Brookings and WUSTL announce Academic Venture Fund grant recipients

The Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, D.C., and Washington University in St. Louis announced the first recipients of grants from the Academic Venture Fund (AVF).

The purpose of the AVF is to support collaboration between WUSTL and the Brookings Institution, particularly long-term projects that impact research, education and policy.

The grant awardees and projects are:

• Henry S. Webber, executive vice chancellor for administration, and Amy Liu, deputy directory of the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings, for the conference “Universities and Medical Centers in Older Industrial Cities: Leading the Transition to the Next Economy.”

• Sarah A. Binder, Ph.D., senior fellow in governance studies at Brookings, and Steven S. Smith, Ph.D., the Kate M. Gregg Professor of Social Sciences in Arts & Sciences and director of the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy, for “The Rise and Reform of the 60-Vote Senate Project.”

• Leila Nadya Sadat, J.D., the Henry H. Oberschelp Professor of Law and director of the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute, and Andrew Solomon, J.D., fellow in foreign policy at Brookings and deputy director of the Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement, for the “Crimes Against Humanity Initiative International Conference.”

• Ross Hammond, Ph.D., senior fellow in economic studies at Brookings, and Peter Hovmand, Ph.D., director of the Social Science Design Lab at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work, for the “Integrated Childhood Obesity Modeling Program.”

• David L. Caprara, nonresident fellow at Brookings and director of International Volunteering and Service Initiative at Brookings; Amanda Moore McBride, Ph.D., assistant professor and research director for the Center for Social Development at the Brown School; and Lex Reiffel, nonresident senior fellow at Brookings, for the “Advancing Research and Policy on International Volunteer Service Program.”

AVF grants are available in amounts from $20,000 to $50,000. Interested fellows, faculty, staff, centers, institutes and programs can submit proposals by June 1 for review in July 2010.

The AVF also offers smaller grants for events or travel by Brookings and university personnel. These proposals can be submitted at any time and will be reviewed on a rolling basis. A committee from Brookings and the university will review the proposals.

The AVF program is under the direction of law school Dean Kent D. Syverud, J.D., the Ethan A.H. Shepley University Professor and associate vice chancellor for Washington, D.C., programs.

The academic partnership between the university and Brookings began in 2009. The institutions now offer joint programs, including internships, lectures and other educational activities.

The Olin Business School also leads management of the Brookings Center for Executive Education.

For more information about the AVF grants, call Tomea Mersmann at (314) 935-6486 or e-mail at mersmann@wustl.edu.