Funding opportunity: Introducing applied learning incentive grants
A letter from Provost Jesse Perez Mendez
April 28, 2025
Dear colleagues,
Our institutional commitment to create and sustain applied learning experiences that prepare students for life beyond K-State continues to grow and develop each day. Rooted in Imperative 3 of our Next-Gen K-State strategic plan — ensuring that by 2030, all undergraduate students will participate in at least one applied learning experience, or ALE, before they graduate — many excellent applied learning experiences are already available to students across our institution.
Continuing to grow and nurture these opportunities for our students is how we demonstrate our commitment to our promise of applied learning experiences. That is why we are excited to support, expand, deepen and scale these opportunities by announcing the first call for applications for our newly created Applied Learning Experiences incentive grants.
In this first round of recurring grants, a pool of $150,000 is available. Four grant opportunities organized into two categories have been created with entry points for faculty, staff and programs.
Start-up/scale-up applied learning experiences
Faculty teaching courses, advisors to student organizations and staff can apply for two distinct grant opportunities within this category:
- Seed grants to create and pilot new applied learning experiences.
- Seed grants to expand and scale-up existing applied learning experiences.
Program and/or curricular initiatives
Colleges and departments may also apply for two distinct grants focused on programs and/or curricular activities:
- Small grants to develop curricular initiatives involving applied learning experiences.
- Small grants to launch pilot programming that catalyzes transdisciplinary applied learning experiences across at least two K-State units.
The applications for all four grant opportunities are due May 16, 2025, and awards are anticipated to be announced by the end of May. Links to apply and additional information can be found on the ALE Incentive Grants web page. Applicants should incorporate the ALE framework within their submission based on university definitions established last year and endorsed by the University Steering Committee for Applied Learning Experiences. Faculty and staff are invited to contact appliedlearning@k-state.edu with questions or to talk through any applied learning experiences ideas they have.
All are also welcome to cALEbrate, an event to celebrate and highlight the progress of applied learning at K-State. The event will be held Wednesday, April 30 from 4–6 p.m. in Leadership Studies Building Town Hall. Food and drink will be served. Online registration is requested.
These new Applied Learning Experiences Incentive Grants are just one more way that K-State is expanding opportunities available to students. We continue to build systems to support applied learning experiences, including inventorying and mapping existing experiences, recognizing excellence, clarifying gaps, identifying obstacles and developing new opportunities — all in the name of delivering on our applied learning promise.
Go 'Cats!
Jesse Perez Mendez
Provost and executive vice president