SPICE: Student Projects for Intellectual Community Enhancement

SPICE

SPICE funds support graduate students' efforts to build and expand their intellectual communities at Stanford.

by Application

Eligibility: All Students

Period: Applications are open! The deadline to apply is May 14th, 2025.

Duration: Annual application cycle

Amount Awarded: Up to $5,000

About

Review the SPICE Overview and Application Guidelines.

Most graduate students' educational experiences take place primarily in the degree program. When students are intellectually engaged with many other members of their degree program, they are more likely to learn and grow. All members benefit when a vibrant intellectual community is an explicit part of the degree program’s culture.

Interdisciplinary inquiry and cross-departmental multidisciplinary conversations are a hallmark of graduate studies at Stanford. When intellectual communities include perspectives from many fields and inquiry paradigms, knowledge advances unexpectedly.

Students do not need to wait for intellectual communities to be developed for them. They can be energetic agents who create activities that enhance the academic life of their degree program or many degree programs.

SPICE funds support graduate (master’s, doctoral, or professional) student initiatives that develop activities to expand the intellectual community of their degree program or many degree programs.

SPICE application:

must be led by graduate students
put ideas and debate at their center
involve graduate students across subfields and at different stages in their studies
preferably should offer a comprehensive set of activities

The regular SPICE application opens in Spring Quarter. The first group of SPICE awards was made in Spring 2008. Both department-based and interdisciplinary SPICE applications are encouraged.