External Funding Opportunities

American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) offers a variety of grants and fellowships; some key ones to be aware of are listed below.

• ACLS Fellowship supports full-time research and writing for projects at any stage of development in all disciplines of the humanities and interpretive social sciences. Awards $5,000/month for 6-12 months. Supports a variety of scholarly works, including monographs, articles, scholarly resources, digital projects, community-engaged projects, etc. Accepts applications from eligible scholars across all career stages, working on or off the tenure track. The application opens in early June and closes in mid September.

• ACLS Digital Justice Grant supports projects that diversify the digital domain, advance justice and equity in digital scholarly practice, and/or contribute to public understanding of racial and social justice issues. Awards are usually up to $25,000 for 12-18 months for Seed grants and up to 100,000 for 12-18 months for Development grants. The application opens in mid September and closes in mid December. 

American Philosophical Society maintains several research grant programs regarding library and archive research, Native American studies, and field studies research. Application deadlines vary based on the program.

Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program supports high-caliber scholarship in the social sciences and humanities. Fellowships of $200,000 are awarded annually to 30-35 exceptional scholars, authors, journalists, and public intellectuals to devote time to research and writing for 1-2 years with the anticipated result of a book or major study. The criteria prioritize the originality and promise of the research, its potential impact on the on the field, and the scholar’s plans for communicating the findings to a broad audience. Each University president may nominate one junior scholar and one senior scholar. The U’s internal competition opens in late August and closes in mid September. If selected, full proposals are due to the foundation in mid November. 

Guggenheim Fellowship is one of the most prestigious awards given to scholars and artists in the U.S. and Canada. It is intended for mid-career scholars who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship and exhibit great promise for their future endeavors. Fellows are given creative freedom and may spend their grant funds in any way they need to for their work. Awards vary but average $30,000 to $55,000 for 6-12 months. The application opens in mid August and closes in mid September.

Henry Luce Foundation offers funding through separate programs, including Asian Studies and Scholars, Indigenous Knowledge, Public Policy, and Religion and Theology. Awards vary based on program and range from $10,000 to $1 million for 6-12 months. Funding inquiry requests are accepted on an open basis.

John Templeton Foundation offers grants that support field-leading research and high-impact public engagement programs that cross disciplinary boundaries and challenge conventional assumptions. Their funding priorities focus on virtues and character development; religion, spirituality, science, and society, culture and global perspectives; and individual and free markets. Grants vary in value (ranging from $200,000 to $2.5 million) for up to 3-5 years max. Funding inquiry requests are due in mid August.

Mellon Foundation funds ambitious, visionary work at the intersection of the arts and humanities and social justice. They award grants in 4 areas: Humanities in Place, Arts and Culture, Higher Learning, and Public Knowledge. Awards vary from $50,000 to $2 million for up to 1-4 years. Funding inquiry requests are accepted on an open basis.

National Archives funds projects focused on historical records collections, including projects that involve strengthening archival activities, publishing collaborative digital editions, and public engagement with collections. Based on the program, applications are due in early November or in early May. 

National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has many funding initiatives; some key ones to be aware of are listed below. To help find an NEH grant that best fits your project, check out this guide and this article.

• NEH Fellowship supports research of value to humanities scholars, general audiences, or both. Provides recipients with time to write, to travel, and to conduct research and other project-related activities leading to a book, monograph, peer-reviewed articles, e-book, digital resource, translation, critical edition, etc. Supports projects at any stage of development, but especially those at mid stage (e.g., part way through a book project and propose to work on 1 chapter for every 2 months). Awards $6,000/month to support continuous full-time work for 6-12 consecutive months. The application usually in early January and closes in early April.
• NEH Summer Stipend supports continuous full-time work on a humanities project for two consecutive months. Supports projects at any stage of development, but especially early-stage research and late-stage writing in which small awards are most effective. Awards $8,000, which may be used for recipient’s compensation, travel, and other costs related to the proposed scholarly research. Requires university nomination to apply (this just applies to tenured or tenure-track applicants); non-tenure-track faculty, adjunct faculty, staff, and retired faculty are exempt from nomination. The U's internal competition opens in early May and closes in late July. If selected, full proposals are due to NEH in mid September.
• NEH Collaborative Research Grant aims to advance humanistic knowledge by fostering rich scholarship and sustained collaboration by teams of scholars from one or more institutions. Grants support projects at different stages under four categories: (1) Planning International Collaboration; (2) Convening (conference, symposium, or seminar); (3) Manuscript Preparation; and (4) Scholarly Digital Projects. The application opens in late August and closes in late November.
• NEH Humanities Connections Grant seeks to expand the role of the humanities in undergraduate education by encouraging partnerships between humanities faculty and their counterparts in other areas of study. Projects should plan or implement a curriculum connecting the humanities to one or more non-humanities fields. Awards up to $50,000 for Planning (12 months); up to $150,000 for Implementation (18-36 months). The application opens in mid June and closes in early September.
• NEH Humanities Initiatives Grant helps strengthen the teaching and study of the humanities at universities by supporting the development of new or enhancement of existing programs, educational resources, or courses that explore, interpret, and preserve the diversity of human cultures, ideas, and practices, past and present. Awards up to $150,000 (1-3 years). The application opens in early February and closes in early May.
• NEH Institutes for Higher Education Faculty Grant funds professional development programs that convene higher education faculty from across the nation to deepen their understanding of significant topics in the humanities and enrich their capacity for effective scholarship and teaching. Awards up to $220,000 (15 months). The application opens in mid November and closes in early February.

National Institutes of Health (NIH) has many funding mechanisms, some of which are suited for humanities researchers. The R01 and R03 grants are great places to start.

• NIH R01 Research Grant is NIH's most commonly used grant program; it is used to support a discrete, specified, circumscribed research project. It has no specific dollar limit unless specified in funding opportunity and is generally awarded for 3-5 years. Standard due dates are February 5th, June 5th, and October 5th, annually.
• NIH R03 Research Grant provides limited funding for a short period of time to support a variety of types of projects and is a great introductory mechanism to support a small research project. It funds up to $50,000 per year for direct costs and is generally limited to 2 years of funding. Standard due dates are February 16th, June 16th, and October 16th, annually.

Examples of previous NIH funding in the College of Humanities:

• Lee Ellington has received multiple grants from NIH to support her work on end-of-life communication and hospice care.
• Avery Holton received support from UCEER to support his work on ethics and the communication of genetics.
• Jakob Jensen received an NIH New Innovator grant to support a 5-year program on skin cancer prevention and communication.
• A team of researchers led by Kimberly Kaphingst at Huntsman Cancer Institute was awarded a prestigious team science grant through the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Moonshot initiative to study genetic counseling, genetic communication, and genetic services to patients.

National Science Foundation (NSF) has many funding mechanisms, some of which are suited for humanities researchers. The Social, Behavioral, and Economics (SBE) Directorate is a great place to start.

Examples of NSF grant initiatives relevant to humanities researchers:

• Developmental Sciences (DS) (due January 30th, annually)
• Dynamic Language Infrastructure - Documenting Endangered Languages (DLI-DEL) (due February 15th and September 15th, annually)
• Ethical and Responsible Research (ER2) (due fourth Thursday of January, annually)
• Graduate Research Fellowship Program (due mid October, annually)
• Graduate Research Traineeship Program (due September 6th, annually)
• Human Networks and Data Science (HNDS) (due second Thursday of January and second Thursday of July, annually)
• Linguistics Program (due January 15th and July 15th, annually)
• Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) (SBE due first Wednesday of November, annually)
• Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) (due third Wednesday of August, annually)
• Science and Technology Studies (STS) (due February 2nd and August 4th, annually)

Examples of previous NSF funding in the College of Humanities:

• Danielle Endres (Communication and Environmental Humanities) has received multiple NSF grants, including to support research on communication among scientists and engineers about low-carbon energy technology, to support work with the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation on their Bear River Restoration project, and to support a conference titled, “Energy Democracy: Creating a Research Agenda”.
• Katherine Coles (English) received an Antarctic Artists and Writers Grant from NSF to fund travel to an Antarctic Science Station where she crafted a collection of poems titled “The Earth is Not Flat”.
• Matt Haber (Philosophy) received NSF funding to support a conference on “Evolution and the Levels of Lineage”.
• Melinda Fagan (Philosophy) received a research grant to support her work on a view of explanation focused on concepts of collaboration and interaction.
• Sara Yeo (Communication and Environmental Humanities) received an NSF grant for research into how emotions and humor affect the formation of public attitudes toward science and technology.