Any instructor teaching in a non-profit institution of higher education is eligible to apply for a grant from NPFI. The applicant must be a full-time or adjunct instructor with the skills, knowledge, and resources needed to carry out the proposed project.
The grant proposal should identify:
- a for-credit software development, software engineering, or special projects course that will be offered during the upcoming academic year,
- a software product that will help a non-profit improve one of its mission-critical activities,
- a non-profit organization that will receive the software product when it is completed, and
- (optionally) a software professional who may act as an observer and technical resource during the course and oversee deployment of the software after the course is completed. This option may be particularly useful for projects with larger enrollments (7-12 students).
Please submit your proposal as a single PDF file, no longer than 9 single-spaced pages. The proposal should include the following elements:
- A brief overview of the proposed project and goals, your name, your home institution, and the non-profit organization that you intend to work with.
- A brief description of the non-profit’s mission and how the new software will fulfill a mission-critical need.
- A 1-page letter from the non-profit that supports the project and agrees to actively participate in its development.
- Identification of an existing course that will house the project, including its duration (e.g., 1 semester, 2 semesters, summer, etc) the number of academic credits students will receive upon its completion.
- A summary of the proposed course timeline (e.g., a draft syllabus) to ensure that the software will be deliverable at the end of the development period.
- A summary of the programming skills and other preparation that students will bring to the course, and an estimate of the number of students who are likely to enroll.
- A brief CV for the instructor (the applicant) who will be guiding the student team, including his/her most relevant teaching and/or software development experience.
- A statement that the software developed by the project will be free and open source (FOSS) licensed (e.g., using a GNU General Public License) and hosted on GitHub or a comparable code-sharing repository for future reuse by others.
- (optional) Identification of a professional developer who will serve as a resource for the project, including a brief CV and a summary of his/her role in this project.
Completed proposals should be emailed to both:
Allen Tucker: allen@npfi.org
Jennifer Tucker: jenny@npfi.org