The Barbara and Edward Netter Center for Community Partnerships has announced course development grants to promote Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) courses that integrate research, teaching, learning and service. ABCS courses are a form of community-engaged scholarship. Over 200 courses from a wide range of disciplines and schools have linked Penn undergraduate and graduate students to work in the community. The grants support University faculty in developing new courses or adapting existing courses that combine research and teaching with school and community projects.

To learn more about ABCS courses, visit https://www.nettercenter.upenn.edu/what-we-do/courses.

Grants will be for no more than $10,000 over two years per project. These funds can be used to provide graduate and undergraduate support, course support and/or summer salary (amount is inclusive of employee benefits if taken as summer salary).

Funded by the Netter Center, course development grants are designed to assist faculty with developing new and substantially restructured undergraduate and graduate level courses that engage students in real-world problem-solving projects in partnership with schools and community organizations located in West Philadelphia.

The Netter Center will support the course beyond the duration of the grant by providing undergraduate work-study teaching assistants, transportation, and ongoing facilitation of community partnerships.

The following criteria will be used to evaluate proposals:

1. Academic excellence
2. Integration of research, teaching and service
3. Partnership with schools, community groups, service agencies, etc.
4. Focus on Philadelphia, especially West Philadelphia
5. Evidence that shows how the course activity will involve participation of or interaction with the community and contribute to improving the community
6. Evidence that shows how the course activity will engage undergraduate and/or graduate students in real-world problem-solving research opportunities
7. Potential for sustainability

Please format proposals as follows:

• Cover page
  • Name, title, department, school, mailing address
  • Title of the proposal
  • Total amount of proposed funding
  • 100-word abstract of the proposal (including a description of how the course will involve interaction with the community and benefit the community)
• A one-page biographical sketch of applicant
• A two-to-four-page mini-proposal
• Budget detailing how you intend to use the requested funding

The Netter Center would be pleased to provide feedback on draft proposals before final submission. Proposals for fall 2023 and spring 2024 courses should be submitted to the Netter Center for Community Partnerships by April 17, 2023.

Please contact the ABCS Coordinator, abcscoordinator@sas.upenn.edu, for more information or to submit proposals.

—Dennis DeTurck, Robert A. Fox Leadership Professor
Professor of Mathematics, School of Arts & Sciences
Provost’s Senior Faculty Fellow at the Netter Center
Faculty Advisory Board Co-Chair, Netter Center for Community Partnerships

—John Jackson, Jr., Provost-Designate
Richard Perry University Professor
Walter H. Annenberg Dean, Annenberg School for Communication
Faculty Advisory Board Co-Chair, Netter Center for Community Partnerships

—Terri H. Lipman, Professor Emerita
University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
Researcher, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Faculty Advisory Board Co-Chair, Netter Center for Community Partnerships
—Loretta Flanagan-Cato, Co-Director, Undergraduate Neuroscience Program and Associate Professor of Psychology,
School of Arts & Sciences

—Ira Harkavy, Associate Vice President
Founding Director, Barbara and Edward Netter Center for Community Partnerships