Funding Opportunities

Grant Databases & Calendars

• Grants.gov contains detailed descriptions of over 2,000 federal grant programs.
• Duke University's Funding Opportunity Database
• Philanthropy News Digest's RFPs
• Annual Grants & Fellowships Calendars, Barnard's Office of Institutional Funding and Sponsored Research
• Discipline-specific funding opportunities by St. Olaf's Office of Government, Foundation, and Corporate Relations: Fine Arts | Humanities | Social Sciences | Math and Science | Arts and Writing Residencies | Interdisciplinary

Humanities and Social Science Funders

• American Historical Association: Awards research grants with the aim of advancing the study and exploration of history in a diverse number of subject areas
• American Political Science Association: Supports scholarly research, grants to support civic engagement programming, collaborative projects on teaching political science, and research projects aimed at having real-world impact on pressing issues, and more.
• ASIANetwork Student-Faculty Fellows Program: Supports teams of students and faculty to carry out summer projects in Asia that address current global issues in an Asian context. Students collaborate with Asian people, and under strong faculty mentorship, develop practical and professional skills.
• Association for Asian Studies
• John Templeton Foundation: Supports research on subjects ranging from complexity, evolution, and emergence to creativity, forgiveness, and free will and encourages civil, informed dialogue among scientists, philosophers, and theologians, as well as between such experts and the public at large.
• Mind & Life Institute: Supports projects that advance our understanding of the mechanisms, implementation and outcomes of contemplative strategies to promote well-being and prosocial behavior in individuals and communities.
• National Park Service: Competitive grants include African American Civil Rights Grant; History of Equal Rights Grants; Underrepresented Community Grants; and more
• NEH Translation Projects: Supports collaborative teams who are editing, annotating, and translating foundational humanities texts that are vital to learning and research but are currently inaccessible or are available only in inadequate editions or translations
• NEH Archaeological and Ethnographic Field Research: Awards to institutions and organizations conducting empirical field research to answer significant questions in the humanities
• NEH Digital Humanities Advancement Grants: Supports innovative, experimental, and/or computationally challenging digital projects at different stages of their lifecycles, from early start-up phases through implementation and sustainability.
• NEH Humanities Connections: Supports innovative curricular approaches that foster partnerships among humanities faculty and their counterparts in the social and natural sciences and in pre-service or professional programs, to encourage and develop new integrative learning opportunities for students
• NSF- Directorate for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences: Supports basic research on people and society. The SBE sciences focus on human behavior and social organizations and how social, economic, political, cultural, and environmental forces affect the lives of people from birth to old age and how people in turn shape those forces
• Russell Sage Foundation: Supports the methods, data, and theoretical core of the social sciences as a means of improving social policies programs of social science research within its funding priorities.
• Social Science Research Council: Supports research in social sciences. Fellowships and prizes share a core commitment to improving conditions for social science knowledge production worldwide
• Spencer Foundation: Supports high-quality, innovative research on education, broadly conceived and provides funding for education-focused research projects, research training fellowships, and additional field-building initiatives
• Wabash Center: Supports activities that enhance teaching and learning in the fields of religious and theological studies as taught in colleges, universities, and theological schools
• Wenner-Gren Foundation: Supports research partnerships bring together scholars and their interlocutors in the mutual production of anthropological knowledge aimed at combating inequality and promoting the flourishing of human and more than human worlds

Science Funders

• ACS Petroleum Research Fund: Supports fundamental research directly related to petroleum or fossil fuels
• American Chemical Society: Offers funding to support the advancement of the chemical sciences through research, education, and community projects
• Code for Science and Society: Grants for virtual events focused on improving or connecting research-driven data science tools, practices, and inclusive open data science communities
• Department of Energy
• National Institute of Health (NIH) - AREA: Supports small-scale research projects at educational institutions that provide baccalaureate or advanced degrees for a significant number of the Nation’s research scientists but that have not been major recipients of NIH support
• National Institute of Health (NIH) Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS): Supports basic research that increases our understanding of biological processes and lays the foundation for advances in disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention
• National Science Foundation (NSF)
• NSF Launching Early-Career Academic Pathways in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences - (LEAPS-MPS): Supports pre-tenure faculty in Mathematical and Physical Science fields in initiating their research programs early in their careers, particularly at institutions including predominantly undergraduate institutions (PUIs)
• National Science Foundation Mid-Career Advancement: Offers scientists and engineers at the Associate Professor rank (or equivalent) to substantively enhance and advance their research program through synergistic and mutually beneficial partnerships
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
• NSF Facilitating Research at Primarily Undergraduate Institutions (RUI): Supports predominantly undergraduate institution (PUI) faculty in research that engages them in their professional field(s), builds capacity for research at their home institution, and supports the integration of research and undergraduate education
• NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER): NSF’s most prestigious awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization
• NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE): Supports the novel, creative, and transformative approaches to generating and using new knowledge about STEM teaching and learning to improve STEM education for undergraduate students
• NSF Major Research Instrumentation Program (MRI): Supports the acquisition or development of a multi-user research instrument that is, in general, too costly and/or not appropriate for support through other NSF programs
• NSF Re-entry to Active Research program: Catalyzes the advancement along the academic tenure-track of highly meritorious individuals who are returning from a hiatus from active research
• Office of Naval Research Science & Technology
• Rita Allen Foundation: Supports early-career biomedical scholars to establish labs and pursue research directions with above-average risk and promise
• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Evidence for Action Program: Supports innovative, rigorous research on the impact of programs, policies, and practices on health and well-being, with a particular focus on research that will help advance health and racial equity.
• Simons Foundation: Range of grant programs focusing on mathematical and physical sciences, life sciences and autism research
• Whitehall Foundation: Supports dynamic areas of basic biological research that are not heavily supported by Federal Agencies or other foundations with specialized missions

Fellowships

• AAUW American Fellowships: Fellowships to pursue academic work and lead innovative projects to empower women and girls in engineering, medicine, and the physical or biological sciences
• American Academy in Berlin: Residential fellowships in Berlin to enrich transatlantic dialogue in the arts, humanities, and public policy.
• American Academy in Rome: Residential fellowships that support innovative and cross-disciplinary work in the arts and humanities
• American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Fellowships: Fellowships advancing humanistic studies in all fields of learning in the humanities and the social sciences
• American Philosophical Society Research Grants & Fellowships: Maintains fifteen grant or fellowship programs in a wide range of fields
• Camille & Henry Dreyfus Foundation Fellows: Fellowships related to the advancement of the chemical sciences
• Council of American Overseas Research Centers: Fellowships, grants, and language and cultural programs based at each Overseas Research Center
• Fulbright U.S. Scholars Program: Opportunities for professionals, artists, and scholars at all career-levels. Location and eligibility vary across awards.
• Harvard Radcliffe Fellowship: Awards 50 fellowships each academic year to exceptional scientists, writers, scholars, public intellectuals, practitioners, and artists whose work is making a difference in their professional fields and in the larger world.
• James McKeen Cattell Fund:Fellowships for psychologists that supplement the regular sabbatical allowance provided by the recipients’ home institutions.
• Jefferson Science Fellows Program: One year fellowship at the U.S. Department of State or USAID serving as advisers on issues of foreign policy or international development in Fellow’s areas of expertise
• John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation: Fellowships to exceptional individuals in pursuit of scholarship in any field of knowledge and creation in any art form, under the freest possible conditions.
• Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Faculty Fellowships: Residential, academic year fellowship at Princeton to research and writing about topics involving human values in public and private life.
• Library of Congress Kluge Fellowships: Residential fellowships to scholars and thought leaders to make use of the Library’s vast collections and digital resources
• National Humanities Center: Residential fellowships for humanities scholars or scholars engaged in humanistic projects
• NEA - Creative Writing Fellowships: Offers $25,000 grants in prose (fiction and creative nonfiction) and poetry to published creative writers
• NEH Fellowships: Six to twelve month fellowships granted to individual scholars pursuing humanities projects
• NEH Summer Stipends: Supports continuous full-time work on a humanities project for a period of two consecutive months.
• Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study: Residential faculty fellowships to researchers whose work addresses the Institute’s annual research theme
• NRC Research Associateship: Research opportunities at sponsoring federal laboratories and affiliated institutions
• Research Corporation Cottrell Scholar Awards: Award for teacher-scholars who are recognized by their scientific communities for the quality and innovation of their research and educational programs and their academic leadership skills.
• Schomberg Center Scholars-in-Residence Program: Long- and short-term fellowships to support scholars and writers using the Center's extensive resources for the study of African diasporic history, politics, literature, and culture.
• The Smithsonian Institution Fellowship Program: Fellowships for research and study related to Smithsonian collections, facilities, and/or research interests of the Institution and its staff.
• S. Air Force Science & Technology Fellowship Program: Fellowship awards to postdoctoral and senior scientists to perform collaborative research at U.S. Air Force research facilities across the country

Local/Regional Funders

• Bush Foundation: Community Innovation grants fund the most promising ideas to change communities and systems and are meant to be transformation capital.
• Carolyn Foundation: Environmental grantmaking focuses on mitigating climate change and makes targeted investments in Minnesota to bring about systemic change
• Central Minnesota Arts Board: Provides grants for individual artists, as well as nonprofit organizations
• Central Minnesota Community Foundation: Grants for local programs and initiatives that improve the quality of life in the greater St. Cloud region
• Headwaters Foundation for Justice: Invests in organizations across Minnesota that use community organizing as a core strategy to make transformative change
• Initiative Foundation: Provides grants in Central MN to support economic development; leadership development; community building; and families, youth, and seniors
• Laura Jane Musser Fund: Provides support in the areas of environment and intercultural harmony
• McKnight Foundation: Advances climate solutions in the Midwest; builds an equitable and inclusive MN; and supports the arts, international crop research, and neuroscience
• Minnesota Historical and Cultural Heritage (Legacy) Grants: Supports projects focused on preserving Minnesota’s history and culture
• Otto Bremer Trust: Supports MN programs in relevant areas of interested, including community asset building and health & wellbeing, including post-secondary education