External Funding
Money Matters: A Short Guide to External Funding Opportunities for Students in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
- Are there any shortcuts to writing a good grant proposal?
- Are there special procedures for submitting grant proposals?
- How can students find out about programs and deadlines?
- When should a student start thinking about applying for grants?
- Why should someone with a full fellowship worry about external funding?
The Proposal Writing Institute, the final event of the 2006-2007 Grant Writing Program series, takes place on May 17 and 18. Find details and an application cover here.
Further Reference
Are there any shortcuts to writing a good grant proposal?
No. If you want to get a grant, you are going to have to devote a lot of time and serious effort to the process. There are hundreds of books, websites and workshops that promise to tell you how to write successful grant proposals. Use them selectively. Students committed to empirical social science fieldwork will find UC Berkeley’s Institute of International Studies Dissertation Proposal Workshop page an excellent resource. Humanists should not be deterred by the social science slant of the Berkeley site—it’s a gem.
Before trying to write a proposal from scratch, look at some successful proposals. Many departments keep successful grant proposals on file. If your department/program doesn’t already keep such a file, start one. Solicit samples from senior graduate students and faculty.
When all is said and done, however, the most important advice you will get is from your faculty. Involve your faculty advisors from the start. Seek their advice about the timing of your application, the fit between your research and the program to which you wish to apply, and the proposal. Be prepared to revise your prose, rethink your methods, and reformulate your research questions—many times.
Are there special procedures for submitting grant proposals?Yes. Certain grant and fellowship applications must be submitted by the university rather than by individual scholars. These include DAAD, Fulbright, and Fulbright-Hays. Application procedures and deadlines for these programs are coordinated in the Graduate School. All federal research and training grants, all proposals requiring IRB or IACUC review, and all proposal requiring official university signatures or reporting must be routed through OSP.
How can you find out about programs and deadlines?
Grant and fellowship opportunities that are limited to Emory students are listed under Emory opportunities below. Listings of national and international programs can be found by accessing a number of search services, including the Illinois Researcher Information Service (IRIS), Community of Science (COS), and GrantsNet. IRIS and COS provide comprehensive listings of all academic areas, GrantsNet specializes in programs in the sciences. Emory students, faculty and staff have free access to all of these services, including unlimited searches and email alerts. For a list of upcoming deadlines by field, consult the IRIS upcoming deadlines feature.
When should you start thinking about applying for grants?
Now. No matter what stage you’re at, it’s not too early to take sensible steps toward identifying potential funding sources and assessing what you will need in order to submit competitive proposals. Integrate planning for funding into your overall training plan.
Eligible applicants to the GSAS and students at the beginning of graduate work should consider applying for American Association of University Women (AAUW) International Fellowships, Ford Foundation Minority Predoctoral Fellowships, Mellon Fellowships in the Humanities, National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowships, and NSF Graduate Research Fellowships, all of which carry with them prestige, recognition and impressive stipends. The GSAS ensures that students who win prestigious multi-year external awards are able to place Emory money in reserve to be drawn on if needed later in their training.
As you approach dissertation research, talk to your faculty about their own experience as grant applicants, recipients, and reviewers. Ask more senior students and junior faculty how they funded their research. Pay attention to footnotes and acknowledgements, keeping mental notes of what agencies or organizations support scholars whose work you admire. Make it your business to find out what time of year deadlines for major grant and fellowship competitions in your field fall. Review guidelines, which you can obtain on the web or directly from the funding agency, and make a checklist of the basics needed to qualify for funding. For example, if you plan to do international research, learn the language and find out what kind of visa and research clearance the country in which you plan to work requires. If your project involves human subjects or animals, become familiar with university review procedures. If you need specialized training in methods or theory to carry out your work, get that training and document it.
Why should someone with a full fellowship worry about external funding? Research training takes a lot of time and costs a lot of money. Whether you need to comb through maps in the British Public Records Office, collect saliva samples from adolescents in the South Pacific, or compare different editions of a volume of Irish poetry in Woodruff Special Collections, your doctoral research will require more time than you might imagine and more money than you probably have. In spite of Emory’s generous funding, many students need additional resources to complete their studies. Students in the natural sciences typically receive one-and-a-half to three years of Emory stipend before rolling onto their mentors’ grants. Students in the social sciences and humanities receive four years of Emory stipend (five years for humanities and many social science students entering fall 2005 and after). Four years of support should get students through coursework, qualifying exams and into candidacy. Depending upon the scope of the dissertation project and the student’s preparedness in terms of language and/or methods training, a student in the social sciences or humanities may need from one to three years of support beyond the standard stipend package to complete the degree. The GSAS offers a number of competitive fellowships to advanced doctoral students, but many social science and humanities students will have to identify and apply to external funding sources in order to complete their degrees.This is not a comprehensive list of external funding opportunities to which GSAS students might apply. It is intended as a starting point for GSAS students as they begin to explore external funding sources for their work and as a shortcut for persons looking for a specific program whose name they know. All GSAS students should conduct individualized searches in IRIS, COS or GrantsNet to identify programs in their areas of specialty.
International Research
Academy for Educational Development David L. Boren Graduate Fellowships
American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS)
American Research Center in Egypt Fellowship Program
American-Scandinavian Foundation Grants and Fellowships for Advanced Study or Research
Bourse Chateaubriand Social Sciences and Literature Doctoral Research in France
Chateaubriand Fellowships for Scientific and Cultural Exchange with France
Council of Overseas Research Centers
DAAD/German Academic Exchange Service (Check with GSAS for Emory procedures and deadlines)
Fulbright Student Programs (Check with GSAS for Emory procedures and deadlines)
Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship Program (Check with GSAS for Emory procedures and deadlines)
International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX)
Social Science Research Council (Humanities also supported)
Humanities and Social Sciences
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia
ACLS/Henry Luce Foundation Dissertation Fellowship Program in American Art History
American Educational Research Association Dissertation Grants Program
American Historical Association
American Philosophical Society
American Psychological Association
Aspen Institute Nonprofit Sector Fund Doctoral Dissertation Research
John Carter Brown Library Short-Term Fellowships
Bourse Chateaubriand Social Sciences and Literature Doctoral Research in France
Columbia University Center for Comparative Literature and Society Postdoctoral Fellowships
Columbia University Society of Fellows in the Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowships
Cornell University Society for the Humanities Fellowships
DAAD/German Academic Exchange Service
Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies Junior Fellowships
Environmental Protection Agency STAR GRO Graduate Fellowships
Erasmus Institute Fellowships at the University of Notre Dame
Folger Institute Consortium Grants-in-Aid
Gerald R. Ford Library Research Grants
German Marshall Fund of the United States Research Support Program
Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and the Humanities Predoctoral Fellowship
Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation Research Grants
Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies Scholars Program
Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies Villa I Tatti Fellowships in Residence
Harvard University Society of Fellows
Harvard University Kennedy School of Government Fellowships in Science and International Affairs
Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation Bundeskanzler Scholarships
Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture Postdoctoral Fellowships
Irish American Cultural Institute Irish Research Fund
Kress Foundation Fellowships in Art History and Archaeology
Leakey Foundation General Grants
Louisville Institute Dissertation Fellowship Program
ACLS/Henry Luce Foundation Dissertation Fellowship Program in American Art History
Medieval Academy of America Dissertation Grants
Charlotte W. Newcombe Fellowships in Religious and Ethical Studies
Organization of American Historians Awards
National Science Foundation (See NSF Essentials, a web page developed by Emory’s Office of Sponsored Programs [OSP])
Phi Beta Kappa Sibley Fellowship in French or Greek Cultural Studies
Population Council Fellowships in Population and the Social Sciences
Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute Grant-in-Aid Program
School of American Research Resident Scholar Fellowships
Sigma XI: The Scientific Research Society
Social Science Research Council
Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations Research Fellowships
Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues
Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality Student Research Grants
Spencer Foundation Dissertation-Year Fellowships for Research Related to Education
Stanford University Center for International Security and Cooperation Fellowships
U.S. Institute of Peace Jennings Randolph Fellowship Program
University of Chicago Postdoctoral Harper and Schmidt Teaching Fellowships
University of Michigan Society of Fellows Postdoctoral Fellowships
University of Virginia Carter G. Woodson Institute for Afro-American and African Studies Research
Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research
Natural Sciences
American Academy for the Advancement of Science Mass Media Science and Engineering Fellows Program
American Cancer Society Doctoral Degree Scholarships in Cancer Nursing
American Chemical Society Women Chemists Committee Travel Awards
American Psychological Association
American Physical Society Dissertation Awards
American Society for Microbiology Travel Grants
Association for Women in Science Educational Foundation
Biomedical Engineering Society Graduate Student Awards
Chateaubriand Fellowships for Scientific and Cultural Exchange with France
Environmental Protection Agency STAR GRO Graduate Fellowships
Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation Research Grants
Harvard University Society of Fellows
Harvard University Kennedy School of Government Fellowships in Science and International Affairs
Hudson River Foundation Graduate Fellowships
Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Dissertation Research Award
Krell Institute DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellowship Program
Lindbergh Foundation Grants Program
National Institutes of Health (NIH) (See NIH Essentials, a web page developed by Emory’s OSP)
Oncology Nursing Foundation Doctoral Scholarships
Population Council Fellowships in Population and the Social Sciences
Sigma XI: The Scientific Research Society
Social Science Research Foundation Sexuality Research Program
Stanford University Center for International Security and Cooperation Fellowships
Temple University Society of Fellows in the Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowship
UNCF-Merck Graduate Science Research Dissertation Fellowships
University of Chicago Postdoctoral Harper and Schmidt Teaching Fellowships
University of Michigan Society of Fellows Postdoctoral Fellowships
Community of Science (COS)
Emory College Office of Research (ECOR)
Emory University Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee(IACUC)
Emory University Institutional Review Board (IRB)
Emory University Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP)
FinAid
Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s GrantsNet
Illinois Researcher Information Service (IRIS)
UC Berkeley’s Institute of International Studies Dissertation Proposal Workshop
