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The Harvard Brain Science Initiative (HBI) Community Building Fund is open to any Harvard student, fellow, faculty or staff member with an idea for enhancing neuroscience research, career exploration or outreach work at Harvard—by improving diversity, increasing efficiency and/or reducing barriers to collaboration.

We offer small, flexible grants ranging roughly from $500 to $5,000 to support creative endeavors that are not easily covered by existing funding sources.

Examples of community building efforts we may consider:

• Promoting or celebrating diversity in the Harvard neuroscience community.
• Forging new relationships or deepening existing ones between basic researchers and clinician-scientists in the HBI community.
• Increasing career exploration opportunities for students and fellows.
• Creating a library of educational tools for outreach, purchasing relevant supplies.
• Developing shared electronic resources for research—such as databases, digital albums, websites, or cloud workspaces.
• Supporting teambuilding activities for neuro student or postdoc organizations.
• Planning special events, including film screenings, field trips, open houses etc.
• Designing museum-style mini-exhibits that showcase Harvard neuroscience research .
• Running a small contest or conducting an educational survey (with approval from the appropriate department or administrative unit).

~Please note, due to COVID-19 we can only support virtual versions of each of these activities at the moment. If you have an idea but are not sure of how to translate it to the digital world, please feel free to reach out and we will do our best to brainstorm with you or connect you to someone with relevant expertise.~

Application Deadline:
Rolling basis as long as funds permit

How to apply:
Please fill out this Google form >>
We will acknowledge receipt within 2-3 business days. If you do not hear from us, please write to HBI_Grants@harvard.edu to ensure we have received your proposal.

How proposals will be evaluated:
The main criterion used when reviewing proposals will be the community-building impact. Whether your idea is about research, outreach, or career exploration, we are looking to support projects that will ultimately serve more than a few individuals or labs—ventures that have the potential to reach beyond any one academic department or program. We will consider how well-thought out and feasible the proposal is, whether there has been consideration of related resources or activities that already exist at Harvard, and whether the funds requested are not easily covered by existing sources of support.

Please note the following:

• No indirect costs are permitted
• Collaborative applications are welcome, but each application should have one lead contact.
• We will consider whether similar resources or activities already exist at Harvard; if they do, we ask that you please differentiate your project or clearly explain any plans for partnership or learning from the existing ventures in your application.
• Students, postdocs or staff working in labs must have PI approval to apply when the proposal is research-related.
• If you have an idea for launching a new data or journal club, please write to us instead of applying here. We have an HBI Affinity Group Program that may be a better fit for your needs.

Apply here for the HBI Community Building Grant >>
Download the call for proposals here >>

No-Cost Proposals:
If you have an idea for a community-building project that does not require new purchases, but could benefit from HBI staff support or guidance, please send an inquiry to HBI_Grants@harvard.edu.