2

• Project submission form instruction fields are in blue:
• TRU Open Press responses are in black:

ISP application information is on this site. 

Proposals must be submitted to isp@tru.ca by 4 p.m. on Feb. 15, 2023

Timelines
Projects will be funded for up to three years (2023-2026)

Please complete the following fields detailing how your team’s proposed project meets the criteria for ISP funding, including how it will help TRU achieve its strategic objectives and aligned priorities:

Strategic Priority 1: Student success and research innovation through inclusive excellence in research faculty and staff recruitment.

TRU is already a leader in open education globally with award-winning scholars and practitioners employed across the university; the TRU Open Press is an opportunity to support the open pedagogies and open research that define this global leadership role. The TRU Open Press will support student success and faculty innovation by centralizing OER publishing in-house and protecting it for our users and by supporting the development of high quality materials; it will support faculty research innovation by supporting open data and open scholarship opportunities, as well as offering unique knowledge mobilization strategies. For example, TRU Open Press leadership is already involved in the first peer-reviewed scholarly podcasting network in the world, funded by a SSHRC-PDG grant. Bringing the in-house expertise together in one place will make it more accessible for faculty and provide jobs and experiential learning in this innovative sector for students.

Strategic Objective 1: By 2033, TRU will successfully recruit and retain 200 new tri-partite faculty and 100 staff. We will aim to recruit from equity deserving groups.

The TRU Open Press is of particular interest to TRU’s research faculty given the emergent mandates from the Tri-Council funding agencies for funded work to be shared openly, for data to be stored openly, and for knowledge to be mobilized. Centralizing the supports for open publishing, open repositories, and tools like blogging and podcasting under the auspices of the TRU Open Press will offer faculty a “one-stop shop” both in planning Tri-Council applications and executing these plans once funded. The capacity to offer this support in-house is a differentiator for TRU within the higher education sector, where this work is often left to faculty to manage alone; for this reason, TRU Open Press has the opportunity to be a significant attractor of tripartite faculty. This also makes opportunities for knowledge mobilization more equitably available to all faculty.

Strategic Priority 2: Eliminate achievement gaps across different groups of learners, and honour, truth, reconciliation, and rights.

The TRU Open Press will support faculty in the development of OER. Open education materials eliminate achievement gaps by eliminating costs for all learners; this has a greater material impact on already marginalized student populations. The TRU Open Press will also support the development of multimodal learning materials as part of an innovative, universal design for learning, digital-first approach to developing classroom resources to reach more learners. Further, a significant strength of OER is the ability to localize and Indigenize existing educational materials to make them more directly relevant to TRU learners. The TRU Open Press will also advance a mandate to require meaningful engagement with the Office of Indigenous Education and local Secwépemc community members in the development of OER. This practice will also extend to scholarly publishing and knowledge mobilization strategies.

Strategic Objective 2: TRU will measurably eliminate achievement gaps and honour truth, reconciliation, and rights by developing, implementing, and evaluating a wholistic belonging model that addresses academic, material, and cultural needs of learners.

We can specifically address wholistic belonging for all learners by adapting resources to the academic, material, and cultural contexts of the TRU community. This means localization of content to TRU learner needs, reducing classroom material costs by developing resources in-house, and providing for content to be Indigenized and internationalized with an eye to intercultural learning. The TRU Open Press centralizes the existing expertise at TRU to develop multimodal and multimedia learning materials to reach more learners. The TRU Open Press will also focus on supporting student researchers from across TRU by offering opportunities to learn how academic publishing works and by supporting and developing undergraduate and graduate publishing opportunities. The TRU Open Press will also specifically address the material needs of learners by providing good, on-campus jobs for the development of skills in publishing, design, editing, and research

Strategic Priority 3: Recognized provincially, nationally, and internationally for our unique academic and trades programs that provide students with flexible learning pathways, and experiential learning and community-engaged research opportunities.

The TRU Open Press is designed to provide meaningful experiential learning opportunities for learners in relevant disciplines and to teach students valuable skills in mobilizing knowledge to communities. The TRU Open Press makes materials created at TRU available to community stakeholders and trains students in the value of communicating research widely. As a research university embedded in its regional and cultural communities, TRU will benefit from opportunities to share knowledge widely; the TRU Open Press is an opportunity to harness existing in-house expertise and build capacity to showcase our leadership in this area.

One example of this existing international engagement is the UN SDG Open Pedagogy Faculty Fellowship, an OE Global award-winning international fellowship program that pairs faculty from different institutions and disciplines to create open pedagogy-based assignments that address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG). The conceptual framework for this fellowship is based on the UN SDG’s 17 goals that address a wide range of social issues such as poverty, inequality, education, climate change, and peace and justice which are designed to achieve and maintain social justice and a sustainable future. Participating in this fellowship provides faculty with opportunities to connect with faculty from other countries and disciplines to explore and develop assessments that will help TRU students become agents of change and have an impact on their communities. This is one example of disparate open pedagogy and publishing opportunities underway at TRU that will have a larger impact and more visibility when brought under the auspices of the TRU Open Press.

Strategic Objective 3: We will develop, implement, and evaluate an Academic and Open plan that reflects our commitment to accessible, research informed curriculum, experiential learning, and trades training.

The TRU Open Press will work directly with the Department of Communications and Visual Art to develop experiential learning opportunities in communications design, marketing, new media, and public relations for learners in the Bachelor of Communications degree program; we will also work directly with TRUSU to staff student researcher and developer roles on the team. Students involved in these opportunities will learn transferable, job-ready skills in areas ranging from document design and web development to audio and video production and editing to marketing and communications. The TRU Open Press, in addition to being the publisher of first choice for the TRU community, will also strive to be the employer of first choice for TRU learners.

Project Proposal Review Process

Project proposals must be submitted via email to isp@tru.ca by 4pm on February 15th 2023. The Provost’s Office will coordinate the submission of proposals received by that date. Once submitted, proposals will be reviewed by the Mission Fulfillment Executive Committee who will complete a first-round peer review of the proposals.

First round review is intended to provide formative feedback on the content and criteria of the applications according to the guiding principles and will not include a review of budget information.

Upon completion of the peer review, all proposals will be submitted to committee comprised of the Provost, VP Research, VP University Relations, and a representative from Finance. This committee will review full proposals, including budget information and the peer review feedback provided by the Mission Fulfilment Executive Committee.

Proposals that are conditionally accepted to move forward will be given feedback for improvement according to the peer feedback, including potential opportunities to collaborate with other teams to ensure that all strategic priorities are addressed.

Proposals that are not accepted for funding will be informed that they will not be moving to the next stage for 2023 funding. All project teams will receive their formative feedback regardless of whether they are accepted or not.

Teams invited to the second stage will be required to revise (if appropriate) and resubmit their proposals via email to isp@tru.ca by 4pm on March 1st, 2023. Revised proposals will be re-evaluated by the subcommittee of the Senior Executive and final decisions regarding project priorities will then be made.

Teams are informed of the final decisions via email on March 15th, 2023. Funding budget lines are created for project on March 30th, 2023. At that time, approved project teams may begin their project development and implementation.

Ongoing Reporting

All ISP project teams will be tracked through the standard fiscal year via quarterly reporting. A budget officer will be assigned to ISP to work with the Provost on ISP oversight. Project teams will be expected to meet with Provost each budget quarter to review project implementation and evaluation. Teams will also provide written reports for information to Senate twice yearly.