their work; express pride in their outputs; course outputs include co-created artefacts; decision-making processes are shared and transparent; reflection on learning and process is embedded in activities. 

• Social orientation: Learners contribute content to shared knowledge spaces; can explain how their work contributes to shared knowledge; engage with external audiences or community partners; engage in ethical reflection about authorship, representation, and impact; curricula include diverse and historically marginalised perspectives; projects demonstrate relevance beyond assessment. 

In addition, you may propose other evaluation dimensions specific to your project (e.g., improved technical skills, creation and increased use of high‑quality OER, enhanced collaboration among students). Please describe such custom dimensions and their indicators in your Evaluation Plan.

You can collect both quantitative data (e.g., pre/post surveys, rubrics) and qualitative data (e.g., reflection logs, focus groups, observation notes).

Q: I am not sure what to include in the “Licensing” section–what are you looking for?

We are not expecting legal expertise here, but we do encourage you to make thoughtful choices about how open you want your materials to be. A good starting point is to explore the university’s guidance on open licensing and familiarize yourself with Creative Commons (CC) licenses, which are especially suitable for educational materials.

When deciding, you might reflect on questions like:

• Do you want others to reuse your materials for commercial purposes?

• Are you happy for others to adapt or remix your work?

• If so, should they share adaptations under the same license, or can they choose their own?

• Do you want to require attribution?

While CC licenses are usually the best fit for teaching materials, other licenses exist–especially for software or technical tools.

If your project involves redesigning a course/curriculum, you do not need to list every resource. Instead, briefly indicate whether your materials are mostly copyrighted or open, and whether you plan to replace copyrighted content with open alternatives.

If you need support with licensing as well as searching and finding open alternatives, the university library colleagues can help: oer-library@rug.nl.

Q: I am not sure where or how to share my OER–what do you recommend?

We encourage you to share the products of your project on platforms where others can easily find, use, and reuse them. We discourage uploading resources to your own website, as this usually limits visibility and long-term sustainability.

We recommend sharing your OER via Edusources, as it is directly connected to Dutch universities and accessible with your institutional account. Our OER experts can review submissions and, when necessary, ask for additional information or modifications to help ensure that uploaded materials meet good practices for open licensing, attribution, accessibility, and long-term sustainability.
From Edusources, your materials can also be linked to other platforms, such as OER Commons, MERLOT, and Zenodo, reducing duplication of effort. Depending on your project, you may also consider platforms like GitHub (for code, interactive tools, or versioned materials) or ResearchEquals (for sharing research outputs and educational resources in an open, citable format).

The key is to ensure your resources are easy to access, clearly described, and openly licensed, so others can find, understand, and reuse them effectively. This includes providing clear titles and descriptions, adding relevant keywords and subject areas, and specifying how the resource can be used. Good metadata helps others quickly determine whether your resource fits their needs.

It is also important to include proper attribution using the TASL framework (Title, Author, Source, License), which ensures that original creators are credited and that any modifications are transparent. 

Q: I am not sure what to include in the “Sustainability” section–what are you looking for?

We are interested in how the benefits of your project will continue after the funding ends. You need to explain how what you build during the project will remain useful over time.

A good approach is to refer to your Timeline & Budget and explain how key investments create lasting value. For example:

• Will the OER you develop be reused in future courses?

• Are there one-time investments (e.g., materials, tools) that can be reused at low cost?

• Will the course design or teaching approach become part of the regular curriculum?

• Are you creating templates, guides, or toolkits that others can reuse?

• Are your outputs shared openly so they remain accessible and discoverable over time?

• Can the project scale to other courses or programmes?

The goal is to show that your project leads to sustainable practices, reusable resources, or long-term impact, rather than a one-off intervention.

You are also encouraged to contact the university library colleagues for advice on sustainability, OER sharing, metadata, repositories, and strategies for keeping resources accessible and reusable over time: oer-library@rug.nl.