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The BASIC Initiative

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The Belmont Accelerator for Social Innovation Collaboration, or BASIC, promises to encourage and empower individuals across Belmont’s campus to use their intellectual capital and faithful commitment for the betterment of our students, the local community and the region.

BASIC is designed to bring together faculty, staff, students and community partners in efforts to discover and develop innovative ways to promote human flourishing. Faith-based social innovation is an approach to tackling complex, “wicked” problems that involves cross-sector collaboration and multiple strategies and experiments. Examples of wicked problems could include everything from intergenerational poverty and lack of educational opportunity to health care inequities and drug abuse, and beyond. BASIC aims to create a new equilibrium by building, renewing or transforming institutions and offering approaches to social problems that are more effective, efficient, sustainable and just than existing ones.

The preliminary BASIC experiments will typically involve three or more disciplines across colleges or administrative areas, as complex problems require interdisciplinary thinking and diverse perspectives. With academic year 2021-22, we anticipate funding 3-5 BASIC grant proposals that hold the promise of making an impact in our region, especially in initiatives that enable children 0-8 and their families to flourish. Seed grant proposals do not have a cap, but most funded proposals will be under $50,000 with timelines for design and implementation being up to three years.

Key dates for BASIC

Not accepting new full BASIC project proposals at this time. Please find the dates for BASIC research courses below.


Relevant Documents

  • Junior Cornerstone and Interdisciplinary Learning Community course guidelines - download here and here
  • BASIC Project Proposal Brainstorming Document - download here
  • BASIC Research Course Brainstorming Document - download here
  • Values for BASIC Proposal Development - download here

 

Traits Shared by BASIC Initiatives

BASIC experiments should include all or most of the following elements:

 

A hard problem, like calculus, can be solved with fortitude, hard work and persistence, while a wicked problem is a complex social or cultural problem that defies solution. Wicked problems typically have multiple dimensions and often involve incomplete or contradictory understandings of the problem, diverse causes, social complexity, no clear solution and an interconnected nature.

Experiments ought to go beyond discovering knowledge or engaging in advocacy or service. Instead, they should present the potential to build, renew or transform institutions (and their interconnections in broader “ecosystems”) in order to promote human flourishing.

Because our most important problems are not reducible to any one discipline or field, and because we live in a complex world in which challenges are less foreseeable and knowledge less reliable, it is important for us to improvise and develop opportunities for learning, discovery and action across units. Because the most effective innovation often results from associational thinking across diverse problems and fields, preliminary BASIC experiments should ordinarily involve three or more disciplines from two or more colleges/schools.

Because social innovation cannot proceed separate and apart from a deep understanding of and a close engagement with a community in which a given problem exists, BASIC activities should occur within a specific community context—whether that community is Nashville or middle Tennessee more broadly (including rural communities). Likewise, because social innovation aims at creating social value, it is compatible with multiple sectors of our society (private, public, and social) and multiple business models (e.g. for-profit, nonprofit, or hybrid). BASIC experiments should seek to build and deepen partnerships—within specific communities and across multiple sectors—with stakeholders committed to innovation and shared visions of human flourishing.

Consistent with our shared Christ-centered mission, faith should be a vital force, providing the imagination, passion and commitment that leads to innovation. Christian social innovation recognizes that it will take more than human ingenuity to solve intractable, wicked problems; it will take a comprehensive vision of God and the nature and purpose of the world and of human life within it. Further, social innovation and entrepreneurship, when designed and implemented well, depend on and nurture strong character; traits such as humility, creativity, perseverance, courage, truthfulness, frugality, generosity and love are important to sustainable and transformational enterprises.

Some experiments might be driven by teaching-learning activities, others by research questions, while others might be driven by practical impact, and still others by an integration of all three. In all cases, experiments should be directed toward some form of implementation, action and impact in both the classroom and the community. We expect that proposals that are supported will result in at least one team-taught course. In addition to knowledge particular to the wicked problem being addressed, educational experiments also should seek to develop mindsets, skills, and wisdom that will equip students for a rapidly changing world.

Initial launch of BASIC will involve support for several experiments, iterations of which will help clarify models to scale going forward. Within this approach, initial experiments should involve measured, “SMART” (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) steps, with built-in plans for learning, evaluation and potential scaling.

Application Process

Applications should be no longer than 5 single-spaced pages (with normal margins and no smaller than 11 pt. font). Each application should have:

  • A one-paragraph executive summary
  • The name and department/broader unit of each collaborator, along with a few sentences explaining their unique strengths to contribute to the experiment (via academic expertise, passion for the wicked problem, past experience/service directed toward the issue, etc.) Please denote the primary contact person within Belmont.
  • A one-paragraph description of community partners and how they will be involved. Please include the name and job title of your key contact at the community partner organization
  • One-to-two page description of the initiative's key activities and how it could change the equilibrium on a wicked problem
  • A paragraph describing the projected course or courses to be developed as a part of the project
  • A timeline for the work to be completed.
  • A detailed budget breakdown indicating how requesting funding will be allocated across the duration of the project.

Suggested Format for Application: Title and executive summary (p. 1), People involved (p. 2), Key activities (p. 3 & 4), and Courses & Timeline (p. 5). Applications should be submitted via email.

Anticipated Outcomes and Impact

We hope to achieve several interrelated outcomes and impact as a result of these experiments.

  • Cultivate an “entrepreneurial mindset” among faculty and staff at Belmont, especially by working across departments and colleges/schools
  • Strengthen faculty and staff morale and creativity while generating ideas for courses that will prepare our students well for the future
  • Engage Nashville, and Tennessee more broadly (including rural Tennessee), and enhance our goal of being “Nashville’s University”
  • Stimulate a greater focus on partnerships and opportunities to strengthen support for important work we are seeking to accomplish.
  • Strengthen Belmont’s identity as a Christ-centered University that focuses on important needs in communities, especially in this initiative by supporting children 0-8 and their families to flourish and get off to a stronger start for their future

Questions?

Contact the Vice President for Transformative Innovation, Character and Purpose for more information about BASIC, the application process and timelines.

Download the June 30, 2021 Presentation