Hi Amy and Norm and everyone
Projects are prioritorised according to stratgeic priorities and impact is important as well - so size of program can be a factor. Embedding of projects in institutional practice is considered of very high importance, so is a major consideration - we don't want things to be abandoned after one semester.
Picking up on Norm's point, I think it is likely that people will go outside the institution for development. This does happen and often people do this because they feel they get a better price, they have more control over what they want and they can do things within their own time frame. I think under the new system they will see it as a way of getting things done if their project is not recognised by the system and they have some funding.
However, the educational quality can be an issue - things can look fabulous, but be quite useless from an educational viewpoint. Many of these projects can end up on the shelf as they are not pedaggogically sound.