Faculty Development Travel Grant

Faculty Development Travel Grant

AOCLE Faculty Development Travel Grant

The AOCLE supports a faculty development program for contact lens (CL) faculty at the North American Schools & Colleges of Optometry. The purpose of the program is to:

  • encourage the development of CL faculty or CL programs for AOCLE member institutions
  • enhance the CL experience of optometry students in clinics or class
  • increase the use of AOCLE faculty members as a resource for faculty or program development between CL programs at AOCLE member institutions

 

Eligibility: CL programs or CL faculty at any of the North American Schools/Colleges of Optometry are eligible for this grant. The Program provides modest grants to:

  • bring in an Instructor, typically a faculty member from another School or College of Optometry, to teach a new clinical skill or teaching technique to the CL faculty of the “host” institution
  • send a CL Faculty member to another College of Optometry, Clinic, or Institution to learn and bring back to the rest of the CL Faculty and Staff:
    1. a new skill
    2. a different clinical technique
    3. a different clinic organization plan
    4. a collaborative research plan

 

Grant: The grant program:

  • Can cover modest travel and basic lodging expenses
  • Preference is given to applications that will potentially benefit a greater number of individual CL educators and/or CL programs
  • This program is not designed to cover topics (and /or speakers) already supported by other programs, including industry-sponsored lectures/programs or the AAO CL Diplomate Section Speakers Bureau
  • This program is not designed to fund research projects, but may be used to allow AOCLE members from two or more AOCLE Institutions travel support to develop collaborative research proposal. This would be especially true if it provided training to the less experienced AOCLE participants
  • Hosting institutions that invite an instructor should provide documentation that funding was not available through other source

 

Application: Grant applications should be submitted electronically to the AOCLE Chair and include the following;

  1. Goals related to faculty / program development
  2. Proposed benefits
  3. Agenda & activities
  4. Itemized budget proposal

 

Deadline: All information must be received by March 10 for that fiscal year.

Judging: All applications will be reviewed by the AOCLE Executive Committee. Recipients will be notified soon after the AOCLE mid-year planning meeting in early April. Successful grants are funded based on merit as the budget allows.

Funding: A total budget, as determined by the Executive Committee, of $10,000.00 per year is available for the AOCLE Faculty Development Program. This amount will be divided up into smaller grants, depending on the incoming requests for that year. As a principle, several smaller grants would generally be preferable to one or two larger grants, as more faculty, students, and institutions would benefit from the support.

 

Summary Report: A one page written summary report of the completed project must be submitted to the AOCLE Chair. This summary will be presented at the annual business meeting &/or AOCLE newsletter. The report should include:

  1. Actual activities completed
  2. Outcomes: were proposed goals met?
  3. Impact: how will this improve CL education?

 

The AOCLE is committed to fostering the highest levels of education in the area of cornea and contact lenses and supporting the faculty in these areas. The AOCLE Faculty Development Grant is in alignment with these goals and we hope that you consider applying for this grant.

Award Recipients
Eligibility Document for Travel Grant (pdf)
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2011 – Luigina Sorbara – Travel support for sabbatical

2008 – Etty Bitton (Montreal) – Travel assistance to BCLA meeting for presentation

2007 – Jan Jurkus (ICO) – Travel assistance to Scotland and Australia for sabbatical

2006 – Etty Bitton (Montreal) – Travel assistance to University of Waterloo during sabbatical

2002 – Des Fonn (Waterloo) – Travel assistance

1998 – Des Fonn (Waterloo) – Travel assistance