Discover Opportunities
- "A funding database search is an intellectual exercise, not a mechanical process" (Shore & Carfora. 2011. The Art of Funding and Implementing Ideas: A Guide to Proposal Development and Project Management. page 27).
- Duke University provides a searchable database of funding opportunities.
- Science Magazine and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) maintain a database of funding opportunities in the sciences.
- H-Net maintains a database of funding opportunities in the humanities and social sciences that can be searched by keyword. Access is free but users are asked to make a donation.
- Grants.gov is a clearinghouse for federal funding opportunities. The site provides a search engine. Users are urged to review the instructions before trying to search this database.
Email Newsletters and Listservs
While most of these email newsletters will not generate more than one message per week, it is a good idea to set your email client to direct such bulk messages to a folder so that they do not clog your inbox.
- H-Net provides an email newsletter of funding opportunities in the social sciences and humanities. Subscription to the email newsletters is free. However, users are asked to make a donation.
- The Foundation Center sends out a weekly RFP Bulletin to subscribers. This email bulletin is "a roundup of recently announced Requests for Proposals (RFPs) from private, corporate, and government funding sources." Specific email summaries are available for funding in Arts, Education and Health.
- The Arts Deadlines List contains announcements about art contests and competitions, art jobs and internships, art scholarships and grants and fellowships, art festivals, call for entries/proposals/projects, and other opportunities. There is a free and "premium" version of the newsletter.
Newsfeeds and Syndicated Content
In order to view some of the links you will need to use an aggregator. The urls may not load properly in your browser.
- Pivot is a subscription-based database that maintains information for the scientific community, including funding opportunities and lists of experts. Enter using your Trinity log-in credentials.
- Grants.gov provides RSS feeds of funding opportunities, organized by category and by agency. Users are encouraged to read the instructions before subscribing.
- The National Science Foundation, a major funder of science and social science research, provides RSS feeds of program announcements and upcoming deadlines.
- The National Institutes of Health maintains RSS feeds for funding opportunities in biomedical and behavioral research.
- NIH's Fogarty International Center maintains a feed for opportunities in global health sciences.
- The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) maintains an RSS feed for minority programs.
- The Foundation Center maintains an RSS feed for its Philanthropy News Digest, a weekly compendium of philanthropy-related articles from print and electronic media outlets.
- IREX is an international nonprofit organization focusing on education, media, and civil society. IREX maintains an RSS feed for its program deadlines.
- The Corporation for Public Broadcasting maintains an RSS feed for CPB grant opportunities in television and radio.
Useful Websites
- The Office of Proposal Development at Texas A&M University maintains a website which lists active funding opportunities in a variety of disciplines.
- Middlebury College's Grants and Sponsored Programs Office maintains a list of funding agencies.
- The American Historical Association maintains a list of prizes, fellowships, and awards.
- The American Political Science Association maintains a list of grants, fellowships, and other funding opportunities.
- The American Psychological Foundation offers foundation grants and prizes.
Fellowships
Research libraries and private foundations offer fellowships, particularly to scholars in the Humanities. These can vary in length from several days to a full year of financial support.
The list that follows is NOT comprehensive, but it is a good place to start to look for support for your scholarship.
- Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
- Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection
- Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington
- The Getty Library (Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and the Humanities)
- Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens
- John Carter Brown Library
- The Library Company of Philadelphia Fellowships
- The Lilly Library
- The Massachusetts Historical Society Fellowships
- National Gallery of Art Fellowship
- The Newberry Library Fellowships
- The New York Public Library
- American Antiquarian Society Fellowship
- Library Resident Research Fellowship
- Folger Shakespeare Library Fellowship
- The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History Fellowships in American Civilization
- Hagley Museum and Library Fellowship
- Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center Fellowship
- Houghton Library Fellowship
- The Alan Lomax Fellowship in Folklife Studies
- New England Regional Fellowship Consortium
- Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
- William Andrews Clark Memorial Library (UCLA) Fellowships
- Winterthur Research Fellowships
Funding Agencies
Grant-seeking and proposal development are scholarly activities that can help you focus on the larger context of your scholarly or creative work and encourage articulation of why it matters in that context. Applying for external funding is an incentive to think clearly about your work’s relevance to your field and to articulate your ideas to a broader audience.
- American Chemical Society - Petroleum Research Fund
- Associated Colleges of the South
- American Council of Learned Societies
- American Philosophical Society
- Dreyfus Foundation
- Eppley Foundation (TMail password required)
- Fulbright Scholarships
- Keck Foundation
- National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)
- National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
- National Institutes of Health (NIH)
- National Science Foundation (tipsheet - TMail password required)
- Research Corporation
- Welch Foundation (tipsheet - TMail password required)
- U.S. Department of Agriculture
- U.S. Department of Defense
- U.S. Department of Education
- U.S. Department of Energy
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
The following agencies fund institutional proposals only:
Application Resources
In order to strengthen your application, grant seekers may find the following resources of value.
- Coates Library provides information and resources regarding data support and management plans.
- If your proposal includes working with postdoctoral researchers or fellows, you may find it instructive to view mentoring and training resources from the NIH, or My Individual Development Plan.
- One way to determine the potential “fit” between your idea and sponsoring agencies is to review the agencies’ history of recent awards. Two searchable databases of recent awards include the NIH RePORTER and NSF Award Search.
In order to strengthen your application, grant seekers may find the following resources of value.
- Coates Library provides information and resources regarding data support and management plans.
- If your proposal includes working with postdoctoral researchers or fellows, you may find it instructive to view mentoring and training resources from the NIH, the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, or My Individual Development Plan.
- One way to determine the potential “fit” between your idea and sponsoring agencies is to review the agencies’ history of recent awards. Two searchable databases of recent awards include the NIH RePORTER and NSF Award Search.