Community-engaged research—academic research that meets significant public goals or needs as articulated in dialogue with community partners—is an important part of the Bates education and the College’s commitment to informed civic action.  The CER Fellows Program provides access to funding, mentoring, and peer reflection for student projects that engage public needs, as articulated in dialogue with community partners, through significant academic research. This program complements rather than replaces the support students receive from their research project faculty advisor. 

Call for Fall 2026 Applications

The Harward Center for Community Partnerships invites applications for Community-Engaged Research Fellowships (CERF) for fall 2026. This pilot offering will provide CERF access to fall semester thesis students with bi-weekly one-hour seminar meetings from the week of September 21 until Thanksgiving Break. Applications are due on or before Monday September 14, 2026.

Year-long and winter term thesis students may apply for the winter 2027 cohort in December, 2026. The Winter CERF program call for proposals will come out in November and be due on or before December 18, 2026.

Who May Apply for a CER Fellowship?

Any Bates student may apply for a CER Fellowship, but strongest consideration will be given to seniors. CER Fellowships are not reserved solely for thesis/capstone students, but we assume those students will be especially interested and qualified. Students may apply for projects in all disciplines, including the arts, and for interdisciplinary projects.

What Are the Criteria for Selection?

In some ways, the CER Fellows Program resembles other undergraduate research grants: the best proposals will be for projects that are well-articulated, intellectually significant, and feasible within the resources and time frame available to the student. At the same time, community-engaged research projects differ from other research undertaken by Bates students: they contribute not only to scholarly knowledge but also to the solving of public problems, the meeting of public goals, or the enriching of public culture, as defined in mutual dialogue with public partners. The strongest proposals for CER Fellowships will be for projects that offer such community benefit and are grounded in a process of community partnership.

What Are the Benefits and Expectations of Being a CER Fellow?

• Benefits:
  • Access to a community of support in the non-credit Fellows’ Seminar
  • Access to supplementary advising from community-engagement professionals
  • Bi-weekly meetings include meals from local restaurants
  • Access to and guidance on CER grant funding from HCCP
• Expectations:
  • Active participation in and preparation for one-hour bi-weekly seminar meetings (five in total throughout the fall semester)
  • Like all Bates researchers, students will be expected to fulfill the ethical obligations associated with their projects, including submitting their research plan to the Institutional Review Board for approval, if needed

Your application must include:

• The form below.
• An email from the community organization with which you are or will be working, discussing their support of your project and the benefit they expect to receive from it and, where applicable, how you will be supervised. If your partner is still in the works, please speak to this in your application form, including who you hope your community partner will be and what relationship/experience you may already have with that partner. Emails of support may be sent to mkinney2@bates.edu.

Please contact Morgan Kinney (mkinney2@bates.edu) with questions about the Community-Engaged Research Fellows Program or for advice about specific project proposals.

Fall 2026 applications are due on or before September 14, 2026. Decisions will be shared with applicants via email by September 18, 2026. The first cohort meeting will be the week of September 21, 2026.