Please note that due to the evolving COVID-19 situation, some opportunities are temporarily closed or suspended, while other programs are being held virtually. Please make sure to check the website for the opportunity below that you’re interested in for the latest updates.
Allegheny College’s Office of Foundation & Corporate Relations (FCR) works to secure grants for the college and its faculty and staff from foundations, corporations and government agencies. We can help you to identify funding sources, prepare proposals and manage grants once funding has been received.
Because grants are typically made to the institution rather than the individual faculty member or employee, Allegheny acts as the fiscal agent and is responsible for ensuring that the terms of the award are fulfilled. In addition, the FCR office works to ensure that all approaches from Allegheny to funding sources are coordinated. For these reasons, please contact the FCR office about all requests for external funding. Check our website for more information.
Even if the grant or award is made directly to the faculty member, if there is any commitment on the part of the college, such as funding for release time, equipment, course or program development or modification, institutional financial match or cost sharing, etc., the FCR office will help to coordinate the approval process.
The following list includes a wide variety of fellowships and grants that might be of interest to Allegheny faculty. We look forward to working with you on your grant proposal.
Opportunities for Faculty in All Divisions
Opportunities Primarily for Faculty in the Humanities (which can include history)
Opportunities Primarily for Faculty in the Social Sciences
Opportunities Primarily for Faculty in the Natural Sciences
Opportunities for Faculty in All Divisions
American Association of University Women is one of the largest sources of funding for women’s graduate education. From astronauts to zoologists, the recipients of AAUW’s fellowships, grants and awards represent nearly every imaginable field of endeavor. Recipients pursue academic work and lead community projects to empower women and girls.
Charles Bullard Fellowship in Forest Research at Harvard University supports advanced research and study by individuals who show promise of making an important contribution, either as scholars or administrators, to forestry and forest-related subjects including biology, earth sciences, economics, politics, administration, philosophy, humanities, the arts or law. Bullard Fellowships are generally awarded to individuals in mid-career who have established themselves in academia, public service or in the private sector.
Fulbright Scholar Program, administered by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars at the U.S. State Department, offers several opportunities. Fulbright Scholar Awards comprise the bulk of awards offered and include opportunities for professionals, artists and scholars at all career levels. Location and eligibility vary across all awards, and some awards may be restricted to certain career levels or types of scholars. In addition to several new program models designed to meet the changing needs of U.S. academics and professionals, Fulbright is offering more opportunities for flexible, multi-country grants.
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowships are intended for individuals who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts. Since the purpose of the Guggenheim Fellowship program is to help provide Fellows with blocks of time in which they can work with as much creative freedom as possible, grants are made freely. No special conditions attach to them, and Fellows may spend their grant funds in any manner they deem necessary to their work.
Science History Institute, Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry comprises a dynamic community of scholars interested in the history and social studies of chemistry, broadly construed. The Beckman Center at the Science History Institute offers fellowships on an annual cycle for scholars whose research would benefit from the use of their collections. While in residence, fellows are expected to participate in regular informal writing groups, give at least one lecture and more generally contribute to the vitality of our fellowship community.
Smithsonian Institution Fellowship Program offers opportunities for independent research or study related to Smithsonian collections, facilities and/or research interests of the institution and its staff. Fellowships are offered to graduate students, predoctoral students and postdoctoral and senior investigators to conduct independent research and to utilize the resources of the institution with members of the Smithsonian professional research staff serving as advisors and hosts.
Social Science Research Council (SSRC) fellowship programs are strategic—they target specific problems, promote individual and institutional change, and expand networks. Supporting more than 900 individual scholars each year, the council’s fellowships and grants fund innovative, impactful research engaging with themes ranging from the state of democracy in the U.S. and security in Africa and Latin America to the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Opportunities Primarily for Faculty in the Humanities (which can include history)
W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research annually provides fellowships and awards to 20 recipients. In addition, 50 Associate Fellows receive funding from other sources. Fellowships are open to students and scholars in Near Eastern studies from prehistory through the Ottoman period, including the fields of archaeology, anthropology, art history, biblical studies, epigraphy, historical geography, history, language, literature, philology, religion and related disciplines. The research period should be continuous, without frequent trips outside the country. Residence at the Albright is required.
American Antiquarian Society (AAS) offers three broad categories of visiting research fellowships, with tenures ranging from one to 12 months. All of the fellowships are designed to enable academic and independent scholars and advanced graduate students to spend an uninterrupted block of time doing research in the AAS library. Discussing this work with staff and other readers is a hallmark of an AAS fellowship.
American Council of Learned Societies invites research proposals from scholars in all disciplines of the humanities and related social sciences. The ultimate goal of the project should be a major piece of scholarly work by the applicant, which can take the form of a monograph, articles, digital publication(s), critical edition or other scholarly resources. This fellowship does not fund works of fiction (e.g., novels or films), textbooks, straightforward translation or pedagogical projects.
American Philosophical Society offers a number of research programs for scholars, primarily for faculty in the humanities and social sciences, in addition to grant and fellowship programs in a wide range of fields. The Blumberg Grants in Astrobiology, Franklin Research Grant, Lewis and Clark Fund, Lewis and Clark Fund in Astrobiology, Library David Center Fellowship, Library Digital Humanities Fellowship, Library Digital Knowledge Sharing Fellowship, Library Short-Term Fellowship, Library NASI Undergraduate Internship and Phillips Fund for Native American Research programs award small amounts for modest research purposes. The Daland Fellowship in Clinical Investigation, John Hope Franklin Dissertation Fellowship, Library Long-Term Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Library Long-Term Pre-Doctoral Fellowship and Mellon Curatorial Post-Doctoral Fellowship programs award larger amounts in highly selective competitions. The library is under renovation until early 2022, but virtual programs are ongoing, and some in-person events are resuming.
Burning Man Global Art Grants Program funds highly interactive, community-driven works of art that prioritize community involvement in their development, execution and display. The art should be accessible to the public, civic in scope and prompt the viewer to act. Projects that involve the audience in conception, creation and presentation are preferred.
Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art offers a number of fellowships for research. Fellows and professors who relocate to Washington are provided with housing in apartments near the National Gallery of Art, subject to availability. They are also provided with studies in the East Building of the Gallery. Lectures, colloquia, shoptalks and other scholarly gatherings complement the fellowship program.
Clark Fellowship Program offers a number of fellowships every year to established and promising scholars with the aim of fostering a critical commitment to inquiry in the theory, history and interpretation of art and visual culture. As part of its commitment to fostering diverse engagements with the visual arts, the Research and Academic Program particularly seeks to elevate constituencies, subjects and methods that have historically been underrepresented in the discipline. These fellowships are intended to nurture a variety of disciplinary approaches and support new voices in art history. Scholars may propose topics that relate to the visual arts, their history, practice, theory or interpretation. Any proposal that contributes to understanding the nature of artistic activity and the intellectual, social and cultural worlds with which it is connected is welcome.
Cornell University Society for the Humanities Fellowships are held for one academic year. Fellows include scholars and practitioners from other universities and members of the Cornell faculty released from regular duties. Fellows at the Society for the Humanities are “residential” and will collaborate with one another and the Taylor Family Director of the Society for the Humanities. Fellows spend their time in research and writing during the residential fellowship, and are required to participate in a weekly Fellows Seminar workshopping each other’s projects and discussing readings based on the yearly theme.
Folger Shakespeare Library is embarking on a major renovation project. While this work is underway and Folger collections are unavailable for in-person consultation, the Folger Institute is committed to continuing its support of collections-based research, and to providing scholars with the resources they need to pursue and advance their work. The renovation offers the Institute the opportunity to create new kinds of awards and to make fellowships more adaptable.
Fulbright-Hays–Group Projects Abroad Program provides grants to support overseas projects in training, research and curriculum development in modern foreign languages and area studies for teachers, students and faculty engaged in a common endeavor. Projects may include short-term seminars, curriculum development, group research or study, or advanced intensive language programs.
Getty Foundation has many funding programs for scholars around the world. It also administers grants for scholars who come to work at the Getty Center on behalf of the Getty Research Institute, the Getty Conservation Institute, the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Getty Trust.
George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation is administered at Brown University. The foundation awards a limited number of fellowships each year for independent projects in selected fields, targeting its support specifically to early mid-career individuals who have completed at least one major project and demonstrate potential to be future leaders in their fields. Fellowship funds may be used in combination with sabbatical leaves or other sources of support, but this is not a requirement.
Huntington Library is a collections-based research institute, which promotes humanities scholarship on the basis of its library holdings and art collections. The Library holds more than 11 million items that span the 11th to 21st centuries. The Huntington awards research fellowships annually. Recipients of all fellowships are expected to be in continuous residence at The Huntington and to participate in and make a contribution to its intellectual life.
Library Company of Philadelphia and The Historical Society of Pennsylvania jointly award one-month fellowships for research in residence in either or both collections during each academic year. These two independent research libraries, adjacent to each other in Philadelphia, have complementary collections capable of supporting research in a variety of fields and disciplines relating to the history of America and the Atlantic world from the 17th through the 19th centuries, as well as Mid-Atlantic regional history to the present.
Loeb Classical Library Foundation awards fellowships to qualified scholars to support research, publication and other projects in the area of classical studies. Fellowships may be used for a wide variety of purposes, including publication of research, enhancement of sabbaticals, travel to libraries or collections, reasonable payment of student research assistants, dramatic productions, excavation expenses or cost of research materials.
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) supports research, education, preservation and public programs in the humanities and offers several programs for scholars, including the Summer Stipends Program, which goes to individuals and aims to stimulate new research in the humanities and its publication. The expected output is a book, article, digital material and publication, archaeological report, translation, edition or other scholarly resource. NEH Fellowships are competitive awards granted to individual scholars pursuing projects that embody exceptional research, rigorous analysis and clear writing. Applications must clearly articulate a project’s value to humanities scholars, general audiences or both. Fellowships provide recipients time to conduct research or to produce books, monographs, peer-reviewed articles, e-books, digital materials, translations with annotations or a critical apparatus or critical editions resulting from previous research. Projects may be at any stage of development.
The National Humanities Center hosts scholars from across the humanities and all over the world. Mid-career and senior scholars are encouraged to apply. Emerging scholars with a strong record of peer-reviewed work may also apply. In addition to scholars from all fields of the humanities, the center accepts individuals from the natural and social sciences, the arts, the professions and public life who are engaged in humanistic projects.
Newberry Library provides outstanding scholars with the time, space and community required to pursue innovative and ground-breaking scholarship. Fellows have access to the Newberry’s wide-ranging and rare archival materials as well as to a lively, interdisciplinary community of researchers, curators and librarians. The library expects recipients to advance scholarship in various fields, develop new interpretations and expand its understandings of the past. Fellowships are of two types: short-term fellowships of one to two months and long-term fellowships of four to nine months.
Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin awards fellowships to support residencies at the Ransom Center for projects that require substantial on-site use of its collections. The collections support research in all areas of the humanities, including literature, photography, film, art, the performing arts, music, cultural history and humanity more broadly. Research projects might include: scholarly articles or monographs, dissertations, creative work, digital humanities, performance-based research, exhibition proposals, research-based syllabi to grow student research, collaborative research or other projects around the collections.
Opportunities Primarily for Faculty in the Social Sciences
American Council of Learned Societies invites research proposals from scholars in all disciplines of the humanities and related social sciences. The ultimate goal of the project should be a major piece of scholarly work by the applicant, which can take the form of a monograph, articles, digital publication(s), critical edition or other scholarly resources. This fellowship does not fund works of fiction (e.g., novels or films), textbooks, straightforward translation or pedagogical projects.
American Philosophical Society offers a number of research programs for scholars, primarily for faculty in the humanities and social sciences, in addition to grant and fellowship programs in a wide range of fields. The Blumberg Grants in Astrobiology, Franklin Research Grant, Lewis and Clark Fund, Lewis and Clark Fund in Astrobiology, Library David Center Fellowship, Library Digital Humanities Fellowship, Library Digital Knowledge Sharing Fellowship, Library Short-Term Fellowship, Library NASI Undergraduate Internship and Phillips Fund for Native American Research programs award small amounts for modest research purposes. The Daland Fellowship in Clinical Investigation, John Hope Franklin Dissertation Fellowship, Library Long-Term Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Library Long-Term Pre-Doctoral Fellowship and Mellon Curatorial Post-Doctoral Fellowship programs award larger amounts in highly selective competitions. The library is under renovation until early 2022, but virtual programs are ongoing, and some in-person events are resuming.
American Political Science Association awards grants, fellowships and scholarships with the aim of advancing education and research in political science. These include grants to support 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. The website also lists opportunities from outside organizations that provide sources of funding and support for political science faculty and students.
Getty Foundation has many funding programs for scholars around the world. It also administers grants for scholars who come to work at the Getty Center on behalf of the Getty Research Institute, the Getty Conservation Institute, the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Getty Trust.
George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation is administered at Brown University. The foundation awards a limited number of fellowships each year for independent projects in selected fields, targeting its support specifically to early mid-career individuals who have completed at least one major project and demonstrate potential to be future leaders in their fields. Fellowship funds may be used in combination with sabbatical leaves or other sources of support, but this is not a requirement.
Library Company of Philadelphia and The Historical Society of Pennsylvania jointly award one-month fellowships for research in residence in either or both collections during each academic year. These two independent research libraries, adjacent to each other in Philadelphia, have complementary collections capable of supporting research in a variety of fields and disciplines relating to the history of America and the Atlantic world from the 17th through the 19th centuries, as well as Mid-Atlantic regional history to the present.
The James McKeen Cattell Fund supports the science and application of psychology. The fund offers a program of supplementary sabbatical awards, James McKeen Cattell Fund Fellowships, to supplement regular sabbatical allowance provided by recipients’ home institutions.
Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University offers a residential fellowship program for scholars working in a diverse range of disciplines that contribute to advancing research and thinking in social science. Fellows represent the core social and behavioral sciences (anthropology, economics, history, political science, psychology and sociology) but also the humanities, education, linguistics, communications, and the biological, natural, health and computer sciences.
Property and Environment Research Center offers the Julian Simon Fellowship for scholars to develop policy-relevant research on natural resources and environmental conservation. The in-residence fellowship is intended to continue the legacy of Julian Simon, whose research led to a massive re-evaluation by scholars and policymakers of their views on the interplay between population, natural resources, the environment and humans as “the ultimate resource.”
Opportunities Primarily for Faculty in the Natural Sciences
American Chemical Society (ACS) offers funding to support the advancement of the chemical sciences through research, education and community projects. ACS also manages the Petroleum Research Fund, which offers grants that support fundamental research directly related to petroleum or fossil fuels.
Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation offers several programs for both new and experienced science faculty in support of their research. The goal of the foundation is to advance the science of chemistry, chemical engineering and related sciences as a means of improving human relations and circumstances throughout the world.
Property and Environment Research Center offers the Julian Simon Fellowship for scholars to develop policy-relevant research on natural resources and environmental conservation. The in-residence fellowship is intended to continue the legacy of Julian Simon, whose research led to a massive re-evaluation by scholars and policymakers of their views on the interplay between population, natural resources, the environment and humans as “the ultimate resource.”
Research Corporation for Science Advancement is a foundation providing catalytic funding for innovative scientific research and the development of academic scientists. It offers different programs of research support including the Cottrell Scholar (CS) program that 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 potential for academic leadership. The CS program champions the very best early career teacher-scholars in chemistry, physics and astronomy by providing significant discretionary awards for research. Nurturing an interdisciplinary community of outstanding scientific/educational/academic leaders, the CS program fosters synergy among faculty at major U.S. and Canadian research universities and primarily undergraduate institutions.
Whitehall Foundation, through its program of grants and grants-in-aid, assists scholarly research in the life sciences. It is the foundation’s policy to assist those dynamic areas of basic biological research that are not heavily supported by federal agencies or other foundations with specialized missions. The foundation emphasizes the support of young scientists at the beginning of their careers and productive senior scientists who wish to move into new fields of interest. Consideration is given, however, to applicants of all ages.