Revised September 3, 2008

The Provost’s Initiatives for Excellence (PIE) is a competitive grant program established to provide funding for activities that support innovation in approaches to teaching and learning.  Funds are specifically designed to assist departments and units in acting on novel ideas that might otherwise be difficult to accomplish and support.  PIE funds are intended as venture capital, serving as a fiscal bridge until an activity can be fully tested and/or become self-sustaining; in some cases, initiatives that show significant promise of impact can earn recurring funding through PIE. 

Priority is given to proposals that advance university priorities, including student engagement, civic and social responsibility, student retention and success, advising, leadership development, teacher preparation and diversity/internationalization.  All proposals must identify targeted outcomes and value-added impacts, and include some mechanism(s) for assessing those outcomes; for proposals designed to impact WKU students directly, proposals should document and assess one or more student learning outcomes. It is assumed that proposals support activities that go beyond a unit’s normal operations and responsibilities.  For more information, view the guidelines available on this page or email pie@wku.edu.

Proposals are considered monthly.  All proposals should be submitted electronically using the procedures and templates provided on this page.  A brief status report for all proposals funded must be provided (using the template provided on this page) within 30 days of the completion of the project, or by June 30th of the fiscal year in which the project was funded.  Funds to support the Provost’s Initiatives for Excellence come from a variety of sources, including Academic Quality Phase I and II Funds, CPE Action Agenda Funds, Grant Incentive Funds, and Provost Professional Development Funds.