Grants
Seed Grants
The Initiative for Law, Societies, and Justice at The University of Texas at Austin is pleased to announce our Fall 2025 Research Awards competition. These awards are intended to provide resources to research partnerships to complete innovative research projects on issues related to law, societies, and justice with policy and practice relevance.
We anticipate awarding up to three grants of up to $10,000 each, with a project period of 18 months. Applications are due by Friday, August 29, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. (CT). Proposals may be submitted via this link.
Submissions will be reviewed by a committee of four individuals, including researchers at UT Austin and one or more members of our community advisory team. Award decisions will be announced by September 12, 2025, with funds available immediately thereafter.
For questions, please contact us at justice@utexas.edu.
2025 Grant Rewardees
Helen Gaebler and Anupama Kapadia for "Gavel on Gravel: Strategies for Evaluating the Effectiveness and Impact of the Downtown Austin Community Court's Mobile Court Program."
The Downtown Austin Community Court (DACC) primarily serves residents who are experiencing homelessness with a focus on deflection and diversion through housing-focused homelessness services. To address barriers to traditional court services, DACC started a mobile court program. The Mobile Court Program began as a pilot in October 2023 and has continued since then. The DACC team is interested in partnering with ILSJ to assist with evaluation and feedback on the mobile court program, particularly focusing on what are the best measures to assess legal, social, and health outcomes for clients.
Michael Hames-García, José Aguilar-Hernández, and Jaime Fuentes Balderrama for "Austin Youth Safety Project."
The Austin Youth Safety Project employs a community-based research design that utilizes qualitative photovoice methodology to allow for in-depth exploration of youth perspectives on safety. This project will directly benefit 15 youth ages 13–19 living in East and Southeast Austin neighborhoods with high incarceration rates by expanding their participation in public safety discussions, building their civic engagement skills, and translating their experiential knowledge into concrete policy recommendations.
Whitney Thurman and Bill Wallace for "Evaluating the Grassroots Homeless Services Provider Capacity Building Program in Austin, Texas."
This research-practice partnership between the University of Texas at Austin and Ending Community Homelessness Collaboration (ECHO) will assess the implementation and impact of a novel program to support Black-led grassroots organizations in enhancing their capacity to serve people experiencing homelessness more effectively.
2023 Grant Rewardees
Fatima Varner, Maria Arabbo, and Courtney Robinson for “Travis County Transformation Project.”
This project will evaluate a pre-arrest, community-based pilot program for 15 to 16-year-olds facing arrest for assault and family violence. An alternative to arrest and juvenile detention, the Travis County Transformation Project uses restorative justice practices to repair harm, restore connection to community, and prevent future violence.
Meme Styles and Paulette Blanc for "Interrogating public safety reform metrics using the Measure CARE Model."
This project will result in the use of the Measure CARE Model to inform a Measure Black Paper. Through three community-led CARE Model meetings, Measure will convene Black, Brown, Indigenous, and underrepresented racialized people with the goal of co-creating new and interrogating existing public safety reform metrics. These metric recommendations will then be stored, tracked, and leveraged by other social justice groups on an emerging system called Measure Ignite.
Monica Munoz Martinez, Gloria Gonzalez-Lopez, Noel Busch-Armendariz and Caitlin Sulley for “Restore Uvalde: Assessing the Impact after Tragedy.”
Restore Uvalde will empirically assess the indicators of social well-being, mental health, and economic impact and corresponding needs following the May 24, 2022, massacre at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas. Restore Uvalde will use qualitative methods to systematically document current community conditions, determine community needs (e.g., gaps), and define desired outcomes (e.g., wants or what should be).
Special thanks to our partners and sponsors in the Office of the Vice President for Research, Scholarship and Creative Endeavors, the College of Liberal Arts, and the College of Eduation
For all general questions, please email justice@utexas.edu.