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:
| Dissertation Fellowship Program in Retirement Research Center for Retirement Research (CRR) at Boston College Boston College (BC) |
Apr. 30, 2024 | $28,000 |
| Bourse de recherche post-doctorale de la Fondation Colette Caillat | Colette Caillat Foundation postdoctoral research grant Institut de France |
Apr. 30, 2024 | €4,000EUR |
| Best Ph.D. Thesis/Dissertation Award American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) |
May 1, 2024 | $1,000 |
| Dissertation Grant International Center for Responsible Gaming (ICRG) |
May 1, 2024 | $5,000 |
| Dissertation Fieldwork Grants Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, Inc |
May 1, 2024 | $25,000 |
| Predoctoral Fellowship Program Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) Faculty of Arts and Sciences Harvard University |
May 1, 2024 | $42,588 |
| CCWH Ida B. Wells Graduate Student Fellowship Coordinating Council for Women in History (CCWH) |
May 15, 2024 | $1,000 |
| CCWH Catherine Prelinger Award Coordinating Council for Women in History (CCWH) |
May 15, 2024 | $20,000 |
| Nursing Education Scholarship Awards NLN Foundation for Nursing Education National League for Nursing |
May 21, 2024 | $8,000 |
| Dissertation Grants Program American Educational Research Association (AERA) |
May 30, 2024 | $27,500 |
| Ralph Henry Gabriel Prize American Studies Association (ASA) |
Jun 1, 2024 | $500 |
| AFA Dissertation Grant Association for Feminist Anthropology (AFA) American Anthropological Association (AAA) |
Jun 1, 2024 | $2,000 |
| Lewis Hanke Post-Doctoral Award Conference on Latin American History (CLAH) |
Jun 1, 2024 | $1,500 |
| Lydia Cabrera Awards Conference on Latin American History (CLAH) |
Jun 1, 2024 | $5,000 |
| Leslie Brown Memorial Grant Raptor Research Foundation (RRF) |
Jun 30, 2024 | $2,500 |
| Sandra Wilson Memorial Doctoral Dissertation Grant Awards EMDR Research Foundation |
Jul 1, 2024 | $5,000 |
| 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).