Elon Innovation Council accepting new grant proposals following record year

The Elon Innovation Council (EIC) is now accepting proposals for the 2025-26 Elon Innovation Grants.

All faculty, staff and students are eligible to apply. Students must have a faculty co-sponsor. The deadline for proposal submissions is Oct. 24, 2025, at 5 p.m. Decisions will be announced in December 2025.

The EIC awards grants of up to $5,000 each academic year to support innovative projects led by faculty, staff or students that advance Boldly Elon initiatives. The EIC defines innovation as “the deliberate effort to develop new, creative approaches to solving problems or adding value.” While all qualifying proposals are welcome, applicants should note that some projects, such as those focused primarily on faculty or undergraduate research, may be better suited for other university funding opportunities.

The mission of the Elon Innovation Council is to catalyze a culture of curiosity and creativity within the Elon community where people are empowered to discover, develop, experiment, and pilot mission-aligned innovative solutions.

“We are very pleased to launch the 2025-26 Elon Innovates grants program,” said Bill Squadron, assistant professor of sport management and member of the Elon Innovation Council. “Last year we had a record number of proposals and grants, ranging across numerous university departments and activities. With all of the creative work happening at Elon, I expect that we may have even more this year.”

The council awarded 14 projects for the 2024-25 academic year.

Sandy Marshall, associate professor of geography
“Promoting Pathways to Internationalization”

The purpose of this project is to expand opportunities for Elon students to develop global intercultural competency through Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL). Specifically, this project will promote COIL at Elon by providing faculty and staff with training and support to strategically develop and implement COIL initiatives.

Anne-Marie Iselin, associate professor of psychology
“Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation Language Revitalization Conference”

Grounded in partnerships between Indigenous knowledge holders from the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation (OBSN) and the Elon community, this project seeks to implement a half-day mini-conference that centers and celebrates the OBSN’s language revitalization of Yesa:sahį́, the indigenous language of the OBSN and Yesáh. This grant also secured funds for a permanent outdoor historical marker on Elon’s campus that includes the words taskahu: nągíse (Yesa:sahį́ for a grove of oaks) and an acknowledgment that Elon is situated on the land of the OBSN and Yesáh.

Blake Hament, assistant professor of engineering
“Stormwater Unmanned Aerial Surveillance”

During storm events, rain washes residential and commercial pollution into major waterways. The majority of runoff is flushed into these waterways in a short window of time, beginning roughly 15 minutes after a storm begins and continuing for about an hour. State-of-the-art practices for monitoring storm runoff involve manually collecting water samples. Only a handful of manual water samples can be collected in this short time window.

An exciting research opportunity exists to develop an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to automatically collect samples during this period. With additional samples, the point sources producing the highest levels of runoff can be better identified and remedied. The challenges of this project involve developing a UAV that can perform well under the high winds and rain of storms. It should also be equipped with an appropriate sampling mechanism that is lightweight and reliable. This project will produce new opportunities for research mentorship of students, interdisciplinary engineering work and partnerships with local and regional environmental groups.

Danielle Lake, director of Design Thinking and associate professor of human service studies
“Storying Place: Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration”

This intercultural and intergenerational storytelling initiative engages Elon students across five Community-Based Learning courses in innovative on-and off-campus mentoring opportunities with refugee and immigrant organizations and local schools. Students will work with refugee elders and youth, community organizations, local schools, Parks & Recreation, and the public libraries to record, preserve, and share the stories of migrant and refugee residents in our community, amplifying their ingenuity, strength, and resilience.

Hwayeon Ryu, associate professor of mathematics
“STEM Interdisciplinary Connections”

This project aims to establish a series of events designed to strengthen interdisciplinary connections across STEM students. By encouraging student interaction and engagement with different disciplines and the way they are studied, coupled with fostering a sense of community and professionalism, our proposed work will complement the existing efforts at Elon in response to the evolving needs of our society.

James Holsinger, executive director of the Koenigsburg Learning Center
“Summer Faculty Institute on Neurodivergency”

This grant will help create a second iteration of the Neurodiversity Institute, which is designed to help STEM faculty better support neurodivergent students. The goals of the institute are twofold: to educate faculty regarding recent research on specific needs of neurodivergent students and to help faculty develop concrete, actionable plans for future courses so that they can offer more intentional support for neurodivergent students. The institute seeks to enroll ten faculty members who teach major and/or nonmajor STEM courses, and the institute will run for three days (9am-3pm each day). The core aim of the Institute will be to help faculty re-imagine their fall courses through revision of pedagogical practices, assignments, and modes of assessment with neurodivergent students in mind.

Shannon Zenner, assistant professor of communication design
“Phoenix Visual Design Futures Lab”
The Phoenix Visual Design Futures Lab is a strategic initiative designed to explore the intersection of visual design, communication design, and innovation. By creating a dynamic research environment, the lab aims to prepare students for rapidly evolving creative industries through hands-on research and industry collaboration.

Amanda Laury Kleintop, assistant professor of history
“Digital and Spatial Humanities Center”
The grant will support a Digital and Spatial Humanities consortium (DASH). The digital humanities (DH) is a diverse field that applies computing, data analytics, data visualization, and public accessibility to research in the humanities, and the analysis of their application to humanities research.

Emily Ecker ’26 and Scott Morrison, professor of education
“Elon and Morrowtown: Sustainable Solutions”

The proposed project aims to build upon an ongoing collaboration between the Morrowtown Community Group, Emily Ecker ‘26, and Scott Morrison, Professor of Education. The Morrowtown community is a historically Black, under resourced neighborhood in Burlington, North Carolina. Morrison and I have worked closely with Morrowtown residents to co-develop a two-year community-engaged research study to understand how their community garden can serve as a public health intervention. The community garden has seven raised beds, an in-ground bed with eight rows, a dilapidated shed, and a small playground.

Through interviews with residents, several critical needs for the garden were identified, including constructing a sustainable, multi-purpose meeting space, which would be in place of the current old and poorly built shed; a solution to address water runoff in the in-ground garden, which would enhance water conservation and reuse efforts; and improvements to the garden infrastructure.

Emily Wright ’28 and Sandra Darfur-Oduro, assistant professor of public health studies
“LifeLONg Lung Health”

Chronic Lung Disease is one of the top five causes of death, hospital admissions and chronic health conditions in America. Over 15 million Americans are diagnosed, but data suggests that there is another 15 million undiagnosed. LifELONg Lung Health would screen entering and returning students. They could record their personal Lung Health metric on their cell phone. Additionally, if students consent to being part of the LifELONg study, they would be made aware of the study design, IRB approval, and requirements for joining the study.

Evan Small, assistant teaching professor of wellness
“Mental Health Through Nature”

This grant will support NatureRxplorer, a mobile app designed to foster intentional and mindful outdoor engagement on campus. This app will encourage users to engage with natural spaces around campus through guided activities and resources that can promote all of the dimensions of wellness. This app is directly tied to HealthEU initiatives and can be a unique opportunity to enhance health and wellbeing among students, faculty, and staff.

NatureRxplorer will feature an interactive map showcasing Elon’s green spaces, gardens, trails, and unique outdoor spots. Each location will include activity suggestions tailored and geo-located to the space, such as guided meditations, mindfulness practices, information on forms of wellness, or recreational activities designed with inclusivity in mind. The app will also provide seasonal tips and challenges, inspiring users to connect with nature throughout the year.

Lilly Arora ’25 and Ahlam Armaly, assistant professor of chemistry
“STEM Saturday with ABSS HS Students”

This project will extend STEM Saturday, the first program of its kind at Elon University that engages local high school students with STEM through interactive workshops, demonstrations, and presentations. There is also dedicated time for ABSS students to engage in conversations with Elon students. Outreach programs designed to expose students to exciting concepts in STEM are imperative in shaping accessibility and diversity in STEM fields. Last year, STEM Saturday welcomed 50 ABSS students and ran programming from 12 different STEM organizations on campus. This grant will work to make STEM Saturday a recurring event at Elon.

Lori Hubbard, assistant professor of nursing
“Friday Night at the ER Simulation”

Friday Night at the ER is a board game simulation experience where participants are asked to manage human and physical resources in a hospital setting in a fun, engaging format. The game has been widely used by hospital systems, academic institutions, and Fortune 500 companies to promote the power of collaboration, to recognize the presence of mental models and their impact on behavior and decision-making, and to decrease siloed disciplinary practice that hinders innovative thinking. Groups of participants are scored on their collective decision-making in balancing quality, cost, and efficiency of care with the goal of enhancing systems-thinking. The game takes about an hour to play, followed by a 1to 1 ½-hour debriefing session led by a trained facilitator.

The Interdisciplinary Education Committee in the School of Health Sciences proposes to purchase game kits in sufficient quantity to offer simulation events allowing one or two students from each of the academic programs in the School of Health Sciences (Nursing, Physical Therapy, and Physician’s Assistant) to participate per kit.

Parker Felumlee ’26 and Kim Shively, associate professor of performing arts “Equitable Access to Actor Training”

Currently, Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) Actor training is inaccessible due to obstacles faced by under resourced high school students. At Elon, informal polling has found that 1/3 of BFA students spent over $10,000 on training before college auditions. How can higher education institutions assist under resourced high school students in preparing for and accessing BFA training? First, there will be a survey of high school and BFA theatre teachers and students to discover their current curriculum and needs. Then Design Thinking methods and Kraehe’s Equity Framework for Arts Education will be used to lead two workshops for local students to prepare for competitive Acting BFA auditions. Next, the survey data and the steps taken will be documented to build workshops in a guidebook, which will ensure the workshop’s continuation at Elon.