All graduate students are eligible to apply as part of a recognized graduate student group or as part of a group of 4 or more graduate students. Additionally, applicants this year will be allowed to apply as individuals with the support of at least one faculty advisor. The student submitting the application will be considered the lead student contact and will receive all communications regarding the application. 

Note: Medical and master's students are eligible to be part of a group of applicants, but they are not eligible to be the lead applicant.

The selection committee will determine based on the scale of the project or initiative how much a successful proposal will receive based on submitted materials. Grants range from $300-$5,000.

Note: Payment toward artists, invited guest speakers, and students must abide by policies set forward by the University and Accounts Payable.

Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Developing and providing seed funding for research centered on topics relating to or in support of the Black diaspora (i.e. research that centers any community(ies) of the Black diaspora methodologically or thematically).
  • Recent efforts have been made to address the gap in medical literature that produces a lack of BIPOC photography/examples/etc. Research, projects, initiatives that resemble this work toward addressing such gaps or its ethos will be supported.
  • Team projects that look toward institutionalizing/memorializing community, alumni, and students that are BIPOC, specifically members of the Black diaspora will be supported.
    • Projects that support changing the built environment to memorialize and remember figures of the past and present that have historically not been memorialized or celebrated are encouraged. For example, at peer institutions, similar student projects have aimed at highlighting “underrepresented women and people of color that have made an impactful contribution to [School name] or the world,” such projects or projects with a similar ethos will be supported, especially projects that center the Black diaspora.
• Continuing research, projects, initiatives that already support or expand on work that supports members of the Black diaspora at the University and will benefit the greater Black diasporic community, will also be supported.
  • For example, student groups that support the Black diasporic community at Brown already exist, but this grant can possibly serve as supplementary support to expand on initiatives that are currently under prioritized due to financial constraints.
    • Examples: community wide events, alumni/networking events, reunion events, large social events such as Gala’s and formals.
       
• Partnerships with community organizations to highlight or advance local action addressing anti-Black racism.
   
• Less prioritized, but not excluded, this grant can also support the creation and hosting of speakers, symposia, and conferences.

Projects, activities, or initiatives do not need to be new initiatives and can be ongoing. In this case, applicants should address in their applications how they are expanding upon previous initiatives and are contributing new elements. 

• Upon completion of their grant project, recipients will be required to submit a reflection about their experience and share their outcomes.
• Recipients may also be invited to participate in an online symposium to share their project and reflections with a wider community. 
• All recipients will receive additional administrative, mentoring, and logical support, as needed, from the Graduate School and potential partners. 
• All materials, events, and materials related to the funded project or initiative will cite the Graduate School as a sponsor.

Applications close on March 10, 2025 at 5 pm (EST). Apply through UFunds: look for the Black at Brown [Graduate] Grant tab.

Please contact the Diversity & Inclusion Team of the Graduate School through email at graduate_diversity@brown.edu.