Each year, the GSA funds two different programs which provide money for graduate and professional student activities. In all cases, funds must be secured before the research or event occurs.
Individual Research and Conference Grants (IRCG)
The purpose of these grants is to support and facilitate graduate and professional student research initiatives and professional formation through attendance of professional conferences. The program is modeled after the Research Expense Grant program for university faculty, and is designed to help offset the costs associated with scholarly research and conference attendance that is not directly funded by other agencies, schools/departments within the university, and/or grants to advising faculty members. Examples of such expenses include, but are not limited to, payment for: library cards, travel to libraries, photocopying at libraries, assistance in data collection and coding, reproducing and administering questionnaires, and purchase of expendable laboratory materials. No usual or customary expenses will be covered, such as rent, pay for assistants, transcription (except in case of a documented disability), or for resources which may be used or acquired for free through
Note: For conference travel grants, we will fund up to $250 for conferences in the continental US and up to $500 for all other conference locations
The first application deadline for the 2009-2010 IRCG funding cycle is October 1st.
The IRCG application is available online. To complete the form, you will need to have the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader, which you can download for free
When you are finished entering your information on the form, click on the ‘Submit by Email’ button at the top of the form. You will be given a prompt with instructions on how to send the form data. Please send a follow-up email to confirm that your application has been received.
For more information or to submit additional attachments to your application, please e-mail Rakesh Das at rakesh.nits@gmail.com.
Group Grants
GSA Group Grants help to fund projects and programs that benefit a wide variety of graduate and professional students (as opposed to supporting the work of just one). There are two main divisions to this funding: Social and Academic.
In the first division, Social Grants, we would like to encourage graduate and professional students to come together independently outside of academic settings in order to foster a greater sense of community. Funds will be available for clubs and sports groups as well as for group service and volunteer activities.
In the second division, Academic Grants, the GSA would like to encourage independent graduate and professional student run activities with an academic orientation. In the past we have funded graduate and professional student conferences and workshops held at
If you are requesting remuneration for speakers or other event participants who are not performing contracted services:
- You may not request cash; instead request monies for gift certificates
- Please justify the remuneration costs
- In cases where a lottery is being used, please specify the prize allotment mechanism
The group Grant application deadline for the 2009-2010 Special Interim Funding Cycle (Late Fall/Early Spring) is November 30, 2009.
The Group Grants application is available online. To complete the form, you will need to have the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Professional, which you can download for free from the BC Software Downloads website.
When you are finished entering your information on the form, save the form and send it as an attachment to rakesh.das@bc.edu, along with any other supporting information or documents. Please note that, if you applied for an earlier round, then you don't need to reapply.
For more information or to submit additional attachments to your application, please e-mail the GSA Financial Director, Rakesh Das at rakesh.das@bc.edu.
The Review Process and Some Important Things to Keep in Mind
Our goal is to get money into the hands of graduate students who are doing great things, so that they can do even better things. In the process of doing this, we strive for a fair and balanced review process. To achieve such a review process we have some specific ways of doing things. We want you to be aware of our process.
There are two committees which review grants - one for Individual Research and Conference Grants and one for Group Grants. All grants are reviewed by a multi-disciplinary committee whose members are part of the GSA Council. Each committee is organized by a Chair who is responsible for communicating with applicants and grantees, overseeing the distribution of completed grant applications to committee members and running the committee meetings.
During each round, there are deserving applications that do not receive funding. If your grant does not receive funding, you will be provided with an explanation of why the grant did not get funding and things you can do to improve the grant. You should consider these comments and re-apply for funding. Sometimes, the committee's comments will make complete sense to you, and sometimes you might think the committee's comments are off the mark. Remember, it is a multi-disciplinary committee, so you need to sell your work, or your project, or your event, to a diverse group of people.
Whenever and wherever possible, you should be as specific as you can be about how much funding you will need and why. We suggest that you complete an itemized budget prior to your application, both to aid your own planning as well as to help the committee see why your application deserves funding. Any and all attachments you submit in support of your application will be considered. To give an example: If you would like money to produce an anthology of graduate work or some other kind of publication, you will need to have an estimate of printing costs which include the number of copies you will make, the kind of printing you will use, and any other costs associated with document production, editing or distribution. To give another example: If you are seeking funds to support travel expenses, such as airfare, please submit a price quote from a reputable travel website or agent, such as Travelocity or Expedia.
Grant applications are reviewed blind. Once you send your materials to us, the Chair of the committee removes your name and other information before distributing copies of your grant to the committee members. It is sometimes the case that members of the committee are in the same department, or know the applicant well and can figure out who the person is based on the other application materials. In these cases, the committee member in question participates in the discussion of the application but abstains from all other parts of the decision-making process about the grant in question.