Research funding
The Blum Center funds research by UC Santa Barbara faculty and students through two annual competitions. The Dr. U.S. Awasthi Initiative in Cooperative Economics awards up to $2,000 for student research and up to $4,000 for faculty projects that employ student research assistants. The Central Coast Regional Equity Initiative awards up to $5,000 for faculty and graduate student research on inequality in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura counties.
The 2026 application window is closed. Both initiatives will open their 2027 calls for proposals in Winter 2027. Subscribe to the Blum Center newsletter to hear when applications open.
Dr. U.S. Awasthi Initiative in Cooperative Economics research awards
The Dr. U.S. Awasthi Initiative in Cooperative Economics funds research that advances scholarly and public understanding of the principles, practices, and prospects of cooperative enterprise on the Central Coast, in the United States, and worldwide.
What the initiative funds
Cooperative economics spans the communal practices of Indigenous communities, the exchange networks of the mutual aid movement, and formally established cooperatives: organizations that their members own and govern democratically to meet shared economic needs. Cooperatives run grocery stores, housing communities, credit unions, worker-owned companies, and farms, and they put members' needs ahead of profit.
The initiative welcomes proposals from any discipline on how cooperatives are founded, run, and sustained; the cultural and political settings in which people have built cooperative economies; and whether and how cooperatives have improved the well-being of the communities they serve. It also welcomes proposals that center racial and intersectional justice.
Budgets and allowable expenses
Students may request up to $2,000 for original research. Awards cover original data collection, field work, and archival research; software and small equipment the project requires; data acquisition; transcription; and research supplies. Awards do not cover tuition, fees, or insurance; student salaries; conferences or trainings; or non-expendable equipment.
Faculty may request up to $4,000 to employ undergraduate or graduate students as research assistants and mentor them in research on cooperative economics. The Center pays award funds by direct payment or by reimbursing allowable expenses with receipts. Projects involving human subjects must comply with University guidelines, including Institutional Review Board approval.
Who can apply
UCSB faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates. Student applicants must be registered at UCSB when they apply and throughout the project, and must include a letter of recommendation from a faculty mentor or graduate advisor.
Application materials
- A project description of no more than 1,250 words covering the objectives, central research questions, approach and methodology, expected contributions and outcomes, and relevance to the themes of the call
- A detailed budget
- A curriculum vitae of no more than two pages
- Verification of Institutional Review Board approval or pending approval, if the project requires it
Applicants submit these materials as a single PDF. Send student letters of recommendation separately by email to Assistant Director Dr. Kashia Arnold at karnold@ucsb.edu.
Questions
Contact Cooperative Economics Graduate Student Assistant Şeyma Özdemir at sozdemir@ucsb.edu.
Central Coast Regional Equity Initiative research awards
The Central Coast Regional Equity Initiative, which the Blum Center co-sponsors with The Fund for Santa Barbara, funds faculty and graduate student research on inequality in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura counties. Funded projects contribute to community-engaged research, policy analysis, and collective action for social, economic, health, environmental, and civic equity in the region.
What the initiative funds
The CCREI welcomes proposals from any discipline that examine disparities in employment and wages, education, health, housing, climate risk, and political representation, and that foreground social justice, including regional issues with disparate effects by race, class, gender, indigeneity, and citizenship status. Research may address the causes, dimensions, consequences, or responses to inequality, across all three counties or within one. Funds may also support a Central Coast component of a larger project.
Every proposal must explain how community engagement shapes the research design, dissemination, and outcomes, and the CCREI encourages collaboration with community partners. Outcomes may include academic publications, dissertation chapters, public reports, new public data sets, and lasting campus and community research partnerships. For background, see the executive summary of the 2021 regional equity study and Equity Matters 2024.
Budgets and allowable expenses
Applicants may request up to $5,000 and may receive less than the requested amount, depending on the number and range of applications. Every budget request must be fully justified. Awards cover original data collection, field work, and archival research; software and small equipment the project requires; data acquisition; transcription; and research supplies. Graduate students may request up to $3,500 of the total in summer stipend support, and faculty may request funds to employ undergraduate or graduate student research assistants.
Awards do not cover tuition, fees, or insurance; replacement salary; conferences or trainings; or non-expendable equipment. Projects involving human subjects must comply with University guidelines, including Institutional Review Board approval. An interdisciplinary faculty panel reviews applications for the quality of the proposal, relevance to regional equity, degree of community engagement, and appropriateness of the budget.
Who can apply
UCSB faculty and graduate students. Graduate student applicants must be registered at UCSB when they apply and throughout the project, and must include a letter of recommendation from a faculty mentor or graduate advisor.
Application materials
- A project description of no more than 1,250 words covering the objectives, central research questions, approach and methodology, expected contributions and outcomes, and relevance to the themes of the call
- A detailed budget
- A curriculum vitae of no more than two pages
- Verification of Institutional Review Board approval or pending approval, if the project requires it
Applicants submit these materials as a single PDF. Send graduate student letters of recommendation separately by email to Assistant Director Dr. Kashia Arnold at karnold@ucsb.edu.
Questions
Contact Equity Research Postdoctoral Scholar Dr. Abby Cunniff at aecunniff@ucsb.edu.