Deadline Extended: May 8, 2024

The Berkeley Economy and Society Initiative’s (BESI) Technology Cluster is pleased to announce the Call for Applicants for the “Technology and Political Economy Small Grants Program.” The application deadline is Wednesday, May 8, 2024. We are interested in a variety of proposals, including but not limited to those that support original research, student training/participation, and/or conference organizing.

The Small Grants program aims to support UC Berkeley faculty and postdoctoral students in pursuing studies of the political economy of technology and create opportunities for collaboration across the social sciences. Thematically, we are interested in proposals that analyze how states and markets shape the development, use, and impact of technology, and, also how technology shapes our economic, political, and social systems. Possible research themes include, but are not limited to, who controls the development and deployment of technology, how it interacts with power relations, and how technology is implicated in and by inequality, globalization, environmental change, crisis, economic growth, and cultural change.

Grant Details

• Award Amount: Up to $10,000 per project.
• The grant is intended to support research expenses, including data collection, travel, materials, and payment of an undergraduate or graduate student research assistant.
• The grant could also be used to support conference or workshop organizing, including invited speaker support, meals, and accommodations for invited participants.
• The cluster will give priority to those proposals that demonstrate an interest in interdisciplinarity. This can include participants from multiple disciplinary backgrounds and or thematic interdisciplinarity.
• Grant cannot be used for summer salary.

Eligibility

• Applicants must be UC Berkeley faculty members or UC Berkeley Postdoctoral Scholars.
• Recipients must also submit a 3–5-page research brief at the conclusion of the 2024-25.

Email an application to armando@berkeley.edu by May 8, 2024. The PDF/word processing document should be no more than two (2) pages. It should include 1) Project Description including project title, rationale, aims and objectives, methods, and proposed outcomes; 2) what specific part of the project the funding will aid; 2) A budget in the form of a table with columns for item, cost, and brief justification of cost.