A university-wide seed grant program accelerates interprofessional education through faculty and staff engagement.

Abstract

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio launched an annual university-wide seed grant program in 2019 to foster innovation in interprofessional education (IPE) and increase IPE opportunities for learners. Program objectives included leveraging hypothesis-driven research to identify sustainable IPE activities for integration into educational programs (i.e. mandated for at least one cohort of learners), increasing scholarly dissemination of IPE efforts, and using pilot data to secure extramural funding. Over the first four funding cycles (2019-2022), US$100,509.00 was awarded to support 22 IPE projects (10 curricular, 12 co-curricular) involving 80 faculty and staff collaborators and over 2,100 student participants. To date, funded projects have yielded nine sustained IPE activities (four of which have been integrated), produced 24 scholarly presentations and three peer-reviewed publications, and contributed to the success of one extramural grant. Barriers experienced are discussed in this report alongside lessons learned and unexpected positive outcomes, including identification of future IPE champions.