Doctoral External Fellowships and Grants
Application Deadline: November 15
Website: www.aauw.org
Dissertation Fellowships are available to women in all disciplines. To qualify, applicants must have completed all course work, passed all required preliminary examinations, and defended the dissertation proposal.
Application deadline: September
Website: www.aera.net
AERA invites education-related dissertation proposals using NCES, NSF, and other federal data bases. Dissertation Grants are available for advanced doctoral students and are intended to support the student while writing the doctoral dissertation. Applications are encouraged from a variety of disciplines, such as but not limited to, education, sociology, economics, psychology, demography, statistics, and psychometrics.
Application deadline: Around July 1st
Website: www.indiastudies.org
Junior Research Fellowships are available to doctoral candidates at U.S. universities in all fields of study. These grants are specifically designed to enable doctoral candidates to pursue their dissertation research in India. Junior Research Fellows establish formal affiliation with Indian universities and Indian research supervisors. Awards are available for up to 11 months.
Application deadline: Around November 1st
Website: www.amscan.org
The American-Scandinavian Foundation (ASF) offers fellowships (up to $23,000) and grants (up to $5,000) to individuals to pursue research or study in one or more Scandinavian country for up to one year. Applicants must have a well-defined research or study project that makes a stay in Scandinavia essential. The ASF considers it desirable that all candidates have at least some ability in the language of the host country, even if it is not essential for the execution of the research plan.
Application deadline: Around January 31
Website: www.asanet.org
Through its Minority Fellowship Program (MFP), the American Sociological Association (ASA) supports the development and training of sociologists of color in any sub-area or specialty in the discipline. The fellowship is designed for minority students sufficiently advanced in their Ph.D. program to demonstrate their commitment to a research career. MFP applicants must be enrolled in or accepted to Ph.D. programs in sociology that house relevant research programs in their area of interests. Applicants for the MFP Fellowship may be in earlier stages in their graduate careers, but must be accepted into a Ph.D. program in sociology at the time the MFP Fellowship begins.
Application deadline: Around June
Website: www.sociologyofreligion.com
Fichter Research Grant Competition. Applications are invited from scholars involved in promising research the area of women and religion; this includes religion and gender issues, and feminist perspectives on religion. For the 2012 competition, a total of $24,000 was available to be awarded. Dissertation research qualifies for funding.
Application Deadline: Around February 1st
Website: www.ces.columbia.edu
Pre-Dissertation Research Fellowships includes a $4,000 stipend to fund two months' travel to Europe to conduct the exploratory phase of a projected dissertation project in the social sciences or humanities which will require a subsequent stay in Europe. The program is intended to facilitate the transition from coursework to fieldwork, and to enable students to make rapid progress in refining their initial ideas into a feasible, interesting, and fundable doctoral project.
Website: sites.nationalacademies.org/PGA/FordFellowships/index.htm
Predoctoral Fellowship
Application deadline: Around November 14
Predoctoral fellowships will be awarded in a national competiÂtion administered by the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academies on behalf of the Ford Foundation. The awards will be made to individuals who, in the judgment of the review panels, have demonstrated superior academic achieveÂment, are committed to a career in teaching and research at the college or university level, show promise of future achievement as scholars and teachers, and are well prepared to use diversity as a resource for enriching the education of all students.
Dissertation Fellowship
Application deadline: Around November 19
Dissertation fellowships will be awarded in a national competiÂtion administered by the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academies on behalf of the Ford Foundation. The awards will be made to individuals who, in the judgment of the review panels, have demonstrated superior academic achieveÂment, are committed to a career in teaching and research at the college or university level, show promise of future achievement as scholars and teachers, and are well prepared to use diversity as a resource for enriching the education of all students.
Application deadline: June 14
Website: www2.ed.gov/programs/iegpsddrap/index.html
This program provides grants to colleges and universities to fund individual doctoral students who conduct research in other countries, in modern foreign languages and area studies for periods of six to 12 months. Projects deepen research knowledge on and help the nation develop capability in areas of the world not generally included in U.S. curricula. Projects focusing on Western Europe are not supported.
Application Deadline: Around February 1st
Website: www.hfg.org
These fellowships of $20,000 each are designed to contribute to the support of the doctoral candidate to enable him or her to complete the thesis in a timely manner and are only appropriate for students approaching the final year of their Ph.D. work. Questions that interest the foundation concern violence and aggression in relation to social change, intergroup conflict, war, terrorism, crime, and family relationships, among other subjects. Dissertations with no relevance to understanding human violence and aggression will not be supported.
Application Deadline: Around April 1st
Website: www.sssp1.org
This scholarship is awarded to an advanced sociology Ph.D. student who began her or his study in a community college or technical school. A student advanced to candidacy (ABD status) in an accredited Ph.D. program in sociology in the U.S. is eligible to apply if she or he studied at a U.S. two-year college either part-time or full-time for the equivalent of at least one full academic year that was not part of a high-school dual-enrollment program. The Scholarship carries a stipend of $15,000 from Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS) with assistance from the Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP) to be used to support the pursuit of a Ph.D., as well as one-year memberships in SWS (including a subscription to Gender & Society) and SSSP.A
Application deadline: January
Website: www2.ed.gov/programs/jacobjavits/eligibility.html
Applicants must be eligible to be accepted to or currently attending a graduate program leading to a doctorate or a terminal master's degree in an eligible field of study at an institution of higher education approved by an accrediting agency recognized by the Secretary of the Department of Education. Applicants attending a foreign institution are ineligible.
Application deadline: September 19
Website: www.kauffman.org
The Kauffman Dissertation Fellowship Program is an annual competitive program that awards up to fifteen Dissertation Fellowship grants of $20,000 each to Ph.D., D.B.A., or other doctoral students at accredited U.S. universities to support dissertations in the area of entrepreneurship.
Application deadline: Around February 1st
Website: www.jkcf.org
The Foundation's Dissertation Fellowship is for up to $25,000 for advanced doctoral students who are completing dissertations that further understanding of the educational pathways and experiences of high-achieving, low-income students. Minimum eligibility includes demonstration of superior academic ability and achievement, successful defense of the dissertation proposal, and unmet financial need.
Application deadline: None
Website: www.thereedfoundation.org
Grants are available to scholars and other professionally qualified individuals of recognized merit for work toward a doctoral dissertation, for postdoctoral work, or for independent scholarship. Eligibility is limited to United States citizens and permanent legal residents. Research topics included, but are not limited to, aging, gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, immigrant and minority populations, culture and education, language and identity, and religion.
Application deadline: Around April 1st
Website: www2.asanet.org/sectionsex/awards.html
The Martin Levine Memorial Dissertation Award was established to honor the memory of Martin Levine, who died of AIDS in 1993. It provides $3,000 to a graduate student (and $500 to an honorable mention) in the final stages of dissertation research and writing, who is working on those topics to which Levine devoted his career: 1) the sociology of sexualities, 2) the sociology of homosexuality, and 3) HIV/AIDS research. It is designed to help students complete their dissertations, and as such the committee evaluates dissertation proposals rather than completed work.
Application deadline: January 2013
Website: www.nia.nih.gov
As part of NIA's broader effort to increase the diversity of the research workforce on aging, the institute is offering dissertation support to eligible students. This dissertation research award announcement is intended to stimulate the participation of individuals from the following groups:
- Individuals from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups
- Individuals with disabilities
- Individuals from socially, culturally, economically, or educationally disadvantaged backgrounds, which have inhibited their ability to pursue a career in health-related research
Application deadline: February 1, May 1, August 1, and November 1
Website: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-12-256.html
For "dissertation research grants [that are] responsive to AHRQ™s mission, which is to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care for all Americans."
Application deadline:
Website: www.nij.gov/funding/fellowships/graduate-research-fellowship/faqs.htm
The NIJ Ph.D. Graduate Research Fellowship (GRF) program provides awards for research on crime, violence, and other criminal justice-related topics to accredited universities that support graduate study leading to research-based doctoral degrees. Although it is not necessary to have formally defended the dissertation prospectus at the time of application due date, students must have completed all required course work and passed qualifying comprehensive exams.
Application deadline: Around October (maybe February too)
Website: www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5369
Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (DDRIG). The Sociology Program also funds doctoral dissertation research to defray direct costs associated with conducting research, for example, dataset acquisition, additional statistical or methodological training, meeting with scholars associated with original datasets, and fieldwork away from the student's home campus.
Application deadline: November 15
Website: www.woodrow.org/newcombe
This fellowship is designed to encourage original and significant study of ethical or religious values in all fields of the humanities and social sciences. Applicants must be doctoral candidates at the writing stage of their dissertation. Candidates should expect to complete their dissertation at the end of the fellowship period. Fellows will receive $25,000 for the year.
Website: www.ssrc.org
Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship
Application deadline: February 1st
The DPDF program is open to doctoral students in social science or humanities disciplines who have completed their major course requirements and are beginning to design research proposals. Students who have completed their comprehensive, general, or qualifying exams are eligible to apply as long as their dissertation proposals will be formally approved by their department after the fall DPDF workshop. Typically such students will be second and third year graduate students, but first and fourth year student may, under exceptional circumstances, be eligible. If selected, fellows are required to attend both spring and fall workshops in addition to undertaking summer research.
International Dissertation Research Fellowship (IDRF)
Application deadline: Around November 1
The program invites proposals for empirical and site-specific dissertation research outside the United States. It will consider applications for dissertation research grounded in a single site, informed by broader cross-regional and interdisciplinary perspectives, as well as applications for multi-sited, comparative, and transregional research. Proposals that identify the U.S. as a case for comparative inquiry are welcome; however, proposals which focus predominantly or exclusively on the United States are not eligible. Proposals may cover all periods in history, but must address topics that resonate with contemporary issues and debates.
Application Deadline: Around February 1st
Website: www.sssp1.org
A person identified as either Black/African American, Hispanic/ Latino, Asian/Asian-American, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, or American Indian or Alaska Native accepted into an accredited doctoral program in any one of the social and/or behavioral sciences so as to expand their perspectives in the pursuit and investigations into social problems. A $12,000 scholarship will be funded to one student with an additional $500 awarded for attendance at the annual meeting.
Application deadline: Around April 1st
Website: www.socwomen.org
This scholarship is designed to support women from a racial/ethnic group facing racial discrimination in the United States, who are doctoral candidates (ABD). Their dissertations must be sociologically relevant scholarship that addresses the concerns of Women of Color, domestically and/or internationally. Applicant must demonstrate a financial need for the award.
Application deadline: Late summer
Website: naeducation.org
The Dissertation Fellowship Program seeks to encourage a new generation of scholars from a wide range of disciplines and professional fields to undertake research relevant to the improvement of education. These $25,000 fellowships support individuals whose dissertations show potential for bringing fresh and constructive perspectives to the history, theory, or practice of formal or informal education anywhere in the world. This highly competitive program aims to identify the most talented researchers conducting dissertation research related to education.
Application deadline: [none this fiscal year]
Website: portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/programdescription/ddrg
The Doctoral Dissertation Research Grant program is intended to stimulate policy-relevant urban research in several ways: by encouraging doctoral candidates to pursue research topics in community, housing, and urban development; by assisting doctoral candidates in the timely completion of the dissertation research; and by providing an arena for new scholars to share their research findings.