Community Development

For information about community development funding opportunities, investigate these sponsors:

• Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Funding for Urban Poverty Grants Program - The Funding for Urban Povertty Grants Program provides support for research that explores ways to help the urban poor strengthen their voices and improve their economic, health, and social opportunities. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is interested in learning from innovative approaches while supporting efforts that deliver results. Funding for grants in this area are invitation only, see web site for details on submitting an inquiry.
  Deadline:  Open

• Ford Foundation Community Development Program - The Ford Foundation Community Development Program supports organizations developing policies and approaches that can lead to and sustain social, racial and economic equality. The Ford Foundation focuses on equitable collaboration among all sectors in a community, including the marginalized, and the development of approaches to community development that are sustainable over the long term. Funding for grants in this area are invitation only, see web site for details on submitting an inquiry.
  Deadline:  Open

• Russel Sage Foundation - Cultural Contact Program - The Culutural Contact Program supports research that makes an effort to bring social science to bear more effectively on improving the quality of contact among the many racial and ethnic groups that make up American society.  The interest of the Cultural Contact Program at the Russell Sage Foundation, is to foster positive inter-group attitudes and avoid group conflict that can undermine the tolerance and social acceptance that are essential to the successful functioning of democracy.  Awards range from $35,000 to $500,000.  Russell Sage Foundation mainly provides support for analyzing data and writing up results, but occaisionally consider larger award for data acquisition project highly relevent to the above summarized program goals.
  Deadline:  August 15, March 15

Early Careers

Funding opportunities for early career investigators are available from the following sponsors:

• National Institutes of Health (NIH) FIRST Awards - The purpose of the FIRST award is to provide a sufficient period of research support for newly independent, biomedical and behavioral science investigators to initiate their own research and demonstrate the merit of their own research ideas. FIRST awards provide support for five years to permit the newly independent investigator to establish his or her own research program and make significant and innovative contributions to laboratory or clinical biomedical or behavioral research. To be eligible for a FIRST award, the proposed PI must be genuinely independent of a mentor, yet be at the beginning stages of his or her research career, i.e., have no more than five years of research experience since completing postdoctoral research training or its equivalent. Total direct costs for the five-year period may not exceed $350,000. The direct cost award in any budget year should not exceed $100,000.
  Deadline: February 1, June 1, October 1

• National Institutes of Health (NIH) Independent Scientist Awards - The K02 award provides three, four, or five years of salary support and protected time for newly independent scientists who can demonstrate the need for a period of intensive research focus as a means of enhancing their research careers.  Because the nature and scope of the proposed K02 award program will vary from application to application and the amounts provided are not uniform. It is anticipated that the size and duration of each award will also vary.
  Deadline:  February 12, June 12, October 12

• National Science Foundation (NSF) Career Development Awards - The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of his or her organization.  Activities should build a firm foundation of leadership in integrating education and research.
  Deadline:  July 21, 22, 23

Economics

For information about research funding opportunities in economics, look at these sponsors:

• Ford Foundation Development Finance and Economic Security Program - This program seeks to help low-income people generate sustainable incomes, save and plan for the future, and protect themselves against unforeseen economic setbacks. The Ford Foundation supports a wide range of initiatives aimed at enabling people to exert more control over their futures and participate in economic life in meaningful ways. The program seeks to support organizations that help people gain access to basic financial services (such as loans, savings accounts, and insurance), improve the functioning of housing markets, promote the development of small enterprises that benefit low-income people, and encourage people to save.  Funding for grants in this area are invitation only, see web site for details on submitting an inquiry.
  Deadline:  Open

• Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Funding for Financial Services for the Poor Grant Program - This Program aims to work with public and private partners to expand the availability of safe places to save and other financial services for poor people in the developing world. The program focuses on priorities such as, to seek ways to lower transaction costs for people and providers, to support innovations in design and delivery of finacial services, to help effective approaches reach more poor people, to strengthen underlying systems needed to provide financial services, and to support the development of policies that provide safety and convenience for savers and banks.  Funding for grants in this area are invitation only, see web site for details on submitting an inquiry.
  Deadline: Open

• Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Funding for Agricultural Development Grant Program - This Program supports research that will enable small farmers to break the cycle of hunger and poverty to sell what they grow or raise, increase their incomes, and make their farms more productive and sustainable. The program focuses on priorities such as to employ a collaborative and comprehensive approach, provide small farmers with the supplies and support they need to succeed, put women at the center of their work, help small farmers profit from their crops, and use science and technology to develop crops that can thrive.  Funding for grants in this area are invitation only, see web site for details on submitting an inquiry.
  Deadline: Open

• National Science Foundation (NSF) - The NSF Economics program supports research designed to improve the understanding of the processes and institutions of the U.S. economy and of the world system of which it is a part. This program also aims to strengthen both empirical and theoretical economic analysis as well as the methods for rigorous research on economic behavior.   This programs supports research in almost every field of economics, including, econometrics, economic history, environmental economics, finance, industrial organization, international economics, labor economics, macroeconomics, mathematical economics, and public finance.
  Deadline:  January 18, August 18

• Russell Sage Foundation - Future of Work Program - The Russell Sage Foundation Future Work program support research that focuses on examining the causes and consequences of long-term deterioration in the availability and quality of jobs for low-skilled workers in the United States.  The program aims to provide valuable information about the types of policies that may help improve the employment outlook for low-skilled workers.  The Russell Sage Foundation's awards range between $35,000 and $500,000 and mainly provide support for analyzing data, writing up results but occaisonally consider larger award for data acquisition project that are highly relevent to the above summarized program goals.
  Deadline:  August 15, March 15

• Russell Sage Foundation - Social Inequality Program - The Russell Sage Foundation Social Inequality Program supports research examining social inequality on a number of dimensions, including family well-being, educational quality and opportunity, health care and coverage, legal services and criminal justice, political participation and representation, banking and credit, neighborhoods and housing, and many others.  This program seeks investigators willing to explore the social and economic dimensions of those who have fallen behind in the labor market, lost housing and access to health care or education and access to credit and the law.  The Russell Sage Foundation's awards range between $35,000 and $500,000 and mainly provide support for analyzing data, writing up results but occaisonally consider larger award for data acquisition project that are highly relevent to the above summarized program goals.
  Deadline:  August 15, March 15

• Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Economic Performance and Quality of Life - The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Economic Performance and Quality of Life Program, seeks to support rhigh-quality original research that promises to broaden an understanding that the U.S. eocnomy is essential to improving the American quality of life.  The Alfred P. Sloan Foundations seeks to expand the knowledge of how particiluar industries function, encourage better communication and cooperation between citizens and their local government and focus on the issues and challenges faced by contemporary working families.  Funding for grants in this area are invitation only, see web site for details on submitting an inquiry.
  Deadline:  Open

Geography and Social Science

Funding opportunities in geography and social science are available from the following sponsors:

• EPSCOR (NSF) - The Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) is a program designed to fulfill the National Science Foundation's (NSF) mandate to promote scientific progress nationwide.  The EPSCoR program is directed at those jurisdictions that have historically received lesser amounts of NSF Research and Development funding.  Twenty-five states, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin islands currently participate.  Through this program, NSF establishes partnerships with government, higher education, and industry that are designed to effect lasting improvements in a region's research infrastructure, thus allowing to improve its national competitiveness.
  Deadline:  Various

• National Science Foundation (NSF) Geography and Spatial Science - The Geography and Spatial Science (GSS) Program sponsors research on the geographic distributions and interactions of human, physical, and biotic systems on the Earth's surface.  Projects on a variety of topics (both domestic and international) qualify for support if they offer theories, methods, and their application to societal problems and concerns.  The GSS Program encourages projects that explicitly integrate undergraduate and graduate education into the overall research agenda.
  Deadline:  August 15, January 15

Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

For opportunities to fund interdisciplinary social science research, refer to the following sponors:

• American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Collaborative Research Awards - These awards support collaborative research in the humanities and related social sciences . Collaborations need not be interdisciplinary or inter-institutional, but must involve at least two scholars; applicants at the same institution must demonstrate why local funding is insufficient to support the project. It is hoped that projects of successful applicants will help demonstrate the range and value of both collaborative research and inquiry in the humanities, and model how such collaboration may be carried out successfully. Collaborations that involve the participation of assistant and associate faculty members, or that of scholars at different kinds of institutions, are particularly encouraged.
  Deadline: November 12

• Ford Foundation Domestic Research Opportunties - The Ford Foundation awards grants to develop new ideas and strengthen organizations that reduce poverty and injustice and promote democratic values, international cooperation and human achievement. Categories of interest: Arts and Culture, Civil Society, Community Development, Development Finance and Economic Security, Education and Scholarship, Envionment and Development, Governance, HIV/AIDS, Human Rights, Media, Religion, Society and Culture, Sexuality and Reproductive Health, Workforce Development. Funding for grants in this area are invitation only, see web site for details on submitting an inquiry.
  Deadline:  Open

• Ford Foundation International Research Opportunites - The Ford Foundation awards grants to develop new ideas and strengthen organizations that reduce poverty and injustice and promote democratic values, international cooperation and human achievement. Categories of interest: Arts and Culture, Civil Society, Community Development, Development Finance and Economic Security, Education and Scholarship, Envionment and Development, Governance, HIV/AIDS, Human Rights, Media, Religion, Society and Culture, Sexuality and Reproductive Health, Workforce Development. Funding for grants in this area are invitation only, see web site for details on submitting an inquiry.
  Deadline:  Open

• National Institutes of Health (NIH) R01 Competition - The Research Project Grant (R01) is an award made to an institution/organization to support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in areas representing the specific interests and competencies of the investigator(s). The R01 research plan proposed by the applicant institution/organization must be related to the stated program interests of one or more of the NIH Institutes and Centers (ICs) based on descriptions of their programs. All research project grant applications described in this announcement will be assigned to NIH ICs according to standard Public Health Service (PHS) referral guidelines and specific program interests.
  Deadline:  February 16, June 16, October 16

• National Institutes of Health (NIH) R03 Competition - The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Investigator-Initiated Small Grant (R03) funding opportunity supports small research projects that can be carried out in a short period of time with limited resources. Investigator-initiated research, also known as unsolicited research, is research funded as a result of an investigator submitting a research grant application to NIH in an investigator’s area of interest and competency. The R03 grant mechanism supports different types of projects including pilot and feasibility studies; secondary analysis of existing data; small, self-contained research projects; development of research methodology; and development of new research technology.
  Deadline: February 16, June 16, October 16

• National Science Foundation (NSF) -Decision, Risk and Management Science (DRMS) Program - The DRMS program supports scientific research directed at increasing the understanding and effectiveness of decision making by individuals, groups, organizations, and society. Disciplinary and interdisciplinary research, doctoral dissertation research, and workshops are funded in the areas of judgment and decision making; decision analysis and decision aids; risk analysis, perception, and communication; societal and public policy decision making; management science and organizational design. The program also supports small grants for exploratory research of a time-critical or high-risk, potentially transformative nature.
  Deadline:  January 18, August 18

• National Science Foundation (NSF) Linguistics Program - This NSF program supports scientific research of all types that focus on human language as an object of investigation. The program supports research on the syntactic, semantic, phonetic, and phonological properties of individual languages and of language in general; the psychological processes involved in the use of language; the development of linguistic capacities in children; social and cultural factors in language use, variation, and change; the acoustics of speech and the physiological and psychological processes involved in the production and perception of speech; and the biological bases of language in the brain.
  Deadline:  January 15, July 15

• National Science Foundation (NSF) - Methodology, Measurement, and Statistics (MMS) Program - The Methodology, Measurement, and Statistics (MMS) Program is an interdisciplinary program in the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences that supports the development of innovative analytical and statistical methods and models for those sciences. MMS seeks proposals that are methodologically innovative, grounded in theory, and have potential utility for multiple fields within the social and behavioral sciences. As part of its larger portfolio, the MMS Program partners with a consortium of federal statistical agencies to support research proposals that further the development of new and innovative approaches to surveys and to the analysis of survey data.
  Deadline:  January 16, August 16

• Skoll Foundation Social Entrepreneurship Program (SASE) - The Skoll Awards provides core support to help organizations expand their programs and capacity to deliver long-term, sustainable equilibrium change. The Skoll Awards are not intended for new or early-stage programs or initiatives. Programs submitted for consideration should have a track record of no less than three years. In addition to core support, the Skoll Foundation supports the participation of Award recipients in the annual Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship. The Skoll Foundation Awards provide later-stage, or mezzanine, funding, which is generally structured as a $1 million award paid out over three years, subject to payment limitations described on their web site.
  Deadline:  November 4, February 10

• John Templeton Foundation - The John Templeton Foundation supports a very wide range of research activities in such fields as theoretical physics, cosmology, evolutionary biology, cognitive sceince, and social science relating to love, forgiveness, creative, purpose, and the nature and origin of religious belief.  The John Templeton Foundation aims to stimulate new thinking about wealth creation in the developing world, character education in schools and universities, and programs for cultivating the talents of gifted children.  Important:  After Friday, January 16, 2009, the John Templeton Foundation will not be accepting new requests for funding until the new grant-making policy is announced September 2009. If you did not submit an Online Funding Inquiry by January 16, 2009, John Templeton Foundation will be unable to review your proposal idea until the fall of 2009.
  Deadline:  Open

Political Science and Government

Sponsors who fund opportunities in political science and government include:

• Ford Foundation Governance Program - The Ford Foundation Governance Program supports research that will assist in the reform of political systems through work that promotes political equality and citizen participation. This program seeks to connect the power of good governance to the issues of international security, conflict prevention and economic development. The Ford Foundation also supports efforts to strengthen peace through multilateralism in foreign policy and the growth of democratic values and practices in a wide range of global governance bodies. Funding for grants in this area are invitation only, see web site for details on submitting an inquiry.
  Deadline - Open.

• National Science Foundation (NSF) - Law and Social Sciences Program - The Law and Social Science Program at the National Science Foundation supports social scientific studies of law and law-like systems of rules, institutions, processes, and behaviors. These can include, but are not limited to, research designed to enhance the scientific understanding of the impact of law; human behavior and interactions as these relate to law; the dynamics of legal decision making; and the nature, sources, and consequences of variations and changes in legal institutions. The primary consideration is that research shows promise of advancing a scientific understanding of law and legal process.
  Deadline:  January 15, August 15

• National Science Foundation (NSF) - Political Science Program - The Political Science Program supports scientific research that advances knowledge and understanding of citizenship, government, and politics. Research proposals are expected to be theoretically motivated, conceptually precise, methodologically rigorous, and empirically oriented. Substantive areas include, but are not limited to, American government and politics, comparative government and politics, international relations, political behavior, political economy, and political institutions. Other areas of research that may be considered for funding include: bargain process, campaigns and elections, electoral choice, citizen support, political change, domestic and international conflict, political psychology, international political economy and political tolerance.
  Deadline:  January 15, August 15

• Russell Sage Foundation - Immigration Program - The Immigration Program at the Russell Sage Foundation, focuses on the impact of immigration on ethnic diversity in the United States, and the role of diverse ethnic identities in reshaping American institutions.  Research under this initiative should address theoretical and methodological aspects of the impact of immigration on diversity, including studies the relationship between identity and education or occupational success; the impact of residential segregation on identity, intermarriage, and socio-economic status and the impact of global and transnational identities on racial and ethnic identities in the United States. Awards range from $35,000 to $500,000.  Russell Sage Foundation mainly provides support for analyzing data and writing up results, but occaisionally considers larger awards for data acquisition projects highly relevent to the above summarized program goals.
  Deadline:  August 15, March 15

Science and Technology

Sponsors who provide funding in the sciences and technology include:

• National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Office of the Digital Humanities Grant Opportunities - The Office of Digital humanities offers a wide variety of funding opportunities ranging from workshops, digitazation projects, challenge grants, start up grants, and topics in the digital humanities and some social sciences.  The focus of NEH in all of their grant opportunities, is to encourage the development of projects that are particiliarly innovative and promise to benefit the humanities.  Investigators are encouraged to explore the NEH web site for more information as the range of opportunities can widely vary.
  Deadline:  Various

• National Science Foundation (NSF) - Cyber-Enabled Discovery and Innovation (CDI) Program -  NSF's Cyber-Enabled Discovery and Innovation (CDI)  program supports revolutionary science and engineering research and the outcomes made possible by innovations and advances in computational thinking. Investigators are encouraged to come together in the development of far-reaching, high-risk science and engineering research and education agendas that capitalize on innovations in and/or innovative use of, computation thinking.  Collectively, CDI research outcomes are expected to produce paradigm shifts in our understanding of a wide range of science and engineering phenomena and socio-technical innovations that create new wealth and enhance the national quality of life. 
  Deadline:  April 20 through May 20

• National Science Foundation (NSF) - National STEM Education Distributed Learning  (NSDL) Program - This program aims to establish a national network of learning environments and resources for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education at all levels. The program has four tracks: Pathways Projects (I and II) are expected to provide stewardship for the content and services needed by major communities of learners. Services projects are expected to develop services that support users and resource collection providers that enhance the impact, efficiency, and value of the NSDL network. Targeted Research projects are expected to explore specific topics that have immediate applicability to collections, services, and other aspects of the development of the NSDL network.
  Deadline:  April 15
  

• Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science and Technology Program - This program supports original, high-quality  research in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.  Grantees should promise to substantively benefit society or significantly add to the body of scientific knowledge.  This program is divided into other categories such as: Theoretical Neurobiology, Computational Molecular Biology, Sloan Digital Sky Survey, The Known, Unknown and Unknowable, Census of Marine Life, History of Science and Technology, Archical Program, and Recent History of Science and Engineering on the Web. Funding for grants in this area are invitation only, see web site for details on submitting an inquiry.
  Deadline:  Open