Grants
This is the first place to look if you are seeking external grant funding. Funding opportunities are listed by discipline. The web links and deadlines are checked every six months to make sure the information is current.
- Arts
- Business
- Education
- Humanities
- International
- Multidisciplinary
- Sciences
- Social Sciences
- Search Engines
Arts
Furthermore: The Furthermore program is concerned with nonfiction book publishing about New York City; natural and historic resources; art, architecture, and design; cultural history; and civil liberties and other public issues of the day. The grants apply to writing, research, editing, design, indexing, photography, illustration, and printing and binding. Book proposals to which a university press or trade publisher is already committed and for which there is a feasible distribution plan are usually preferred. Grants from $500 to roughly $15,000 are awarded in spring and fall.
Deadline: March and September
National Endowment for the Arts: The National Endowment for the Arts is interested in projects, regardless of the size or type of applicant organization, that are of national, regional, or field-wide significance; that tour in several states; or that provide an unusual or especially valuable contribution because of geographic location. This includes local projects that can have significant effects within communities or that are likely to serve as models for a field.
Deadline: various
Business
National Endowment for Financial Education: Seeks innovative research that can make a profound contribution to the field of financial literacy.
Deadline: December and June
Education
American Educational Research Association: Provides small grants, fellowships, and training for researchers who conduct studies of education policy and practice using quantitative methods and including the analysis of data from large-scale data sets.
Deadline: September
Spencer Foundation: Investigates ways in which education, broadly conceived, can be improved around the world.
Deadline: various
Humanities
Franklin Research Grants: The American Philosophical Society awards small grants (up to $6,000) to scholars in order to support the cost of research leading to publication in all areas of knowledge. The Franklin Research Grant is designed "to help meet the costs of travel to libraries and archives for research purposes; the purchase of microfilm, photocopies, or equivalent research materials; the costs associated with fieldwork; or laboratory research expenses."
Deadline: October and December
Furthermore: The Furthermore program is concerned with nonfiction book publishing about New York City; natural and historic resources; art, architecture, and design; cultural history; and civil liberties and other public issues of the day. The grants apply to writing, research, editing, design, indexing, photography, illustration, and printing and binding. Book proposals to which a university press or trade publisher is already committed and for which there is a feasible distribution plan are usually preferred. Grants from $500 to roughly $15,000 are awarded in spring and fall.
Deadline: March and September
Louisville Institute: Offers a modest general grant program which supports a limited number of individual and collaborative projects related to the priorities of the Louisville Institute, especially projects that bring pastors and academics together.
Deadline: various
Meringoff Awards: Submissions accepted for the Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers' Meringoff Awards. Three awards of $2,000 each will be offered in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. All entries should be previously unpublished.
Deadline: December
National Endowment for the Humanities: Provides an extensive list of grants that support research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities.
Deadline: various
Phillips Fund of the American Philosophical Society: Provides grants for research in Native American linguistics, ethno history, and the history of studies of Native Americans. The committee favors younger scholars, who have received the doctorate. The average grant is $ 2,500; the costs for travel, tapes, films, and consultants’ fees are included.
Deadline: March
Raiziss/de Palchi Translation Awards: This grant is offered by the Academy of American poets for outstanding translations into English of modern Italian poetry. Winners will receive a $10,000 book prize. Publishers may submit books published anytime in the past, but only books by living translators of standard Italian are eligible. Self-published collections do not qualify.
Deadline: February
Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America: Invites scholars whose research requires use of the library's collections to apply for research support grants from $700 to $3,000 to cover travel, living expenses, photocopying, and other incidental research expenses. In addition to the grants offered by the Library, Radcliffe Institute has its own fellowship program which supports scholars, scientists, artists, and writers of exceptional promise and demonstrated accomplishments who wish to pursue work in academic and professional fields and in the creative arts.
Deadline: March
Harry S. Truman Library Institute: The Institute's purpose is to foster the Truman Library as a center for research and as a provider of educational and public programs. It provides assistance to emerging and established scholars whose contributions illuminate the critical issues of Truman's presidency and legacy.
Deadline: April and October
United States Institute of Peace: Supports academic and applied research, the identification of promising models and effective practices, and the development of practitioner resources, tools, and training programs related to conflict management, international peace and security and peace building.
Deadline: various
Virginia Foundation for the Humanities: Offers a variety of grant opportunities to nonprofit organizations seeking funding to develop public humanities programs for audiences in Virginia. The grant program encourages projects that increase public understanding of important issues and enrich the cultural life of Virginia.
Deadline: April and October
William Faulkner – William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition: The Faulkner Society accepts entries for its annual William Faulkner – William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition. The competition is for previously unpublished work. Competition categories include novel, novella, narrative non-fiction, shorty story, novel-in progress, essay, and poetry.
Deadline: April
Harold Morton Landon Translation Award: Submissions are being accepted for the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award, offered by the Academy of American Poets, for a published translation of poetry from any language into English. The winner will receive a $1,000 prize.
Deadline: February
Donald Keene Translation Award: The Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture annually awards $6,000 prizes for the best translation of a modern work or a classical work of Japanese literature into English.
Deadline: June
International
American-Scandinavian Foundation: Promotes the cultures of the Nordic countries in the United States and American culture in the Nordic countries by encouraging programs that will enhance public appreciation of culture, art, and thought. It offers fellowships and grants from $5,000 to $23,000 to individuals to pursue research or study in one of more Scandinavian country for up to one year.
Deadline: November
Human Frontier Science Program: Promotes international collaboration in researching life sciences as well as to encourage researchers. Emphasis is placed on novel collaborations that bring together scientists preferably from different disciplines to focus on problems in the life sciences. Deadline: various
Multidisciplinary
Center for Field Research: Creating a public offering of significant research that addresses scientific, environmental, and public policy problems.
Deadline: continuous
Franklin Research Grant: The American Philosophical Society awards small grants (up to $6,000) to scholars in order to support the cost of research leading to publication in all areas of knowledge. The Franklin Research Grant is designed "to help meet the costs of travel to libraries and archives for research purposes; the purchase of microfilm, photocopies, or equivalent research materials; the costs associated with fieldwork; or laboratory research expenses."
Deadlines: October and December
Templeton Research Grant Program: Promotes research between the physical, biological, and human sciences and those modes of inquiry and understanding generally found within the domains of theology, religious studies, and philosophy. The program offers grant awards of $500,000 over three-to-four years as a catalyst for original research.
Deadlines: October
Sciences
Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Awards Program: Supports the research and teaching careers of talented young faculty in the chemical sciences. Based on institutional nominations, the program provides discretionary funding to faculty at an early stage in their careers. Criteria for selection include an independent body of scholarship attained in the early years of their appointment (see below), and a demonstrated commitment to education, signaling the promise of continuing outstanding contributions to both research and teaching. The Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Awards Program provides an unrestricted research grant of $100,000.
Deadline: February
Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Awards Program: Supports the research and teaching careers of talented young faculty in the chemical sciences at undergraduate institutions. Based on institutional nominations, the program provides discretionary funding to faculty at an early stage in their careers. The award is based on accomplishment in scholarly research with undergraduates, as well as a compelling commitment to teaching, and provides an unrestricted research grant of $75,000.
Deadline: August
Cottrell Scholar Award: Honors and helps to develop outstanding teacher-scholars who are recognized by their scientific communities for the quality and innovation of their research programs and their academic leadership skills. Cottrell Scholar Awards are for three-year projects in the amount of $100,000 for the entire project.
Deadline: July
Franklin Research Grants: The American Philosophical Society awards small grants (up to $6,000) to scholars in order to support the cost of research leading to publication in all areas of knowledge. The Franklin Research Grant is designed "to help meet the costs of travel to libraries and archives for research purposes; the purchase of microfilm, photocopies, or equivalent research materials; the costs associated with fieldwork; or laboratory research expenses."
Deadlines: October and December
Thomas F. and Kate Miller Jeffress Memorial Trust: The Jeffress Trust Program provides $100,000 awards as seed funding to support one-year pilot studies that encourage the development of innovative interdisciplinary strategies that integrate computational and quantitative methods across a broad range of scientific disciplines. For more information, contact the Academic Grants office at (540) 375-2409.
Deadlines: March
Environmental Protection Agency: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides grants to support high-quality research that will improve the scientific basis for decisions on national environmental issues and help EPA achieve its goals.
Deadlines: various
National Institutes of Health: The primary Federal agency for conducting and supporting medical research. Composed of 27 Institutes and Centers, the NIH provides leadership and financial support to researchers in every state and throughout the world.
Deadlines: various
National Science Foundation: The NSF funds research and education in science and engineering, through grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements. The Foundation accounts for about 20 percent of federal support to academic institutions for basic research. Most NSF funding opportunities are divided into broad program areas, which are listed below.
Deadlines: various
NSF Biology: Most NSF programs in biology are funded through the Directorate for Biological Sciences. However, activities with biological relevance are supported by virtually all parts of the Foundation. NSF does not normally support bioscience research with disease-related goals.
NSF Computer and Information Science and Engineering: The Directorate for Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering promotes basic research and education in the computer and information sciences and engineering, and helps maintain the nation's preeminence in these fields.
NSF Crosscutting Programs: Crosscutting programs at the NSF include interdisciplinary programs, programs that are supported by multiple Directorates at NSF, and programs jointly supported by NSF and other Federal agencies.
NSF Education and Human Resources: Many NSF programs in science, mathematics, and engineering education are funded through the Directorate for Education and Human Resources.
NSF Geosciences: The National Science Foundation supports research, education, and infrastructure to advance the state of knowledge about Earth, including its atmosphere, continents, oceans, interior, and the processes the modify them as well as link them together.
NSF International Science and Engineering: NSF enables and encourages U.S. scientists, engineers, and their institutions to avail themselves of opportunities to enhance their research and education programs through international cooperation.
NSF Math and Physical Sciences: The Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate (MPS) supports a strong and diverse portfolio of research and education in mathematics, astronomical science, physics, chemistry, and materials research.
Templeton Research Grant Program: Promotes research between the physical, biological, and human sciences and those modes of inquiry and understanding generally found within the domains of theology, religious studies, and philosophy. The program offers grant awards of $500,000 over three-to-four years as a catalyst for original research.
Deadlines: October
Social Sciences
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention: AFSP Suicide Research Grants support studies aimed at increasing our understanding of the causes of suicide and factors related to suicide risk, or that test treatments and other interventions designed to prevent suicide. Investigators from all academic disciplines are eligible to apply, and both basic science and applied research projects will be considered, provided that the proposed study has an essential focus on suicide or suicide prevention.
Deadline: November
Franklin Research Grants: The American Philosophical Society awards small grants (up to $6,000) to scholars in order to support the cost of research leading to publication in all areas of knowledge. The Franklin Research Grant is designed "to help meet the costs of travel to libraries and archives for research purposes; the purchase of microfilm, photocopies, or equivalent research materials; the costs associated with fieldwork; or laboratory research expenses."
Deadlines: October and December
NSF Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences: NSF makes grants and awards for social, behavioral, and economic research that build fundamental knowledge of human behavior, interaction, and social and economic systems, organizations and institutions.
Templeton Research Grant Program: Promotes research between the physical, biological, and human sciences and those modes of inquiry and understanding generally found within the domains of theology, religious studies, and philosophy. The program offers grant awards of $500,000 over three-to-four years as a catalyst for original research.
Deadline: October
Joseph B. and Toby Gittler Prize: Brandeis University accepts nominations for the Joseph B. and Toby Gittler Prize, which recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to racial, ethnic, and/or religious relations. The award includes a $25,000 cash prize and a medal. Both the prize and medal are awarded at a reception and includes a public lecture by the recipient.
Deadline: April
William T. Grant Foundation: The William T. Grant Foundation seeks to support research to improve the lives of young people. They offer a variety of grants, ranging from research grants to scholarships.
Deadline: various
Search Engines
Federal Government Grants: grants.gov allows organizations to electronically find and apply for competitive grant opportunities from all Federal grant-making agencies.
Foundation Directory Online: home to an entire universe of U.S. foundations, corporate giving programs, and grant making public charities — over 77,000 funders in all.
*Faculty members must access the Foundation Directory through the Office of Academic Grants and Foundation Relations.