Small grants are awards of up to $7,500 for research that supports public-interest efforts to change media / telecommunications infrastructure, practices, policies or content. The grants are intended for short-term, advocacy-centered research, completable and usable by advocacy partners within the next 4-12 months. 

The deadline for the 5th round of Small Grants has passed. This was the last grants round of this phase of the Collaborative Grants Program. Grants winners will be announced on October 27th.

Specific inquiries may be sent via email to mediahub@ssrc.org.

Applicant Criteria

Proposals must be:

• Submitted by a US-based nonprofit advocacy, organizing or community group working on media and/or telecommunications issues. Groups with nonprofit fiscal sponsorship are also eligible. (A limited number of international non-profit organizations will be solicited by invitation only.)
• Structured as a partnership with an academic researcher based at a university, college or other research institution. This can include advanced graduate students.

There are no citizenship requirements for participants in these projects.

Project Criteria

Please review the list of criteria and the Guide to Submitting a Proposal for a Small Grant carefully before preparing your proposal.

Proposal Structure

Please submit proposals via the online submission form on the main Collaborative Grants page of the Media Research Hub. The project outline should include:

• A short description (max. 100 words) of how the research will be used to advance public-interest change in the media/communications arena.

• A description of the research project (max. 1000 words), addressing the following questions:

1. What is the political/social change this project aims to achieve and how will it accomplish that aim?
2. What is the collaborative process and who are the people involved: at what stages, in what ways will they participate?
3. How is this project needed/innovative in relation to the existing/previous research and advocacy on the issue?
4. What is the timeline for project activities?
5. What is the final project you will share with SSRC upon completion of the study?
6. How will you assess and evaluate the process and success of this project?
7. How do you see other organizations potentially using the findings and products of the research project?

• A description of the proposing organization(s) (max. 200 words), including mission, constituency, geographical scope of work, and annual budget.
• The name, institutional affiliations, research experience, and CV of the academic partner(s)
• A project timeline.

• A budget of up to $7,500, with itemized major expenditures. Budget items should include:
1. Other funding support – amount and source, including in-kind contributions
2. Personnel and consultants costs
3. Relevant travel
4. Relevant advocacy group costs
5. Dissemination, outreach costs