Announcing the inaugural Go Grant winners

This week, Central Michigan University President Neil MacKinnon announced the recipients of the university’s first Go Grant awards, notifying more than two dozen students, faculty and staff that their projects were selected for funding.

MacKinnon announced the new funding opportunity during his First 100 Days address in February and said he had hoped to receive several dozen applications. Just weeks later, he notified the CMU Board of Trustees that more than 120 grants were submitted for consideration.

“This far exceeded my expectations and hopes — I imagined we’d be able to select close to 20 projects, a few for each priority” MacKinnon said. “But we received 122 truly great proposals. In the end, we were so impressed that we increased the pool of funding available to allow us to fund additional projects.” 

MacKinnon said he greatly appreciated all of the time and energy put in by the Budget Priorities Committee during the review process, and agreed to increase the pool for Go Grants awards to nearly $575,000. The sum will provide funding for 27 projects in the year ahead.

A project for every priority, and then some

Each of the proposals submitted aligned with at least one of the four Strategic Priorities included in CMU’s 2023-2028 Strategic Plan – and several proposals will make progress on more than one priority.

Joe Garrison, CMU’s budget officer and special assistant to the university president for strategic initiatives, said that more than half of the winning proposals would have a positive impact on two or more priorities.

“One of the selected initiatives will touch all four priority areas,” Garrison said. “The thoughtfulness and enthusiasm of the submissions was inspiring. A great deal of good will come from these initiatives.”

Among the winning proposals were initiatives to:

A full list of the selected Go Grant projects and recipients is available on the 2025 Go Grants webpage.

Next steps for grantees

Garrison said each of the grant recipients had been notified this week. In the next few weeks, recipients will receive information on how to draw on their funding and begin work on their projects.

As each team makes progress on their initiatives, Garrison said he will work with University Communications and the Office of the President to provide updates on the collected efforts.

“We hope to host an event in Spring 2026 to allow each of the Go Grant recipients to share their experience and the outcomes of their work,” he said.