heiSPARK Call for Applications: Fellowships
Call for Applications for the heiSKILLS Fellowships: heiSPARK 2026/27
Would you like to develop new teaching ideas, test innovative teaching and learning formats, and exchange ideas about effective teaching with colleagues?
With the heiSPARK – Shaping Learning for Transformation project, funded by the Stiftung Innovation in der Hochschullehre (Foundation for Innovation in Higher Education) Heidelberg University supports academic staff in the ongoing development of teaching and learning. The project seeks to foster innovative teaching and learning formats, enhance students’ transformative competencies, and sustainably integrate successful approaches into curricula and educational practice.
A key component of heiSPARK is the heiSKILLS Kolleg: Building a Community of Practice. The Kolleg brings together instructors from different disciplines and institutions who seek to develop new ideas for teaching and learning, exchange experiences, and collaboratively advance innovative approaches to teaching. The heiSKILLS Fellowships: heiSPARK serve as an entry point to this Community of Practice and support instructors in the development and implementation of innovative teaching projects.
APPLICATION
All teaching staff at Heidelberg University are eligible to apply.
Please submit your application by 12th July 2026, via email to: antraege@heiskills.uni-heidelberg.de
The application should be no longer than four pages or 1,000 words and must include:
- Description of the teaching project (goals, concept, and innovative aspects)
- Description of the teaching tandem and their respective roles
- Timeline and work plan for both funding semesters
- Information on sustainability and transfer potential
We look forward to your ideas and to teaching projects that provide new impulses for teaching and learning at Heidelberg University.
WHY APPLY FOR A HEISKILLS FELLOWSHIP?
Innovation in teaching and learning at universities often emerges where academic staff are not only given time to experiment, but also have the opportunity to exchange ideas with colleagues and are provided with space for new perspectives. The heiSKILLS Fellowships: heiSPARK provide a structured framework for this. They offer the opportunity to collaboratively develop new teaching and learning concepts with other academic staff, share experiences, and sustainably integrate successful approaches into teaching.
The heiSKILLS Kolleg sees itself as a space for exchange, mutual inspiration, and the joint development of high-quality teaching. Its goal is to build a vibrant, interdisciplinary community of academic staff who develop, test, and embed innovative teaching ideas long-term at Heidelberg University.
WHAT IS FUNDED?
Funding is provided for teaching projects that
- explore new approaches to teaching and learning,
- integrate inter- or transdisciplinary perspectives into teaching,
- support students in developing transformative competencies,
- and provide impulses for the further development of teaching and learning at Heidelberg University.
Projects that bring together different disciplinary perspectives and test new forms of collaboration in teaching are particularly welcome.
Through the heiSKILLS Fellowships: heiSPARK, Heidelberg University supports teaching projects that help students develop skills for shaping a changing world - whether through new teaching approaches, interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary collaboration, or engagement with societal challenges.
Applications from teaching tandems are particularly welcome. Interdisciplinary collaborations are explicitly encouraged. The active involvement of students as co-designers of teaching and learning processes is also encouraged.
WHAT DOES THE FELLOWSHIP OFFER?
Selected fellows receive the following support for the duration of one academic year:
- Time and flexibility to develop and implement their teaching project,
- Support from student assistants,
- support and consultation in higher education teaching and learning
- opportunities to network with other fellows,
- as well as the opportunity to learn about innovative teaching approaches at other universities.
In addition, the fellows will become part of the heiSKILLS Kolleg – a long-term community of practice for teaching innovation at Heidelberg University.