2025 grants for retirees
UMRA’s Professional Development Grants for Retirees (PDGR) program is an annual competition for grants to support projects related to U of M retirees’ research, instructional history, new scholarship, or creative interests. Previously awarded grants have covered topics such as art, statistics, social equity, science, and medicine.
Funding of up to $5,000 per grant is available. Application instructions for 2025 are posted on the UMRA website. Applications will be accepted from October 1 to December 31, 2024, for funding to start April 1, 2025.
Anyone with questions about the program should contact John Bantle, MD, PDGR Committee chair.
News
For the 2026 grant year, the UMRA PDGR Committee received eight new applications. The PDGR Committee selected six for funding. See the awardees and grant abstracts on the 2026 PDGR Abstracts page.
UMRA’s 2026 grants for retirees will help to support scholarly and creative projects focused on art, architecture, creativity in children, public humanities, understanding human aggression, and volunteerism.
The University Regents’ meeting on February 13 began with heartfelt remarks from Regent Joel Bergstrom regarding the damage inflicted on Minnesota by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement violence.
The University Retirees Volunteer Center offers a variety of opportunities to be of help. “We all want to help stressed communities during this difficult time in Minnesota,” says Michelle Trudeau-Spanjers, URVC’s liaison to Neighborhood House, which is providing emergency groceries and other necessities to St. Paul families worried about their safety.
Meet UMRA member and stalwart treasurer Kristy Frost-Griep, a Renaissance woman who learned the value of hard work and the importance of customer service as a young teen, working in the family business.
Planning is already well underway for UMRA to host this year’s annual meeting of the Big Ten Retirees Association in late July on the U of M Twin Cities campus in Minneapolis.