Predominantly Black Institution funding — defensible eligibility, cited to the statute.
See whether your institution holds PBI standing before you commit a limited-submission slot — eligibility decided against HEA §318(b), not a keyword guess.
A Predominantly Black Institution is a degree-granting institution with at least 40% Black undergraduate enrollment, at least 1,000 undergraduates, and at least 50% low-income or first-generation students, defined by HEA §318(b). That status unlocks the Department of Education’s PBI competitive grant. Strategic Pursuit scores it against the statutory test and shows the citation, source, and last-verified date.
Statutory proof
PBI per HEA §318(b) (20 U.S.C. §1059e(b))
The eligibility line isn’t our interpretation — it’s the statute. Section 318(b) of the Higher Education Act (20 U.S.C. §1059e(b)) defines a Predominantly Black Institution as a degree-granting institution with at least 40% Black undergraduate enrollment, at least 1,000 undergraduates, and at least 50% low-income or first-generation students. Strategic Pursuit encodes that multi-part test as a hard rule — miss any part and the program comes back ineligible, instead of leaving it to an AI to guess. The program carries its statutory authority, Assistance Listing, source, and last-verified date.
PBI · HEA §318(b) · 20 U.S.C. §1059e(b) · ≥40% Black undergrad, ≥1,000 UG · Verified · last-updated 2026-05-28
Designation status can change.
Who qualifies for pbi funding — and who doesn't
You have standing if:
- Your undergraduate enrollment is at least 40% Black, with at least 1,000 undergraduates and at least 50% low-income or first-generation students (the HEA §318(b) test).
- You’re a degree-granting institution applying as the institution itself.
- You can document each part of the multi-criterion test the application requires.
You do NOT have standing if:
- You miss any part of the multi-part test — enrollment share, undergraduate count, or low-income/first-generation share — a hard rule no fit narrative overrides.
- You’re a non-degree-granting entity or a non-institution applicant — this is an institution-only program.
- Holding another MSI designation doesn’t substitute for the PBI test.
Knowing whether you clear every part of the PBI test is what keeps a thin office off a longshot that would burn a limited-submission slot.
The programs Strategic Pursuit scores for pbi funding
These are the programs Strategic Pursuit scores against the test above. Each shows its statutory authority, Assistance Listing, current NOFO window, and last-verified date inside the dossier. Discontinued programs are never surfaced.
See all institution-eligible programs →
This product uses the Grants.gov API but is not endorsed or certified by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
How the eligibility verdict is built
This is not raw AI output. The PBI test is a hard rule taken straight from the law — when any part fails, the program comes back ineligible and the AI can’t override it. Your designations and enrollment-derived figures are pulled straight from official federal sources after the AI runs. We use only publicly posted aggregates — no student-level data. The promise is a method you can verify, not equal data on both sides.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about pbi funding
See where your institution has standing
PBI Funding is one line of the read. The full dossier ranks every program you can pursue on eligibility, strategic fit, and competitive position — with your HERD research-expenditure trend and federal-share percentiles against your true Carnegie peer group attached.
Federal research funding for universities →
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