Small Grants

Only CRE² Faculty Affiliates, Graduate Student Affiliates, Postdoctoral Affiliates, and Resident and Trainee Affiliates are eligible to apply for grants under this program. The principal investigator(s) must have applied for Affiliate status by the previous academic semester prior to submitting a grant application. Exceptions are granted for new faculty, graduate students, postdoctoral scholars and researchers, and residents and trainees who arrive during the semester of this RFP. Eligibility is limited to one Small Grant per year as principal investigator.

Proposals should be no longer than 400 words, including the identification of the basis of the scholarly activity (e.g., poster presentation of research on race/ethnicity), description of the resources needed (e.g., airfare, statistical software license), the event or where the resource will be needed (e.g., annual APPAM meeting in Denver), timing of the resource need (e.g., to secure professional editor during spring term), and the anticipated outcomes should the grant be provided (e.g., the dissemination of research, completion of final monograph draft). All Small Grant proposals that are approved for funding and involve the use of human subjects (e.g., payment or stipends to research participants) must obtain appropriate human subjects approval through the University’s Institutional Review Board before CRE² funds are disbursed.

COVID-19 Contingencies: If the proposal includes travel plans, we encourage applicants to include one additional paragraph with an alternative research plan that does not include travel.

Proposal submissions will be accepted on a rolling basis. Awards will be announced within two weeks of submission. Project funds must be used within six months. Requests for extensions will be granted only for unexpected circumstances.

Budget items may include support for data entry, interviews, data acquisition, access to restricted-use data, travel costs related to data collection or meetings with collaborators, creative materials, and other reasonable costs. The Center will not pay for computer equipment when that computing can reasonably be accomplished with the existing equipment on campus. Note that travel-related grants may require the submission of a travel report and reimbursement of the grantee’s airfare purchase after the conference is attended. Unspent funding at the end of the grant period will revert to the CRE² Small Grant pool unless a request for a time extension is submitted and CRE² leadership approves the request. Budget Rationales should include outside resources (if any) that will be used to achieve the aims of the project.

The CRE² Leadership Team will screen all submitted proposals to determine whether they align with the program’s goals and will review qualifying proposals.

The Center’s Associate Director will monitor progress on Small Grants. Grantees will provide an expense report upon request. Grantees will submit a final progress report and any products of the grant within one (1) month after the end date of their grant period and will notify CRE² of any proposals and scholarly works subsequently submitted or awarded/accepted. Potential grant products and scholarly works include publications; grant proposals; recordings; installations or exhibits; documentation of conferences, symposia, or residencies; and scholarly awards or honors. All products generated with the support of a CRE² Small Grant will acknowledge the program using the statement, “This work has been funded by the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity at Washington University in St. Louis Small Grant program, but the views remain those of the authors.”