The Barbara and Edward Netter Center for Community Partnerships announces course development grants for fall 2022 and spring 2023 to promote Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) courses that integrate research, teaching, learning and service. Over 150 courses from a wide range of disciplines and Penn schools have linked Penn undergraduate and graduate students to work in the community. The grants support University faculty to develop new courses or adapt existing courses that combine research with school and community projects.

To see a list of the 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 the course activity will involve participation or interaction with the community as well as contribute to improving the community
6. Evidence that 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:

1. Cover page (name, title, department, school, mailing address; title of the proposal; total amount of funding you would like; 100-word abstract of the proposal, including a description of how the course will involve interaction with the community and benefit the community)
2. A one-page biographical sketch of the applicant
3. A two-to-four-page mini-proposal
4. 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 2022 and spring 2023 courses should be submitted to the Netter Center for Community Partnerships by April 15, 2022.

Please contact the Netter Center’s ABCS Coordinator at 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., 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, Miriam Stirl Endowed Term Professor of Nutrition
Professor of Nursing of Children; Assistant Dean for Community Engagement, School of Nursing
Faculty Advisory Board Co-Chair, Netter Center for Community Partnerships 

—Loretta Flanagan-Cato, Co-Director, Undergraduate Neuroscience Program
Associate Professor of Psychology, School of Arts & Sciences
Provost’s Faculty Fellow at the Netter Center 

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