We are funding projects which pursue the goals of the Learning and Teaching Strategy and enable experimentation in novel, digitally driven models of education and associated pedagogical approaches, to enhance the delivery of our education and an inclusive student experience.

On this page you can read about all the projects that have that have been funded under the Pedagogy Transformation, Excellence, and Digital Innovation routes. 

2024 Funding Call

Young staff on training course

REET: Resources for Embedding EDI in Teaching

The development of the EDI in Engineering and Professional Engineering Skills modules to further embed EDI practices and equip students with EDI skills in the Mechanical Engineering department and wider Faculty and College.

Project Leads: Chloe Agg and Sophia Quazi  

Lead Departments: Mechanical Engineering

Duration: 18 months

Fund: The Excellence Fund

A picture of a researcher examining food

Blended Learning and Inclusivity through the World of Food

The development of the pilot of World of Food workshops to allow staff and students to showcase their cultural heritage through food, whilst learning the science behind it firstly within the Faculty of Natural Sciences and then the wider College.

Project Leads: Jakub Radzikowski and Ingrid Kedissa

Lead Department: Chemistry

Duration: 18 months

Fund: The Excellence Fund

2023 Funding Call

A tutor kneels down to speak to a student in a workshop. Two other students continue with their work.

Learning How to Learn 

Developing and evaluating a university-wide training programme to enhance student self-regulated learning and lifelong learning skills.  

Project Leads: Magda Charalambous, Luotong Hui, Michael Fox, Iro Ntonia 

Lead Departments: Department of Life Sciences, EDU/CHERS, Department of Physics 

Duration: 2 Years   

Fund: Pedagogy Transformation Fund 

Year 12 STEM Futures students taking part in a workshop in the Enterprise Lab.

Animated Inclusive Personae

The creation of Animated Inclusive Personae (AIPs) – furthering the progress made in developing inclusive digital personae and animating these for use in teaching and training material. More information here.

Project Leads: Katie Stripe, Christopher Meadows 

Lead Departments: Education Office/CHERS, Graduate School 

Duration: 2 Years 

Fund: Pedagogy Transformation Fund 

Three students chat on Queen's Lawn during Welcome Week.

I-spire: Connect, Create, Collaborate

Developing and delivering a pilot course that provides proof-of-concept for a suite of enrichment courses for postgraduate students and the College’s wider global community. 

Project Leads: Giskin Day, Ana Costa-Pereira, Magdalena Jara 

Lead Departments: Centre for Languages, Culture & Communication and the Graduate School 

Duration: 20 months 

Fund: Pedagogy Transformation Fund 

2023 Funding Call

Three people working in the collaboration room at Scale Space. They are using the touch screen facilities.

The (Mathematics) Curriculum Mapping Tool

The development of a comprehensive, futuristic hybrid curriculum mapping tool for use in the Department of Mathematics and eventually the wider College community.  

Project Leads: Ioanna Papatsouma, Samuel Brzezicki, Christopher Hallsworth 

Lead Departments: Mathematics 

Duration: 2 Years 

Fund: Pedagogy Transformation Fund 

Three people using a laptop in front of screen with high resolution satellite images at the Global Data Observatory in the Data Science Institute.

Generative Dialogue for Transdisciplinary Learning and Teach

The aim of this pilot project is to understand the extent to which “generative AI” tools, such as ChatGPT, can be used to give appropriate formative feedback to tackle sustainability problems. 

Project Leads: Mike Tennant, Nigel Forrest, Stephen Green 

Lead Departments: Centre for Environmental Policy (CEP), Dyson School of Design Engineering (Dyson), Centre for Languages, Culture and Communication (CLCC) 

Duration: 12 months 

Fund: Digital Transformation Fund 

Edwina Rossi pipetting in the Barber Chemistry teaching laboratory.

Developing a VR micropipette controller to teach pipetting

The development of VR micropipette controllers that can mimic the physical properties of a real micropipette in a small simulation to help students learn the essential skill of using a micropipette.   

Project Leads: Silke Kerruth 

Lead Departments: School of Medicine 

Duration: 2 Years 

Fund: Digital Transformation Fund 

2023 Funding Call

Two Masters students working on coursework in Deep Learning with GANS and NLP.

Game Engine Data Visualisation Deployment in Teaching

Delivering and assessing a framework for incorporating game engine visualisations onto College’s ‘normal’ UG teaching.

Project Leads: Caroline Clewley, Nikos Mexis

Lead Departments: Digital Media Lab (DML), Centre for Languages, Culture and Communications (CLCC)

Duration: 2 Years

Fund: Digital Transformation Fund

Bird's eye view of two students in the Dyson School of Engineering, working on one laptop together.

Assessment Data Analytics Capabilities for Academic Support

Accelerating the capability to develop assessment data analytics for students, personal tutors, module and programme leads.

Project Leads: Helen Walkey, Milda Batutiene, Helen Haines, Chris Hallsworth, Huw Williams, Moira Sarsfield

Lead Departments: Faculty of Natural Sciences, EdTech Lab, Mathematics, Life Sciences

Duration: 2 Years

Fund: Digital Transformation Fund

A group of students in an Applied Computational Science and Engineering lecture in the newly refurbished Royal School of Mines lecture theatre.

Using AI to Develop Computational Thinking (CT) Skills

Developing content and novel digital technologies to support the development of CT skills, with a focus on those that find it a struggle.

Project Leads: Matthew Piggot, Rhodri Nelson, Samrat Pawar

Lead Departments: Earth Science and Engineering

Duration: 2 Years

Fund: Digital Transformation Fund

2022 Funding Call

A platform to support digital innovation in EdTech

Creating an online platform to make it easier for staff and students from any department to build new digital applications that integrate with other College systems, and to deploy them on reliable infrastructure, quickly and easily.   

Project Leads: Robert Chatley, Richard Howells  

Lead Departments: Computing and ICT Technology Office  

Duration: 2 Years  

Fund: Digital Innovation Fund 

Addressing the impact of gender and ethnicity

Exploring and addressing the impact of gender and ethnicity on the professional identity development and practice of teachers at Imperial College   

Project Leads: Jo Horsburgh, Órla Murray, Kate Ippolito 

Lead Department: CHERS 

Duration: 1 Year 

Fund: The Excellence Fund

2022 Funding Call B

The Imperial Wiki Initiative

Developing, managing, and hosting a repository of student notes and other related content in a common virtual space. 

Project Leads: Marsha Maraj, Jerry Heng, Vijay Tymms, Samuel Brzezicki 

Lead Departments: Chemical Engineering, Physics, Mathematics 

Duration: 2 Years 

Fund: Pedagogy Transformation Fund

Fostering Educational Diversity and Inclusivity

Working with key student support services across the College to synergise new and existing resources and expertise and co-develop these into an open access ‘fit to learn’ toolkit and a flexible student wellbeing learning programme. 

Project Leads: Tiffany Chiu, Richard Bale 

Lead Department: CHERS 

Duration: 2 Years 

Fund: The Excellence Fund 

2021 Funding Call

image of students working together

Better Analytics for a Better World

Encouraging MSc Business Analytics students to hone their skills and solve analytics-related problems of non-profit organizations during their degree program under the supervision of PhD and post-doctoral students. 

Project Leads: Associate Professor Sven Mikolon, Professor Wolfram Wiesemann 

Lead Departments: Business School and Computing 

Duration: 1 year 

Fund: Pedagogy Transformation Fund 

Image of analytics

Furthering our Learning Analytics Capabilities

This programme of work will further the College’s Learning Analytics capabilities, establishing frameworks around data access and use, configuring core-college data streams for on campus and blended descriptive analytics, and furthering work on online interaction behavioural analytics. 

Project Leads: Helen Walkey, Camille Kandiko Howson, Moira Sarsfield, Shireen Lock, Katherine Collet, Karlie O’Hara 

Lead Departments: Faculty of Natural Sciences, Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College Business School, CHERS 

Duration: 3 years 

Fund: Digital Innovation Fund 

Performing in Science

Establishing an educational research network exploring what comes into view when we 
consider professional practice in terms of performing. 

Project Leads: Roger Kneebone 

Lead Departments: Surgery and Cancer, ICCESS  

Duration: 3 Years 

Fund: Pedagogy Transformation Fund 

2021 Funding Call

image of staff member providing feedback

Changing Feedback Culture with Reflective E-Portfolios

Utilising existing online tools to help students and tutors to engage in iterative feedback processes that promote action and continuous dialogue. 

 Project Leads: Magda Charalambous, Moira Sarsfield, Kate Ippolito 

 Lead Departments: Life Sciences, CHERS, FoNS EdTech Lab 

 Duration: 1 year 

 Fund: Pedagogy Transformation Fund 

image of a digital assessment

Anatomy of Assessment

Facilitating change in assessment practices by creating an online platform focusing on demonstrating both traditional and innovative disciplinary assessment from across faculties and departments.  

 Project Leads: Monika Pazio, Vijay Tymms 

Lead Departments: CHERS, Physics 

Duration: 1 year  

Fund: Pedagogy Transformation Fund 

image of student in VR headset

ViRSE - Virtual Reality for Student Education

Developing and implementing a virtual reality (VR) software system for Imperial that simplifies the production and deployment of particular applications, using expertise, concepts, and technical solutions developed in pilot projects. 

Project Leads: Mark Sutton, Omar Matar, Lorenzo Picinali, Irene Kalkanis 

Lead Department: Earth Science and Engineering 

Duration: 2 years  

Fund: Digital Innovation Fund 

2021 Funding Call

Students completing online work

Elevating Automated Mathematics Feedback

Producing an innovative digital platform that can be used to provide personalized automated feedback on mathematical questions to improve the quality, quantity, and timeliness of such feedback. 

Project Leads: Peter Johnson, Phil Ramsden 

Lead Department: Mechanical Engineering 

Duration: 3 years, subject to yearly renewal meetings 

Fund: Digital Innovation Fund 

student in lab with VR headset on

Exploring XR in Higher Education

We have brought together five bids from Medicine and the Digital Media Lab, which will explore the potential of AR, VR and XR in enhancing learning and teaching.  

Project Leads: Daniel Mitelpunkt, Helen McKenna, Adrian Cowell, Nikos Mexis, Risheka Walls, Lisa Carrier, Kirsten Dalrymple, Samantha Gallivan, Fernando Bello 

Lead Departments: Faculty of Medicine, DML, IETL 

Duration: 3 years 

Fund: Digital Innovation Fund

Students working in computer room

ReCoDE - Research Computing and Data Science Exemplars

Developing students’ research software and data science skills. Postgraduate students will work with expert research software engineers to develop project exemplars for the student community, based on their own research. 

Project Leads: Katerina Michalickova, John Pinney, Christopher Cooling, Jianliang Liam Gao, Jeremy Cohen, Diego Alonso Álvarez 

Lead Departments: Graduate School, Computing, Research Computing Service 

Duration: 3 years

Fund: Pedagogy Transformation Fund 

2021 Funding Call

Developing an Online Course in A Level Physics and Chemistry

Developing an online course Physics and Chemistry A-level course intended to ensure all students have the same foundational knowledge, support widening participation efforts and offer life-long learning opportunities.   

Project Leads: Paul Franklyn, Priya Saravanapavan 

Lead Department: Materials 

Duration: 2 Years 

Fund: The Excellence Fund 

Building a sense of belonging and a more inclusive culture

Supporting students in speaking out in response to harassment and building a sense of belonging by improving communication between staff and students on their experiences of inclusivity and diversity. 

Project Leads: Christopher James Harvey 

Lead Department: Faculty of Medicine BMA Charter Finishing Group and Faculty Education Office Welfare Team 

Duration: 3 Years 

Fund: The Excellence Fund 

Embedding equality, diversity and inclusivity in the medical

Embedding equality, diversity and inclusivity in the medical curriculum and fostering a culture that understands and embodies the values of diversity and inclusivity within the curriculum and application of knowledge to real-life health-related problems.   

Project Leads: Chioma Izzi-Engbeaya, Trisha Brown 

Lead Department: School of Medicine   

Duration: 2 Years 

Fund: The Excellence Fund

2019 Funding Call

SIDUS

The Supporting the Identity Development of Underrepresented Students (SIDUS) project is a two-year study (2020-2022) aimed at promoting inclusion and supporting success for STEMM students from underrepresented groups at the university. 

Project Leads: Tiffany Chiu, Jo Horsburgh 

Lead Departments: CHERS 

Duration: 3 years  

Fund: The Excellence Fund 

Approach to support students from under-represented groups

Developing a two-arm program with a self-supporting, inclusive framework and which has its  

foundations in the lived student experience. 

Project Leads: Sue Smith, Kevin Murphy, John Seddon, Margaret Callan, Trisha Brown, Ben Russell (ICSMSU), Alistair Ludley (ICSMSU). 

Lead Department: Faculty of Medicine 

Duration: 3 Years 

Fund: The Excellence Fund 

Strengthening Learning Communities

Enhancing sense of belonging in all students from different gender, cultural, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds, while developing diverse and inclusive assessment strategies in FoNS and beyond. 

Project Leads: Mark Richards, Vijay Tymms, Camille Kandiko Howson, Dimitri Vvedensky, Morgan Wascko, Daniel Mortlock, Elizabeth Hauke. 

Lead Department: Physics, CHERS, CLCC 

Duration: 4 years 

Fund: Pedagogy Transformation Fund 

2018 Funding Call

IMPACTS

Inspired by the daily practice of the scientific community, IMPACTS has been developed to strengthen Imperial students’ presentation and critical thinking skills by exposing them to tasks such as assessing what makes a research paper 'good' or 'bad'.  
 
Project Leads: Wayne Mitchell, Sophie Rutschmann, Katie Stripe, and Jeffrey Vernon 

Lead Department: Faculty of Medicine 

Duration: 3 Years 

Fund: The Excellence Fund 

Culture, gender, and robotics education

This project allows final year MEng students taking a new module - Robotics 2 - to propose projects that address the gender and cultural diversity of users and designers.   

Project Leads: Thrishantha Nanayakkara, Petar Kormushev 

Lead Department: Dyson School of Design Engineering   

Duration: 3 Years 

Fund: The Excellence Fund 

Developing evidence-based inclusive methodologies

This project is empowering students to recognise the value of diversity and to use the most effective study strategies for their situation, while equipping teaching staff to develop inclusive and accessible curricula.  

Project Leads: Sara Rankin, Kate Ippolito, David Mooney 

Lead Department: NHLI, EDU and Disability Advisory Service 

Duration: 3 Years 

Fund: The Excellence Fund

2018 Funding Call B

Pride and Prejudice in Higher Education

The project is conducting a root and branch review of the reading lists in Imperial’s Masters in Public Health course and is working with module leads and external speakers to ensure that diverse sources are included as much as possible in the curriculum. 

Project Leads: Matthew Harris 

Lead Department: School of Public Health 

Duration: 4 Years 

Fund: The Excellence Fund 

Cross-Faculty digital transformation

Increasing the capacity and capabilities of the Faculties of Engineering and Natural Sciences in order to support the introduction of digitally enhanced teaching and learning.  

Project Leads: Omar Matar, Emma McCoy, Phil Ramsden, Kristel Fobelets, Moira Sarsfield, Shireen Lock. 

Lead Department: Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Natural Sciences 

Duration: 5 Years 

Fund: Pedagogy Transformation Fund 

Using VR to teach Fluid Mechanics

Developing an interactive, multimodal environment for the exploration of 3D phenomena in mechanics-based modules. 

Project Leads: Omar Matar 

Lead Department: Chemical Engineering  

Duration: 1.5years 

Fund: Pedagogy Transformation Fund 

 

2018 Funding Call C

Using Jupyter notebooks in lectures

Replacing static lecture notes with interactive Jupyter notebooks, which will provide the students with the freedom to manipulate data. 

Project Leads: Peter DiMaggio, Klaus Hellgardt, James Campbell 

Lead Department: Chemical Engineering 

Duration: 1 Year 

Fund: Pedagogy Transformation Fund 

Flipped classroom and automated assessment

Working collaboratively across College to develop a shared repository of  programming exercises using Python and Jupyter notebooks, incorporating automated assessment. 

Project Leads: Gerard Gorman 

Lead Department: Earth Science & Engineering 

Duration: 2 years 

Fund: Pedagogy Transformation Fund 

Dyson visualisation and collaboration platform

Transforming modules by developing a digital platform where projects can be proposed, discovered, developed, submitted, and showcased. 

Project Leads: Stephen Green, Freddie Page 

Lead Department: Dyson School of Design Engineering 

Duration: 4 years 

Fund: Pedagogy Transformation Fund 

2018 Funding Call D

Data science institute big screen with people

Developing Data Science modules

Meeting the growing demand for courses and degree programs in Data Science. 

Project Leads: Seth Flaxman, Marina Evangelou, Niall Adams, Yike Guo 

Lead Department: Mathematics, Data Science Institute 

Duration: 3 years 

Fund: Pedagogy Transformation Fund 

Translating face-to-face learning to online

Taking a rigorous approach in producing a theoretical model exploring the translation of learning methodologies from a face-to-face to an online learning environment. 

Project Leads: Edgar Meyer, Iro Ntonia, Vasiliki Papageorgiou 

Lead Department: Business School, CHERS 

Duration: 5 years 

Fund: Pedagogy Transformation Fund 

Chemical Kitchen

Chemistry students will take part in an innovative module that mixes lab skills with those needed in high-end gastronomy - the Chemical Kitchen. 

Project Leads: Roger Kneebone, Alan Spivey 

Lead Department: Chemistry 

Duration: 3 years 

Fund: Pedagogy Transformation Fund 

2018 Funding Call E

Opportunities for active learning in Physics

Requiring students to think about challenging concepts through small group and paired discussion and activities that develop ideas and understanding. 

Project Leads: Vijay Tymms, Yasmin Andrew 

Lead Department: Physics 

Duration: 4 years 

Fund: Pedagogy Transformation Fund 

Postgraduate Medicine - Attributes and Aspirations module

Developing a new cross-Faculty module to deliver new tools, activities and opportunities for students to take ownership of their professional future. 

Project Leads: Katie Dallison & Sophie Rutschmann 

Lead Department: Faculty of Medicine, Careers 

Duration: 5 years 

Fund: Pedagogy Transformation Fund 

Entrepreneurship coaching

A coaching manual outlining the principles, methodology, resources and organisation of coaching entrepreneurs. 

Project Leads: Harveen Chugh 

Lead Department: Imperial College Business School 

Duration: 2 years 

Fund: Pedagogy Transformation Fund 

2018 Funding Call F

Faculty of Medicine teaching transformation

Developing forms of student-centered learning that emphasise students’ insight into their own progress, self-efficacy and resilience, and independent learning with online and blended materials. 

Project Leads: Martin Lupton 

Lead Department: Faculty of Medicine 

Duration: 2 years 

Fund: Pedagogy Transformation Fund 

Can computers do our marking?

First-year undergraduates learn a new programming language (Lean) which is powerful enough to understand and verify mathematical theorems and proofs, providing fine grained, timely, dialogic feedback. 

Project Leads: Kevin Buzzard 

Lead Department: Mathematics 

Duration: 1.5 Years 

Fund: Pedagogy Transformation Fund 

Robust & inclusive teaching for socially relevant problems

Students are getting the chance to incorporate their individual voices, experiences and differences into learning materials and collaborative work thanks to a new initiative from the Centre for Environmental Policy (CEP).  

Project Leads: Mike Tennant 

Lead Department: Centre for Environmental Policy   

Duration: 1 Year 

Fund: The Excellence Fund

2017 Funding Call

Cross-College Mathematics pilot

Exploring opportunities to work across Faculties to identify significant overlaps in Mathematics content and develop a common approach.  

Project Leads: Emma McCoy, Phil Power, Phil Ramsden, Sam Brzezicki 

Lead Department: Faculty of Engineering 

Duration: 6 months 

Fund: Pedagogy Transformation Fund 

MBBS social accountability

Taking a systematic approach to embedding social accountability within the undergraduate primary care curriculum, enabling student interaction with and positive impact on the local community. 

Project Leads: Sonia Kumar, Arti Maini, Jo Horsburgh 

Lead Department: Primary Care and Public Health 

Duration: 4 years 

Fund: Pedagogy Transformation Fund 

Scientific Computing – A platform for interactive learning

Developing a platform for the efficient and effective acquisition of literacy and mastery in scientific computing by providing an active and interactive learning and teaching environment. 

Project Leads: Peter Schmid 

Lead Department: Mathematics 

Duration: 5 years 

Fund: Pedagogy Transformation Fund 

2017 Funding Call B

Restructuring the MBBS BSc

Restructuring the BSc to have an emphasis on creating consistent foundations in scientific skills, from which students can grow and develop into competent clinical scientists. 

Project Leads: Alison McGregor 

Lead Department: School of Medicine 

Duration: 2.5 years 

Fund: Pedagogy Transformation Fund 

Educational Communities of Practice and External Teaching

Developing new internal, national and international teaching and research collaborations for the Undergraduate Primary Care Education team.  

Project Leads: Sonia Kumar, Arti Maini, Jo Horsburgh 

Lead Department: Primary Care and Public Health 

Duration: 4 Years 

Fund: Pedagogy Transformation Fund 

MBBS academic coaching

Improving medical students’ performance and skills through academic coaching. 

Project Leads: Mike Emerson, Arti Maini 

Lead Department: School of Medicine 

Duration: 1 year 

Fund: Pedagogy Transformation Fund 

2016 Funding Call

Making tomorrow's doctors today’s teachers

This project will use third year medical students in the process of course and curriculum design, utilising students’ educational experience and use it as a driver for learning and teaching innovation.  

Project Leads: Ged Murtagh 

Lead Department: Surgery and Cancer 

Duration: 2.5 Years 

Fund: The Excellence Fund 

Online interactive visualisations – ImpVis

The team will create a suite of online interactive visualisations for explaining key concepts within Physics and other STEM subjects.  

Project Leads: Caroline Clewley 

Lead Department: Physics 

Duration: 3 Years 

Fund: The Excellence Fund 

CHEMTRACK - Personalised journeys through chemistry

The aim of CHEMTRACK is to create a programme of chemistry education, placing students at the centre of the design and implementation of the laboratory activities.  

Project Leads: Oscar Ces, Joao Malhado, David Mountford, Laura Patel 

Lead Department: Chemistry 

Duration: 2.5 Years 

Fund: The Excellence Fund 

2016 Funding Call B

IMPLEMnT

IMPLEMnT is a digital platform incorporating a toolkit to empower teachers to create original resources that support blended learning. 

Project Leads: Katie Stripe, James Moss 

Lead Department: Faculty of Medicine 

Duration: 3 Years 

Fund: The Excellence Fund 

Data analysis of online learning

This project will bring together existing data analysis expertise and technologies in Mathematics and Chemistry with data created through the Business School’s online learning platforms.  

Project Leads: Mauricio Barahona, Sophia Yaliraki, David Lefevre 

Lead Department: Imperial College Business School 

Duration: 2 Years 

Fund: The Excellence Fund 

Imperial College Concept Collaboratory (ICCC)

The ICCC will utilise inquiry based activities, interactive virtual labs and innovative learning materials such as comics and games that can be accessed by staff and students across a range of courses and disciplines.  

Project Leads: Klaus Hellgardt, Bradley Laedwig, Clemens Brechtelsbauer, Umang Shah, Andreas Kogelbauer 

Lead Department: Chemical Engineering 

Duration: 4 Years 

Fund: The Excellence Fund 

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