Having a process in place also encourages technology vendors to work with the University to make sure that their products are accessible, said Shachmut, who has since become manager of digital accessibility in the Office of Institutional Diversity and Equity. The organizers hope that the databases, data collection, and reporting will inform decision-making beyond the life of the grant.

“We saw data-gathering as really important for long-term sustainability,” he said.

Funding applications are evaluated on criteria that include how innovative the project is and its prospect for cross-School and -unit collaboration. Applicants receive written feedback on their project proposals from senior University leaders. During the 2017‒2018 application cycle, 12 groups moved on to the finalist round, where they presented their proposals and answered questions from leadership in a five-minute, lightning-round format. If awarded funding, applicant teams become part of the Innovation Fund cohort, meeting quarterly with other teams to share experiences and develop design thinking, project management, and collaboration skills. Past recipients stay connected to the fund as presenters, ambassadors, and exemplars of the University’s commitment to administrative innovation.

For Kasie Mina, a business process architect in Central Finance and Administration, going through the application process during the first cycle, in which he was not awarded funding, helped him develop and streamline his successful second-cycle team project proposal, the Macro Pack. While macros, which are code scripts that automate tasks within spreadsheets, can greatly vary from person to person, there are often areas of overlap hidden on each person’s computer. Along with colleagues Alec Antell, Ken Knoblock, Jeroen Nefkens, Tom Price, and Stephen St. Cyr from the Office of Treasury Management, as well as Campus Services, Central Finance and Administration, the Office of Financial Strategy and Planning, and the Medical School, Mina worked to establish a group of macros on an external server that University employees could access at any time.

“We can put a file out on [the server] and if it’s a macro set that people are linking to, if we update that one file it’ll update for everyone,” said Mina. “Not only will they get the benefit of updates, but they’ll also see … macros that other folks have created for certain jobs.”

The fund application deadline is April 2, with the first round of judging running through early May. While priority will be given to projects that focus on inclusion and belonging, in alignment with the work of the Harvard Task Force on Inclusion and Belonging, other categories welcoming proposals include administrative innovations that serve the academic administration, service delivery, and talent development.