The UC Office of the President has announced the 2023-24 Request for Proposals for the UC-HBCU Initiative. This is a systemwide initiative designed to assist UC faculty interested in developing and encouraging efforts to achieve a more inclusive educational environment of excellence. The goal of the UC-HBCU Initiative is to increase the number of scholars from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) enrolling in UC academic doctoral programs. UC faculty grants are available to support HBCU students conducting summer research with faculty at UC San Diego. Funds are also available to support departmental efforts that facilitate increased applications from HBCU scholars to UC graduate programs.
An average of 34 percent of submitted proposals have been selected for funding. During the initiative's first ten summers, UC hosted 816 scholars across ten UC campuses. As a direct result of this Initiative, 89 Ph.D. students and 5 academic master’s students are currently enrolled at UC; 19 Ph.D. students and 17 master’s students have already graduated. UC San Diego has two active UC-HBCU grants in Political Science and Computer Science and Engineering. There are 11 UC-HBCU Fellows enrolled in Ph.D. programs at UC San Diego.
We encourage you to write a proposal for this important initiative. The Division of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs (GEPA) welcomes collaborative planning discussions with proposal writers whose plans may involve possible leveraging of the summer STARS program. Proposals are due Friday, March 15, 2024, at 12 p.m. PT and awards will be announced in July 2024. Details on the call for proposals and a helpful PowerPoint tutorial for faculty who may be interested in applying can be found on the UC-HBCU website: http://www.ucop.edu/uc-hbcu-initiative/faculty-grants/index.html.
In addition to the Internship and Pathways grants, small research grants, up to $50,000, are also available to be used for research projects designed to improve inclusion and the experience of UC-HBCU students generally, and Black students in particular, enrolled in UC Ph.D. programs.
This effort also supports the Diversity Statement, adopted as policy by the UC Regents in 2007. If you have further questions, do not hesitate to contact GEPA OAR2 Director Angeline Yang at avyang@ucsd.edu.
