Overview of STUDIO Grant Programs & Opportunities
The STUDIO manages several grant programs to support atypical, anti-disciplinary, and inter-institutional research and education at Carnegie Mellon. Our flagship programs, the Frank-Ratchye Further Fund and the Steiner Visitor Invitation Grants, provide financial, administrative, and logistical support to actively-affiliated faculty, staff, and students from any department of the University.
The Frank-Ratchye Further Fund
The FRFF is an endowment to encourage the creation of innovative artworks by the faculty, students and staff of Carnegie Mellon University. With this fund, the STUDIO seeks to develop a cache of groundbreaking and interdisciplinary projects created at CMU. The FRFF supports approximately 50 to 100 projects each year with grants up to $5000. Any faculty, student or staff person actively affiliated with CMU is eligible to apply, regardless of their home department.
Steiner Visitor Invitation Grants
The Sylvia and David Steiner Speaker Series brings creative individuals who push boundaries, defy definition, and demonstrate excellence in the arts, to our campus for deep engagement with our students and faculty. This grant program provides support to CMU faculty, staff and students who wish to organize a Steiner visitor for their courses, departments, degree cohorts, or student clubs.
Teach in the STUDIO
The Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry invites applications from full-time CMU faculty for STUDIO hosted and supported interdisciplinary courses with an emphasis on creative research. The course should respond to the STUDIO’s mission. The STUDIO will host one class per semester with a budget for classroom supplies, equipment and visitors.
CS+X Grant
CS+X aims to catalyze innovation through collaborative projects involving advanced computation technologies, with a focus on novel and creative applications in disciplines outside of mainstream computer science. These projects should expand creatively on the possibilities found at the intersection of the disciplines studied here at Carnegie Mellon University. The X in “CS + X” refers to these disciplines, which include the Arts, Humanities and beyond. This grant is available to project teams with at least 1 student enrolled in the SCS college, at least 1 student enrolled in a different CMU college.
XRTC Creative Research Grant
Launched in 2023, the XRTC Creative Research Grant is a collaboration between the STUDIO, The Askwith Kenner Global Languages and Cultures Room, and Extended Reality Technology Center (XRTC). With awards ranging between $1,000-$6,000, this grant is meant to both support and make visible creative research in the XR field. Selected projects will be supported by the STUDIO and a grant advisory committee to spend down their funds, professionally document their work, and publish documentation on XRTC and STUDIO platforms. In addition, supported researchers will have the opportunity to connect with the XRTC cohort thus creating transdisciplinary possibilities at the outset of this new Center. The Kenner Room hosts the Sona Immersive Storytelling Festival in which final works may be presented (if logistically possible): https://www.sonafestival.com/
Director’s Fund Sponsorships
The STUDIO’s Director’s Fund was created to put power behind original ideas that cross boundaries, create new collaborations, and push cultural norms. Sponsorships can provide flexible research funding and other support for one academic year. Awards are made at the Director’s discretion in consultation with STUDIO staff and stakeholders. To learn more, please schedule a time to discuss your project with STUDIO director, Nica Ross.
The Maddy Varner Mastication Award for Time and/or Teeth Based Works
STUDIO Alumna Maddy Varner’s generous gift supports a $500 award for “work that chews the cud,” such as art about chewing, or creative inquiry which takes a long time to realize. The first recipient of the award was School of Art senior, Lumi Barron, who spent more than 700 hours training squirrels to act in tiny domestic scenes. This is not an application-based program. Awards are made at the Director’s discretion.
Moore Family Fund for Underwriting Creativity, Knowledge, Experimentation, Research and Yumminess
The Moore Family Fund for Underwriting Creativity, Knowledge, Experimentation, Research and Yumminess is an endowed award from the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, established to support anti-disciplinary undergraduate research. By providing funding across the arts, sciences, humanities, and emerging interdisciplinary fields, the award aims to foster innovative and diverse experimentation that transcends traditional academic boundaries. The prize will be awarded at the annual undergraduate research conference at CMU, Meeting of the Minds. In addition, a portion of the fund’s draw will support the annual STUDIO-hosted B*A presentations, offering this student-led event the stability of an annual operational budget.
Funds Outside the STUDIO
The Sylvia and David Steiner Film Workshop/Film Experience Fund is an endowment to cultivate and foster creative screen-based projects involving those in the Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) community. The grants may range in allotments of $250, $500, $1,000, or more if needed depending on the project and the resources requested. While the stewardship of the fund is managed via CMU’s Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy and the College of Fine Arts, any currently enrolled student of Carnegie Mellon may apply for funding.