CLIF Grants

Centred on Learning Innovation Fund (CLIF)

Call for Proposals
Propsals due: Monday, October 19, 2026, 4:30PM

Overview

Download the
CLIF application An Applicant's Guide to Applying for a CLIF Grant Submit CLIF Final Report

The theme of the 2026 Centred on Learning Innovation Fund (CLIF) grant is Practices and Processes for Effective Use of AI in Teaching, Learning, and Assessment. This year’s CLIF theme supports the University’s strategic priorities by stimulating useful research and inquiry into practical, scholarly, and effective ways educators and students can work with artificial intelligence in teaching, learning, and assessment.

This year’s CLIF grants will focus on meaningful and effective integration of AI into pedagogical practices and processes in higher education contexts. Successful proposals will center on how AI is framed, scaffolded, supported, regulated, reflected upon, and assessed to facilitate teaching and learning. CLIF grants will be awarded to proposals that have the potential to improve learning at the University of Windsor by deepening our understanding of how AI could be used in practice, how it could reshape learning and assessment processes, and how we might design sustainable, equitable, and educationally sound AI-related practices. Proposals may explore how disciplinary responses to AI shape pedagogical interventions, including how to support the development of critical AI literacy and cognitive sovereignty. We invite proposals from a variety of disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and multidisciplinary perspectives.

Possible topics and themes may include, but are not limited to, the following:

Designing course-level or program-level practices for helping students critically and ethically use AI in coursework, including explicit process-focused guidelines, scaffolds, and reflection activities;
Process-oriented approaches to assessment in AI-rich environments (e.g., iterative drafting, process portfolios, oral defences, studio critiques, or design logs that surface human work and judgement alongside AI use);
Strategies for cultivating students’ metacognition, agency, self-regulation, and academic integrity in relation to AI-supported tasks (e.g., self-explanations of AI use, structured reflection on when/why to use AI, co-created norms, AI portfolios);
Strategies for encouraging creative, entrepreneurial, and generative approaches to AI use by students;
Designing approaches to developing AI literacy within a disciplinary context;
Working with students as partners to uncover and leverage existing strategies and nuanced ways in which students use AI to inform pedagogical practice;
Understanding AI literacy and fluency expectations and needs of students in co-op, internships, and other work-integrated learning (WIL) experiences;
Designing and piloting collaborative practices and workflows among instructors, staff, and students for integrating AI into teaching teams, labs, studios, and/or clinical education in ways that are transparent, accountable, and educationally purposeful;
Approaches to (re)designing existing courses or programs so that AI-enabled practices are aligned with learning outcomes, assessment criteria, and disciplinary values;
Understanding the impact of AI team mates/collaborators on learning in group projects;
Processes for communicating expectations, guidelines, and rationales about AI to students (including course policies, orientation practices, and formative feedback strategies) that lead to meaningful change in academic honesty behaviours;
Methods for documenting, evaluating, and iteratively improving AI-related teaching practices (e.g., design-based research cycles, participatory action research, or SoTL approaches focusing on practice);
Designing AI-aware assessment strategies that improve reliability, validity, security, and integrity of the assessment, while also ensuring accessibility and equity;
Cross-unit or cross-disciplinary collaborations that develop shared frameworks, protocols, or resources for AI use in teaching and learning (e.g., shared assignment templates, process rubrics, or consultation models);
Processes and strategies for minimizing the negative impact of AI use on cognition and literacy.

Projects that primarily focus on purchasing or piloting specific tools, or on showcasing technical features of AI systems without an accompanying, well-developed plan for studying practices, processes, and outcomes will not be competitive under this year’s theme.

Purpose

The purpose of the Centred on Learning Innovation Fund is to stimulate the development, implementation, and assessment of effective and/or innovative teaching and learning practices at the University of Windsor. The 2026 CLIF grants will specifically support projects that investigate and enhance practices, processes, and pedagogies surrounding the use of AI in teaching, learning, and assessment.

Criteria

Preference will be given to projects that:

Are clearly and substantively relevant to the 2026 theme, with a primary focus on practices and processes rather than acquisition or promotion of particular AI tools;
Offer a compelling rationale and a clear plan for all stages of the project (design, implementation, documentation, assessment, and dissemination);
Build on existing research and scholarly literature on teaching and learning, AI in education, and/or related fields;
Establish a clearly meaningful assessment plan and procedure to evaluate the effects and consequences of the project on teaching and/or learning (e.g., changes in student engagement, learning outcomes, integrity, or self-regulation);
Present a clear and detailed plan for use of the grant funds and budgeting that distinguishes project-related work from normal curriculum development and routine course revisions;
Demonstrate potential for educational impact beyond the immediate context (e.g., transferability to other courses, programs, or units);
Emphasize collaboration (within or across departments/units, and where appropriate, with students or staff);
Demonstrate innovation in how AI-related practices are conceptualized, implemented, and/or evaluated (e.g., novel assessment processes, reflective workflows, collaborative protocols, or integrative pedagogies).

Award Categories

Two categories of CLIF grants will be awarded:

Departmental/program applications showing how the proposed project could affect an entire program or department: maximum of $5,000;
Individual applications, including collaborations among individuals: maximum of $2,500.

Eligibility

Applications are encouraged from:

All disciplines;
Instructors employing any or all modes of university course delivery (in-person, hybrid, online);
Individuals holding a full-time teaching appointment, including tenured and tenure-track faculty, Learning Specialists, and Limited Term faculty and AAS appointments at the University of Windsor for the term of the grant (generally, February 1, 2027 – January 31, 2028);
Individuals or teams (teams may include students and/or part-time faculty members as co-investigators).

Application Procedure

Applicants must complete the CLIF application form, including:

A project description and rationale (2 pages maximum) that:
- Clearly situates the project within the 2026 theme;
- Describes the relevant educational context, problem, or research question;
- Explains the proposed practices and processes involving AI, including roles of each team member;
- Demonstrates and justifies anticipated educational impact and student engagement;
- Refers to existing research and literature as appropriate;
- Provides a clear assessment plan with well-defined criteria and evidence of success (e.g., data to be collected, indicators of change);
- Indicates plans for sustainability, if appropriate.
A detailed proposed budget that itemizes and justifies all expenses, consistent with the outline of proposed research and in line with eligible/limited expenses (see below);
A clear project timeline.

Applications must be submitted by the principal applicant electronically through the ERSO Research Portal by Monday, October 19, 2026 at 4:30PM. Please note that only the Principal Investigator will be able to submit the application via the ERSO Research Portal.

Conditions of the Award

Reporting

Grantees will submit a final report demonstrating the findings and confirming completion of the project within 30 days of the project end date. Abstracts and reports of successful applications may be posted on the CLIF webpage.

Funding period

Funds will be disbursed in one installment and must be spent within one year of the project start date.

Please take into account whether research ethics clearance is needed as you prepare your application. For more information, contact the Office of the Research Ethics Board at ext. 3948 or via email at ethics@uwindsor.ca.

Ineligible and Limited Expenses

Ineligible expense:

Course release.

Expenses with limited eligibility (as a proportion of the total award):

Regional travel for research purposes: maximum 20%
Campus hospitality (e.g., working lunches): maximum 10%; no alcohol permitted
Equipment and apparatus, including computer hardware and software: maximum 20%

Budgets that are vague and generalized do not inspire confidence in applicants’ ability to manage projects. Budgets that come in just under the maximum without much detail raise doubts about the necessity for all of the funding.

Notes for Applicants

The CLIF grants is for innovative projects that go beyond normal course and curriculum development expected of faculty in the regular course of their teaching.
You are expected to have done appropriate literature review in order to justify your project; substantially extending an existing literature review may be justifiable when it directly supports the practice and/or process-focused aims of the project.
For the 2026 theme, proposals that demonstrate careful, critical attention to process, including documentation of how AI is introduced, discussed, scaffolded, regulated, documented, and assessed, will be especially competitive.

Contact

Please feel free to contact the Centre for Teaching and Learning for advice and assistance in preparing your proposal at clif@uwindsor.ca, or contact Michael K. Potter, CLIF Chair, directly via email at pottermk@uwindsor.ca.