Background

Founded in 2022, the Visual Arts in Healthcare Program at Brigham & Women’s Hospital is a national leader in the application of visual arts education and research to train healthcare professionals. Housed within the Department of Medicine at BWH, our mission is to develop and advance visual arts-based learning experiences to cultivate empathetic, resourceful, and collaborative healthcare teams to improve patient care. Our programs help build the core skills of the healthcare professional, including detailed observation and interpretation, active listening, metacognitive awareness, critical thinking, compassion, and open communication.

The VAH@BWH will host a national symposium in Boston on September 23-25, 2026: Bridging Visual Arts & Healthcare Education: Impact, Innovation & Research. This symposium aims to build community between the visual arts and healthcare professions, educators, and artists. Through an exchange of methodologies and emerging research our aim is to build the evidence to improve healthcare professionals’ skills and effectiveness as well as positively impact patient outcomes.

Research Grant Details

To expand scholarship within the arts and healthcare fields VAH@BWH will fund five (5) research grants up to $10,000 each, subject to indirect costs (IDC). Grantees will present their work at the 2026 Symposium. Funding must be used to directly support the proposed project. Research grant goals are:

1. Integrate visual arts-based methodologies into health care education to improve patient outcomes

2. Promote impactful research, evidence-based evaluation, and scholarship that will move the field forward

3. Foster a community of practice comprised of arts/humanities and health care educators at all levels and in all healthcare disclipines to build collaboration

4. Share knowledge, skills, resources, and tested practice-ready innovations in teaching
   

Funding Priority

All proposals must focus on the intersection of visual arts in healthcare with measurable outcomes from quantitative or qualitative research methods or program evaluation. Priority will be given to collaborations between healthcare and arts partnerships. Applications from medical residents and fellows are strongly encouraged.

Eligibility

Applicants must be employed by Mass General Brigham (MGB) or appointed faculty at Harvard Medical School (HMS), through an MGB affiliate.

In addition to applications from faculty and professionals in both medical and arts fields, graduate students, residents, fellows, and post doc applications are welcome, but there must be a designated PI supervising the project who is a faculty member from their program.

Application

Each proposal should include the following sections:

• Project goals and outcomes

  • Including the project’s significance and innovation for the field

• Research methodology and plan

• Timeline for research, publication, and dissemination of findings

Other application components:

• Letter of support from a Department Chair, Division Chief, Dean or senior administrator

• CV or NIH Biosketch for key personnel

• Brief bios of all key personnel

• Budget proposal:

  • Example of eligible expenses include supplies, software, fees from submission of scholarly work, or salary support. Salary support will be subject to tax

  • Budget must reflect indirect cost expense

  • Note: Funds will be deposited into existing sundry funds. If applicant does not have a sundry fund, please list a senior collaborator with a sundry fund that can receive this award.

Review Criteria

At the discretion of the Symposium Executive Committee, content-specific ad hoc members will be engaged to review/critique proposals. The Review Committee will evaluate proposals based on these criteria:

• Impact of the proposal on represented fields

• Quality and scientific rigor of the research methods

• Feasibility of project completion within the proposed time frame

Reporting Requirements

All awardees will be required to participate in a quarterly learning collaborative, deliver a worksin-progress presentation at the half-way mark and present their research at the CVAH@BWH symposium in Boston on September 23-25, 2026.

Timeline

• RFP Information session held via zoom, 11am EST on 1/17/25,

• Application Deadline, 2/3/25

• Notification of grant awardees, 4/1/25

• Quarterly grant cohort meetings, dates TBD

• Projects presentation at national symposium in Boston, September 23-25, 2026

Submission Information

Submit application by 5pm on February 3, 2025. Application form can be found here (https://redcap.link/0r1ffc91)

Questions

Questions regarding your proposal can be directed to artsinhealthcare@bwh.harvard.edu.