A wide range of academic centers/institutes, professional organizations, foundations and government agencies regularly provide funding to support doctoral research and dissertation projects. Here are external funding opportunities for which applications are currently being accepted:
| Funder | Application Deadline | Award Amount |
| Margery Lowens Dissertation Research Fellowship Society for American Music (SAM) |
Jul 15, 2024 | $4,000 |
| Helen Krich Chinoy Dissertation Fellowships American Society for Theatre Research |
Jul 16, 2024 | $1,000 |
| Biological Anthropology Program – Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants (BA-DDRIG) Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences (BCS) Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) National Science Foundation (NSF) |
Jul 31, 2024 | see record |
| Dissertation Fellowship Consortium for Faculty Diversity in Liberal Arts Colleges Gettysburg College |
Aug. 21, 2024 | see record |
| ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) |
Oct. 31, 2024 | $20,000 |
| Grant Program The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music |
Nov. 1, 2024 | see record |
| Dissertation Research Grants American Association of Geographers (AAG) |
Dec. 31, 2024 | $1,000 |
| Research on the Science and Technology Enterprise: Indicators, Statistics, and Methods (NCSES S&T) National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) National Science Foundation (NSF) |
Jan. 21, 2025 | see record |
| John Leyerle-CARA Prize for Dissertation Research Medieval Academy of America |
Jan. 31, 2025 | $1,000 |
| Fichter Research Grants Association for the Sociology of Religion (ASR) |
Feb. 1, 2025 | see record |
| Dissertation Year Fellowships Harry S. Truman Library Institute for National and International Affairs Office of Presidential Libraries National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) |
Feb. 1, 2025 | $16,000 |
| Ahmanson Research Fellowships for the Study of Medieval and Renaissance Books and Manuscripts UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (CMRS) University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) |
Continuous | $9,000 |
To conduct a tailored search of funding sources in your research areas and receive automated notification as new opportunities matching your criteria arise, log in to Pivot, a funding database available through the Office of Research’s institutional subscription.
Additional resources:
- The Center for Fellowship & Scholarship Advising’s National Scholarships Directory
- Research Funding Programs for Maxwell Students
- The University of Illinois Graduate College’s Database of Grants and Fellowships for Graduate Students
For help with an application, make an appointment with Dan Olson-Bang in the Graduate School (select Graduate School Professional and Career Development > Fellowship/Scholarship/Grant Help).