Education research and funding


the School will recognise and reward excellence and innovation in teaching and offer opportunities for academic staff to develop themselves and to create an educational offer for students that is ambitious, challenging and rewarding

LSE Education Strategy, Strategic Objective 1

The Eden Centre is the School’s centre for higher education research and expertise. As well as conducting our own research, we fund academic fellowships, co-lead the LSE Change Makers programme with the LSE SU and work with research assistants during the academic year to investigate different aspects of education and the student experience at LSE.  

Through the Eden Catalyst Fund we enable evidenced-based education development and innovation projects across LSE.

We also foster critical scholarly debate and investigation through the LSE Higher Education Blog and our Atlas academic development programme. Colleagues on the PGCertHE have the opportunity to undertake an independent inquiry into pedagogic practice.   

Finally, the LSE Education Evaluation Framework enables colleagues across the School to undertake evaluative research to better understand the success and impact of their projects and initiatives.   

Please get in touch via eden@lse.ac.uk if you have an idea you would like to explore. 

The Eden Catalyst Fund (up to £10,000)

The Eden Catalyst Fund supports evidence-based education enhancement and innovation projects for up to £10,000. We support initiatives which contribute to the development and delivery of education enhancement activities at the School. We are particularly interested in applications relating to the following themes (click on the links to find further useful resources): 

Curriculum enrichment 

The Catalyst fund supports projects aiming at developing activities that support and enhance students’ learning experience. 

Assessment and feedback enhancement 

The Catalyst fund supports projects aiming at developing current assessment methods to enhance students’ ability to know the causes of things. 

Technology enhanced learning and digital innovation 

The Catalyst Fund supports projects aiming at improving student experience at LSE by innovating or enhancing learning through technology. 

Inclusive education 

At LSE, inclusive education is centred on the recognition of all identities, underpinned by a steadfast dedication to principled and inclusive teaching and learning approaches. Our key areas of emphasis within the inclusive education framework encompass academic mentoring, the integration of inclusive and anti-racist pedagogies, and the enhancement of our curriculum. 

Student voices and/or student partnership  

Student voice is an overarching term covering the multiple ways in which LSE can gain insights from students to enhance education and the student experience. Closing the feedback loop is a key part of student voice activity to help ensure that students feel heard and that they understand how their insights are being used to shape LSE. Student partnership is an expansion of student voice, focusing on ways in which LSE can position students as equal participants, active collaborators and/or co-creators of their education and wider student experience. This ethos is at the heart of LSE’s Educate for Global Impact strategy. 

Academic Support 

The Catalyst Fund, in line with LSE commitment to fostering community, inclusion and wellbeing for all students, supports projects aiming at strengthening provisions of academic support and academic mentoring at course, programme, or department level. 

Education for Sustainability 

Education for Sustainability reflects an educational approach that employs teaching methods to equip students with the skills for perceptive analysis of social issues, aiming to drive progress towards a more sustainable future. Erica Pani, Academic Lead for the Education for Sustainability Initiative at LSE, explains here what Education for Sustainability means at LSE. The integration of sustainability into LSE's teaching and learning experiences has become a commitment within the Education strand of LSE's Sustainability Strategic Plan, playing an integral role in accomplishing LSE 2030 Priority 1: Educate for Global Impact. 

Please note that the Catalyst Fund also supports research projects and data collection contributing to institutional and sector-wide debates connected to the themes listed above.

How to apply

If you wish to apply, please use the online Expression of Interest (EoI) Form. The EoI form is a simple, high-level application form requesting an outline of the project and an estimation of cost that will allow the funding panel to agree to a project in principle. Here you can find a printable copy of the EoI form to give you an idea up-front of the sections and questions you will need to fill out. We welcome Expressions of Interest emerging from interdisciplinary, interdepartmental dialogues and submitted by applicants across different departments. 

Once completed the EoI form will be automatically sent to the Eden Centre for the funding panel's consideration. We aim to respond to EoIs within 15 to 20 working days of submission. 

What is the funding panel looking for in an EoI?  

The approving panel is aiming to support evidence-based, education enhancement, and innovation projects.  

Evidence-based: The panel is interested to hear about the evidence base underpinning the project, this could be from the 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 LSE 2030 Educate for Global Impact. 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 priorities of LSE2030 Educate for Global Impact. 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. 

The panel is particularly interested to hear about how applicants will use the experience of the project to inspire the larger LSE teaching and learning community (outputs can be sharable resources, Atlas development sessions, HE blogs posts, case studies, short videos, etc). 

What is beyond the remit of the Catalyst Fund?  

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 ever-changing landscape of teaching in Higher Education. 

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. 

What might the Catalyst Fund support? 

If relevant to a successful outcome of the project, the approving panel may fund: 

  • Costs towards food catering  

  • Costs towards hiring venues outside LSE 

  • Costs towards travel expenses for visiting scholars 

The Catalyst Fund can also support activities and initiatives focused on education enhancement and innovation that are part of or to be implemented during a Departmental Away Day.  

*NEW* The Eden Catalyst Spotlight Fund

To mark the first Education Forum of the academic year, Dr Claire Gordon, Director, Eden Centre is inaugurating the first edition of The Eden Catalyst Spotlight Fund. This year's Spotlight is on the theme of Student Voice.  

The TEF results prompt the School to work collaboratively to keep students at the center of the LSE community. Colleagues are encouraged to share their plans on how to enhance students' education and learning experience in line with LSE Educate for Global Impact Strategy. In particular, the Eden Catalyst Fund welcomes plans for projects emerging from students’ feedback and/or aiming to improve the visibility of how feedback is acted on. The Eden Catalyst Fund is also interested in funding projects emerging from/inspired by past research conducted by LSE Change Makers.  

Proposals at course, programme and departmental level are welcome. Colleagues are also encouraged to reach out to their network across the School to implement interdepartmental initiatives. Applications for Staff-Students projects are also welcome. The deadline to submit applications under the Spotlight Fund is 5 January 2024. The guidelines for applications and awards are available in the accordion above. Awards will be announced in early 2024. 

At the beginning of Winter Term, successful applicants will be invited to participate in a workshop where they will have the chance to showcase their projects to other successful applicants to create synergies and explore possible further collaborations. During the workshop, successful applicants will also have the chance to discuss their ideas and projects with Dr Claire Gordon, Professor Emma McCoy, and a member of the LSE SU who will comment on and provide feedback on project plans.  

Fellowships for LSE staff

Below you can access information about different types of Fellowship available to LSE academics. They are:

Eden Fellows HEA scheme

SOTL Fellowships

Inclusive Education Action Plan Fellowships focussed on Decolonising

Eden Development Fellowships

Undergraduate research internships

The Eden Centre has funding available to employ undergraduate students as research interns or assistants during the academic year 2022/23. Find out more here

Education for Sustainability Student Internships

The Eden Centre has funding available to employ both undergraduate and postgraduate students as research interns or assistants during the academic year 2022/23. 

This is intended to support LSE Academics’ commitment towards education for sustainability, but also to offer students different experiences such as insights into how to embed education for sustainability in the existing curriculum; support curriculum enhancement, participate in course design and research skills development.

Applications are not currently open, the most recent round having closed at the end of January 2023. We will update this page if funding is re-opened before the next academic year.

For more information, visit our Education for Sustainability Resources page.

Education research and analysis

On this page, you can find data analysis, summaries, reports and other informative documents on education at LSE.

Explore the Education analysis page here.

LSE Education Evaluation Framework and Open Evaluation Fund

Are you working with students at LSE, supporting their education or student experience? Are you interested in learning more about your work and its impact? Then the LSE Education Evaluation Framework and Open Evaluation Fund might be perfect for you. 

Recognising the need for critical reflection as part of education work, LSE has developed the ‘Education Evaluation Framework’. Containing resources to help you develop an evaluation approach, a dedicated support team and the Open Evaluation Fund, the framework contains a lot of resources that can help you develop an evaluative research project. 

To find out more, visit our website here or get in touch with Education Evaluation Manager, Jonathan Schulte

LSE Scholars at Risk

LSE Scholars at Risk (LSE SAR) is a School-wide, centrally funded initiative to support scholars at risk by enabling them to be hosted at LSE in a visiting fellow or senior visiting fellow status for a maximum period of two years.

For more details, visit the LSE Scholars at Risk page.