Up to $50,000 in grant funding is available to Iowa State faculty and staff who wish to propose initiatives to enrich the experiences of women and diverse faculty and staff at Iowa State.

The funding is available through the university’s Women’s and Diversity Grants Program, a program that has been managed by the Office of the Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion for the past year.

“If you interact with people in higher education, or various groups at different universities, one of the things they always say is that they want to do more work in diversity and inclusion,” said Reginald Stewart, vice president for diversity and inclusion at Iowa State. “But they don’t have the money.”

The Women’s and Diversity Grants Program was envisioned by the Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost. The program moved to the Office of the Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion last year after Stewart arrived at Iowa State. Funding from the grant is available as one-time programming or as seed money to generate additional funding from other sources.

Initiatives eligible for funding include leadership and mentoring programs for women and/or diverse faculty, staff and students; curricular development projects on topics related to women’s or diversity issues and invited speakers on issues of equity and diversity, according to the Iowa State Office of Diversity and Inclusion’s website.

“The grant also allows people to build upon and create a wave,” Stewart said. “It’s not designed to provide funding to programs that are already happening, but if you’re doing something, and you want to add a creative element to it, we’ll also consider that.”

Proposals for the annual award must be submitted by individuals or teams, but at least one individual from the team must have Iowa State faculty or staff status; however, faculty and staff are encouraged to collaborate with students.

Grants will be awarded up to $5,000. An independent team composed of individuals from several offices will be tasked with reviewing project proposals. Stewart said he will be expecting more applicants than his office can award.

“Some of these projects come up and they’re very transformational,” Stewart said. “We want to make sure people aren’t limited.”

Project proposals are due March 1. The application form can be found here.