The FREE Center is starting a new initiative with the purpose of supporting community-engaged research and creative projects. We invite proposals from research clusters (both new and previously funded) to support feminist, community engaged research and creative practices. Funds may be used to initiate or deepen community partnerships; to conduct artistic, scholarly, and pedagogical projects; and to document work. We especially prioritize transdisciplinary, collaborative scholarship that supports FREE’s mission to advance research that interrogates the asymmetries of power and inequality; education that challenges hierarchies of knowledge; and community engagement that is reciprocal and non-extractive.  

Research clusters may apply in one of two categories.  Established clusters (with budgets up to $15,000) are those in which OSU researchers have established ongoing relationships with community partners who are themselves collaborators in the research project. Emergent clusters (with budgets up to $10,000) will have identified potential community partners who are interested in pursuing collaborative work. All funded clusters will be expected to participate in the FREE Center’s dialogue series on community engaged research and pedagogy, and to document their work.  

Clusters may include faculty, lecturers, post-doctoral scholars, graduate and undergraduate students, and community partners. Each cluster proposal will be submitted by a principal investigator (or co-principal investigators) who must be a tenure-track, tenured, or clinical/teaching track faculty member.  

Research clusters that are already funded by the FREE Center are eligible and welcome to apply. We also welcome applications from new research clusters that have not previously received FREE funding.  

We will begin to accept applications in August 2025 with a final due date of September 29, 2025. Funds may be used to compensate community partners; support programming and documentation; pay for supplies or equipment; and compensate faculty PI or co-PIs. Funds will be released in Autumn 2025 and must be expended by Spring 2027. Details on the application process will be forthcoming.