Crain Memorial Research Grant

Standards development is itself a field of scholarship. The organizations that write technical standards depend upon a continuous stream of new researchers, and many are willing to support that work financially.

Crain Memorial Research Grant

July 30, 2026

The GASB awards research grants of up to $10,000 each for projects undertaken by graduate students that inform its standard-setting activities. The award honors Gilbert W. Crain whose work helped establish governmental accounting as a rigorous academic discipline. The typical application cycle has proposals due at the end of May, with awards announced about a month later before a new cycle resumes.

Gilbert W. Crain Memorial Research Grant

Topics of current interest include:

Digital assets
Digital financial reporting
Environmental credits
GAAP utilization
Fund balance
Essentiality of note disclosures
Other projects on the GASB technical agenda.

The joint FASB/GASB Postgraduate Technical Assistant Program places outstanding graduate accounting students with the Boards for a year, where they participate directly in standards development and research—a remarkable pathway into the accounting standards profession.