Seed Grant Application

The Yale Women Faculty Forum is pleased to continue our seed grant program in the Fall 2025 semester. We offer these grants to identify innovative ways to support the WFF mission by investing in the diverse work of faculty and student scholars at Yale. We extend this program to support our tripartite mission of fostering gender equity throughout the University via policy initiatives and research; promoting scholarship on women and gender across the university; and promoting mentorship, collaboration, and networking. We aim to expand research in areas of gender study and build visibility for issues and policies relating to gender in higher education. Amounts range from $200-$2000. 

Eligibility: Faculty, postdoctoral, graduate, and undergraduate scholars at Yale University are eligible to apply. We will give preference to seed grants leading to other projects and to applicants without access to other sources of funding. We welcome projects in all disciplines, without restrictions on methodologies or formats. 

Criteria for Review: Applications will be reviewed by the committee and selected according to the following criteria:

1. Relevance to WFF mission and theme;

2. Productive distribution of grant funds, with preference for projects where WFF funds will make it possible to complete work that would otherwise be difficult;

3. Quality and originality of the proposal

Requirements:

• Grantees commit to  provide an interim and/or final one-page report, and be available to present their work to the WFF committee in the form of a poster, podcast, or creative exhibit. 
• Seed Grant recipients must provide departmental instructions for transfer of funds within 6 weeks of award notice.  If funding transfer is not initiated by the grantee, WFF retains right to award funds elsewhere. 

Deadlines and Notification: We have one application cycle each semester; deadline for Fall 2025 is October 10th, 2025 and Spring, February 13th, 2026.  Applicants will be notified of award status within two to three weeks following each deadline.  

Application Procedure: Please complete the grant application through this Qualtrics link.

1. Project Description: Provide a maximum of one-page description of your project. Please outline the aims, scope, methods, work accomplished to date, and how the project relates to the goals and mission of WFF.

2. Project Abstract: Provide a short abstract about your project and its relationship to the WFF mission (150-200 words). Grant recipients’ abstracts will be recognized on the WFF website. 

3. Budget: Present the distribution of your requested amount, itemizing expenses.  Please indicate what other sources of support you have or for which there are applications pending.

4. CV or Resume.

Allowable Expenses: We make no explicit exclusions to legitimate research expenses. Researchers are expected to comply with university policies regarding human research participants and acceptable research expenses.

Please email wff@yale.edu if you have any questions about the application process.