The Award | Eligibility | Expectations | How to Apply | Prior Awardees | Updates
In an effort to support new policy-relevant research on health and consumer finance, CPL provides seed grants for UC students and faculty with a research proposal incorporating one of the following:
- Health Data Access Initiative (HDAI) – Medicare and Medicaid data
- The University of California Consumer Credit Panel (UC CCP) – Financial and residency data from one of the nationwide credit bureaus
- To cover data-access or data-hosting costs at CPL (eg, for a project approved through PERLI or for data hosting of other CA admin data)
What Does the Grant Provide?
Seed grants for the UC-CCP are designed to cover data access costs, which range from $6,500 – $19,000. Seed grants for the HDAI are designed as matching grants for the purchase of CMS data and can range into tens of thousands of dollars. Seed grants can also be used to cover reuse fees for existing CMS data in the HDAI. Seed grants to facilitate approved projects using other CPL datasets cover the costs to CPL staff. Costs will vary based on the project specifications. Please reach out to seedgrants@capolicylab.org for an estimate of how much grant funding you should apply for.
Seed grants are available for UC students and faculty through a competitive application process. The awards are designed to cover data-access fees and other infrastructure costs for teams with valuable research ideas, but who do not have access to other funding to cover these expenses. Grants may not be used to pay a salary/stipend or to cover university fees, and must be spent within the calendar year they are granted.
Who Can Apply?
Seed grants are available to UC students and faculty with a research proposal that uses one of the eligible datasets above. Preference will be given to cross-campus research.
With a mission to improve the lives of a diverse California population, CPL recognizes the value of diverse voices in all of the work that we do. We strongly encourage applications from all eligible researchers, including students of color and from marginalized communities.
Grantee Expectations
- Any research testing a hypothesis must be pre-registered on the Open Science Framework
- Awardees must submit a short periodic report on the research project’s status
How to Apply?
Deadlines are 12pm on the following dates through the end of 2024, when funding expires. If the date falls on a weekend, applications are due the following Monday. Application review may take up to 6 weeks.
Seed Grant Awardees
Donovan Rasamoelison, PhD candidate at UC Santa Barbara, for a project entitled “Buy now, forgiven later? Policy adoption uncertainty and personal finance: Evidence from the student loan forgiveness program.”
Molly Shatto, PhD candidate at UC San Diego for a project entitled “Student Loan Debt and the Transmission of Monetary Policy to Consumption.”
Katherine Chen, Assistant Professor of Medicine at UCLA, for a project entitled “Trajectories of residential migration and financial well-being among residents of low-income housing.”
Junru Lyu, PhD candidate at UC Berkeley, for a project titled “Experience Effect of Homeownership Choice.”
Teresita Cruz Vital and Kassandra Hernandez, PhD candidates at UC Berkeley, for a project entitled “CADAA Estudiante Cuenta: The Effects Of The California DREAM Act Application On Undocumented Student Success.”
Min Lee, PhD candidate at UCSD, for a project entitled “Pharmaceutical Industry Payments and Opioid Supply.”
Victoria Wang, PhD candidate at UCLA, for a project entitled “Pregnancy and Financial Outcomes.”
Sarah Papich, PhD candidate at UC Santa Barbara, for a project entitled “Effects of Buy Now, Pay Later on Financial Well-Being.” Sarah also received a Graduate Fellowship grant.
Niklas Flamang, PhD Candidate at UC Berkeley, for a project entitled “Why is financial distress so seasonal?”
Eva Lyubich, PhD Candidate at UC Berkeley, for a project entitled “The Relationship Between Energy Burden, Economic Insecurity, and Race.” Lyubich also received a Graduate Fellowship grant.
Woongchan Jeon, PhD Candidate at UC Santa Barbara, for a project entitled “The distributional impacts of wildfires on household balance sheets in the Western United States.” Woongchan also received a Graduate Fellowship grant.
Katherine Meckel, Assistant Professor of Economics at UC San Diego, and Min Lee, PhD Candidate at UC San Diego, for their project entitled “The Effect of Participation in the SNAP Program on Financial Stability Among Low-Income Households in California.”
Receive Updates
This program and other opportunities are promoted via the CPL newsletter www.capolicylab.org/newsletter-signup
Questions?
Reach out to seedgrants@capolicylab.org.