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Grants to Enhance Research on Racism

The President announced a new internal grant competition designed to address issues related to racism. Systemic racism is a powerful driver of inequities across all facets of our society and is often compounded at the intersection of other social categorizations, such as class and gender. The University of Houston, as the second most diverse Tier 1 research university in the most diverse city in the country, is particularly well situated to respond to this current and longterm crisis with a program of research, scholarship, or artistic expression to address the causes and consequences of racism and ethnic stereotyping, and develop implementable and societybased solutions. This program seeks bold new ideas, showing clear evidence of short-term impact and the possibility of leading to longer-term research, scholarship, or artistic expression that address racism, its causes, and its consequences. Only proposals that meet this purpose will be considered and reviewed. This program is not a supplement to currently funded research projects or to new faculty startup funds. Faculty are encouraged to build diverse teams and to include external stakeholders.

A total of $500,000 is available for this competition. Recognizing the broad nature of research and scholarship entailed by issues related to racism, proposals from all colleges and programs are encouraged. Awards will be made at two levels. The first is for small grants of up to $10,000 and are primarily designed for short-term scoped studies and pilot studies of larger multidisciplinary programs. We anticipate funding eight-12 small grants. The second is for grants of up to $70,000 for larger multidisciplinary groups. We anticipate making six-10 awards at this level.

Proposals must be submitted by Monday, August 3, 2020, before 5 p.m. No late proposals will be considered.