Eden Catalyst funding

If you wish to apply, please contact your Departmental Advisers to discuss your project. Applications are via the Expression of Interest (EoI) Form.

This is a high-level application form requesting an outline of the project and an estimation of costings that will allow the funding panel to agree to a project in principle.  

Here you can find a printable copy of the EoI form.

Once completed and submitted the EoI form will be put forward for the funding panel's consideration. We aim to respond to EoIs within 15 to 20 working days of submission.

The Eden Catalyst fund is open to members of staff affiliated to School’s Departments.  

Applicants on fixed-term contracts should have a co-lead to assure project completion and dissemination of findings and/or good practice. 

Please note that communication regarding the application process will also be shared with the applicants’ Head of Department and Department Manager. Applicants are expected to inform the HoD and DM in advance of applying.  

Regrettably, students cannot apply to the Eden Catalyst Fund. Student inquiries can be directed to the Student Communities inbox (student.communities@lse.ac.uk). 

The approving panel assesses proposals through the following lenses (projects and applications do not need to address them all):

• Evidence-based: The panel is interested to hear about the evidence underpinning the project, this could be from scholarship, how the project connects with past projects within and outside the Department, and/or results from student feedback. 
• Education Enhancement: The panel is interested to hear about initiatives which contribute to improving the quality of teaching, learning and assessment activities and experiences for students and staff in line with Education and Student Experience strategic priorities. These can be at course, programme, or department level.  
• Innovation: The panel is interested to hear about projects aiming at innovating teaching and learning activities, introducing creative pedagogic practices, digital innovation, redesigning assessments, and focusing on key education and student experience priorities. These can be at course, programme or department level. The Fund also supports innovation by funding practice sharing and practice building within and across disciplines. 
• Staff-student partnership: The panel is interested to hear about projects positioning students as equal participants, active collaborators and/or co-creators with staff in their education.
• Collaborative: The panel welcomes interdisciplinary applications and those emerging from applicants working across different departments.
• Dissemination: The panel is interested to hear about how applicants will use the experience of the project to inspire the wider LSE teaching and learning community (outputs can be sharable resources, academic and staff development sessions, HE blogs posts, case studies, short videos, etc). 

To ensure continuity and clarity in the application process, the following points outline what is beyond the remit of the Fund. The list below will be reviewed annually to meet the evolving HE landscape.  

Regrettably, we are unable to fund:  

• Costs towards repeating activities previously funded by the Catalyst Fund or other funds across the School.  However, we are very interested in supporting ideas or practices emerging from past projects implemented within a department or inspired by previous Catalyst funded projects across the School.  
• Costs towards paying permanent members of staff. 
• Costs towards paying teaching staff to perform teaching and marking duties. 
• Costs towards hiring external consultants whose area of expertise overlaps with the expertise of teams or members of the LSE community. 
• Costs towards producing Departmental merchandise. 
• Costs towards buying electronic goods for staff such as laptops and desktops. 
• Costs towards travel expenses and conference fees for full time and permanent members of staff.

We generally do not fund:

• Costs towards food catering
• Costs towards hiring venues outside LSE
• Costs towards travel expenses for visiting scholars

However, we might consider contributing towards the cost of food, venues and travel expenses for visiting scholars if the Catalyst Fund intervention is essential to a successful outcome of the project. 

Here are some examples of recent projects:

SO492 as a Case Study for Large Workshop Teaching in Sociology 

Carrie Friese - Department of Sociology 

The project focused on planning, implementing and evaluating changes in the delivery of SO492 from a lecture+ seminar format to a ‘Harvard style’ large group workshop. The project produced a report, teaching resources, and reflections on the impact of teaching spaces on curriculum design.  

On the Same Page? Mapping Student-Supervisor Expectation Alignment in LSE Doctoral Education

Jens Madsen - Department of Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science, 

The project focused on doctoral supervision at LSE. Building on data collected through a survey of LSE PhD students and supervisors, the project delivered a research report and a resource to support effective dialogue between supervisors and supervisees.

Learning how to use boardgame design as an active learning pedagogy

Miqdad Asaria - Department of Health Policy

The project focused on incorporating boardgame design as a summative assessment for the Health Policy MSc module “Health Equity, Climate Change and the Common Good”. Watch Miqdad presenting the course curriculum and the boardgame as a learning activity.

GENIAL: GENerative AI tools as a Catalyst for Learning

Marcos Barreto - Department of Statistics, LSE
Dr Jon Cardoso-Silva - Data Science Institute, LSE

The project focused on investigating how undergraduate and postgraduate LSE students use GenAI tools in their learning. You can read more about the project, its development and findings here.

Teaching Creativity 

Anjana Bala - Department of Anthropology

Building on the work done as part of the  Eden Development Fellowship, the project focuses on the output of students’ research projects and more broadly on the role of creativity in the field of Anthropology in higher education. You can read more about the ideas behind the project here.