This publication has arisen out of collaborative work completed as part of the Learning Innovation Network (LIN) project funded under Strand 2 of the Irish Higher Education Authority (HEA) Strategic Initiative funded (SIF) sectoral project: Improving services to students and capacity building (2006-2010), involving all 13 Irish Institutes of Technology and the Technological University Dublin. One of the 3 objectives of this strand was to scope the parameters of an agreed Academic Development Programme. Since Sept 2008, a LIN Accredited Professional Development (APD) Sub-group has been working towards the establishment of a sustainable shared academic development programme that might be offered by the sector and across the sector. As part of this process, several course designs were considered, a 10 ECTS LIN APD Special purpose award design template was developed, 7 of the partner institutions were commissioned to develop, pilot and evaluate these awards and a model subsequently developed in order that successful completion of various combinations of these awards could lead to a level 9 Postgraduate LIN award in its own right. This publication provides an overview of this innovative collaborative work conducted during the timescale of the project
