DEIA Pilot Grant

The Department of Medicine is sponsoring a brand new Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) Pilot Grant program. The objective of the Pilot Grant program is to support innovative DOM trainee, staff, and faculty initiatives that promote DEIA in DOM. Initiatives may address clinical, educational, administrative, workforce, community engagement, and/or research areas.

 Applications  closed on Monday, January 13th, 2025.

If you are newer to writing grant proposals or would like assistance, please contact Kaku So-Armah (kaku@bu.edu) to discuss your ideas and how to describe it using the guidelines below. Office Hours will be Mondays 3-4pm & Wednesday’s 10-11am. Email Kaku for a zoom link. 

You cannot save your application once you have started it, so please prepare your answers in advance. A Word version of the application is available here.

Initiative Examples

• Identifying and prioritizing opportunities to improve the experiences of people with disabilities in DOM
• Developing rigorous evaluation metrics to assess impact of DOM DEIA initiatives (e.g., DEIA pilot grant program, DEIA week, DEIA conferences, Diverse Faculty Recruitment initiative, Diverse Resident Recruitment activities, public signage to promote DEIA e.g., advertising Black history month)
• Implementing workshop a workshop on cultural humility for faculty and staff engaged in mentoring
• Clinical health equity initiative to analyze health outcomes for specific diagnosis, e.g., hypertension.
• Assessment of experiences of members of community advisory boards involved in DOM research.
• Identifying and prioritizing opportunities to improve patient experience focusing on a BMC Patient Family Advisory Council

Fund Allocation

• Funds may be used to hire analytical support; compensate community partners; provide modest incentives for survey completion; food for initiative events, etc.
• Funds may not be used for team member salary support
• Budget justification must include details of how funds will be allocated
• Total funds per initiative are ≤$10,000 over 1-year period
• Flexible criteria informing review of applications. The following conditions would make an application MORE likely to be favorably reviewed:
  • Clear description of how the program will enhance DOM, institution, or community
  • Program is innovative
  • Well-described methods to accomplish initiative
  • Initiatives that have a rigorous evaluation plan and metrics of success (outcomes); encourage use of CTSI BERD and BU Center for Implementation & Improvement Science as appropriate.
  • Well-developed plans regarding how to address potential challenges with initiative completion
  • Initiatives that have a scholarly dissemination plan within and/or outside the institution
  • Initiatives that include diverse team members: e.g., NIH definition of diversity in team composition, members with different department roles (trainees, staff, or faculty), sections, etc.
  • Initiative is realistic in scope given the budget (≤$10,000) and time (i.e., can make substantive progress on the initiative in 1 year).
  • Considers a relevant theory of behavior change if applicable or some other evidence-based framework to support the approach
• Note: Unlikely to be funded if outside the scope of DEIA pilot grant mechanism, e.g., faculty salary support

Review Committee

• Comprised of diverse team members: e.g., NIH definition of diversity in team composition, members with different department roles (trainees, staff, or faculty), variety of large & small clinical & research sections

BU intends that its facilities, programming, and academic offerings will be accessible, inclusive, and diverse. Your experience in this event is important to us. If you require communication access services for the deaf or hard of hearing, or require an accommodation for another reason, please contact bumcfdd@bu.edu to discuss your needs. Please see Event Accessibility for details on accommodations.

For more information about this or the program, please contact us at bumcfdd@bu.edu