Submissions will open on September 8, 2025
All materials, including the faculty evaluation, must be received by 11 p.m. on December 20, 2025.
Important: Applicants must address each of the noted criteria in their proposals. Proposals missing information will not be reviewed.
Notifications will be sent out by January 28, 2026.
Please review current BU resources and policies around international travel.
Funding of up to $2000 is available for graduate arts research projects. Funds are limited and proposals will be competitive. The BU Office for the Arts and the Associate Provost for Graduate Affairs sponsor them.
The research may be traditional research of the arts (e.g., musicology, art history, study of performance or literature of any kind), practice-based research, or research from any discipline on the impact of the arts.
Eligibility
- Full-time students in good academic standing in either a master’s or doctoral program are eligible
- Students who hold staff positions are not eligible for this funding
- BS/MS or BA/MA students who clearly will be in the graduate portion of their degree program during the period of proposed support are eligible
- The project should be directly related to the applicant’s completion of degree requirements (e.g., thesis or dissertation work, independent study or directed research, a capstone requirement in the program, etc)
- A student may receive this form of support only once
- Funds may be used for travel to attend performances or exhibits, conduct archival research, or other research-related activities.
- Funds may not be used as a stipend for the researcher or transcription
- Applicants must have a faculty sponsor who will be expected to provide a confidential review of the proposal, including comments on the student’s need
Please note, that all awards and fellowships of this nature are run through financial aid, which may affect your total financial aid package. It is the applicant’s responsibility to confirm and coordinate this information with their financial aid office. *Note: Some fully funded PhD students may not be eligible for this funding. Please check with your department’s financial aid staff.
Criteria
A standing committee from the BUAI’s Arts Council will evaluate applicants according to the following criteria (address each criteria in your proposal):
- Feasibility of the project
- Whether the proposed project can be completed in the allotted time frame
- Clarity
- The potential impact of the research
- The importance of the project for the completion of the student’s degree
How to apply:
The applicant must complete and submit the Arts-Research-Grant-Proposal-Cover-Sheet along with a formal proposal (no more than 750 words) to the form below. In addition, you must attache a detailed budget including the requested grant amount and specific projected costs. Proposals are due by November 25, 2024, and notification will be made by January 21, 2025. Incomplete applications, including those without signatures, will not be considered.
Once the project is completed, grant recipients must submit a one to two page summary of the research results and impact to the BU Office for the Arts.
RELATED LINKS
https://www.bu.edu/arts/files/2022/03/Arts-Research-Grant-Proposal-Cover-Sheet.pdf
https://www.bu.edu/policies/international-travel-risk/