Seed Funding Programme Evaluation – Fostering Innovative Collaboration on Well-Being
Positive Results of the Evaluation
The evaluation highlighted several key successes of the Seed Funding Programme. Across five competitive calls, 41 projects were funded, engaging an average of 4.7 partners per project and benefiting a total of 1,440 participants across EUniWell’s Thematic Arenas. Impressively, 80% of coordinators who answered the survey initiated new projects, all approached new partners, and 75% of participants expressed intent to collaborate again. Overall, 84% of project members rated their experience as very good.
The results of the evaluation confirm EUniWell’s commitment to support researchers, students, and staff to come together to work on new ideas to foster well-being, and to continue the programme into the next years. The programme has fostered new networks, new ideas, and new long-lasting collaborations among the partners shown in the impressive results of the evaluation. With the improvement of some administrative procedures and the refinement of criteria, the programme will continue to spark the great potential among EUniWell members to collaboratively work on advancing well-being.
EUniWell Chief Development Officer Prof. Beatrix Busse considers the results as motivation to invest in the programme: “The programme lies at the heart of our collaboration. As EUniWell constantly reviews its quality, it was important to assess the programme’s achievements towards the end of the pilot phase so that we are assured to offer a successful and tailor-made programme open to all stakeholders of the Alliance”.
About the Seed Funding Programme
The Seed Funding Programme is one of EUniWell’s landmark projects which fosters bottom-up collaboration among the members focusing on the Alliance’s mission to understand, measure, rebalance, and improve the well-being within universities and society as a whole. Initiated with the start of EUniWell’s pilot phase in 2020, the programme has now seen seven consecutive and competitive calls, supported by an annual budget of 350,000€. The budget is provided jointly by the member universities themselves as a commitment to support and facilitate projects in learning and teaching, research, transfer, policy development topics, as well as student well-being.
Particular objectives of the programme are
- to foster creative ideas on well-being and
- enhance existing collaborations and initiate new ones.
The criteria for application are lean: (1) at least three, since 2022 four, member universities need to be involved and (2) projects should relate to well-being and/or SDGs as outlined in the call documents. The maximum grant allocated per project is 25,000€, which is split between the project partners according to their financial plan. An overview of funded programmes is provided here.
About the Evaluation
With the closing of the pilot phase (in 2023) and the expansion to now 11 members, EUniWell evaluated the programme based on its advanced objectives. The aim was to assess whether the criteria and the call requirements are (still) adequate to achieve the objectives EUniWell has identified with the programme, and to evaluate whether modifications are beneficial (or required) now that the Alliance has refined its strategic goals.
On behalf of the EUniWell Board, the University of Cologne and Nantes Université jointly conducted the evaluation. It was based on a thorough analysis of basic facts of projects (outlined in 25 Midterm and 24 Final Reports) as well as a tailor-made survey among project applicants and participants in late 2023 to gain a holistic view on projects funded so far.
The evaluation also included aspects of administration which have been used to improve the programme’s management where it was necessary or useful. The results were shared within EUniWell and discussed in the EUniWell Board in early 2024.
Further information
The Seed Funding Programme contains two calls per year. EUniWell members and associated partners are encouraged to bring in their ideas and apply for the next call in early 2025: https://www.euniwell.eu/what-we-offer/seed-funding-programme
Find the PDF Version of the SFC evaluation poster here.
Contact
The Seed Funding Programme is managed by the University of Cologne on behalf of the EUniWell consortium. Please contact the following address for questions and information on the programme: contactform[at]euniwell.eu
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