SPICE: Student Projects for Intellectual Community Enhancement

SPICE Details

SPICE Overview and Application Guidelines

Are you a graduate student or postdoctoral scholar interested in funding opportunities to enhance the intellectual community within your degree program or across multiple degree programs?

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 and postdoctoral scholar initiatives that develop activities to expand the intellectual community of their degree program or many degree programs. VPGE is also excited to announce that SPICE has been expanded to include projects previously funded through the Diversity Innovation Funding (DIF) program.

SPICE Application

SPICE Overview and Application Guidelines

• must be led by graduate students or postdoctoral scholars
• 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.

Annual Application Cycle 

Applications are due Wednesday, May 13, 2026. Apply now!

• Annual Application Deadline: May 13, 2026
• Award Notifications: Early July 2026

Virtual Q&A Drop-In Session

On Wednesday, May 8th 12 - 1 PM, join VPGE for an informative virtual drop-in session where you can get all your questions answered about the Student Projects for Intellectual Community Enhancement (SPICE) application process and the awards themselves. Whether you're pursuing a master's, doctoral, or professional degree, SPICE funds can support your initiatives designed to enrich your academic community.

Feel free to drop in any time between 12:00 PM and 1:00 PM. Register here for the Zoom information.

Questions

Contact vpgeapplications@stanford.edu with any questions.