American Sociological Association
Annual Meeting Travel Fund
Deadline: April 1, 2020
Link: https://www.asanet.org/careers/grants-and-fellowships/annual-meeting-travel-fund
Eligibility requirements:
-ASA membership. This requirement applies to applicants who reside in the United States. The membership requirement is waived for international applicants, who are defined as sociologists who (1) were born outside of the United States and (2) currently live and work (if employed) outside of the United States.
-Listed in the Annual Meeting program. To receive an AMTF award, applicants must be listed in the Annual Meeting program.
-Not a student. Applicants cannot be current students in an undergraduate or graduate sociology program at the time of application. Students are encouraged to apply for a Student Forum Travel Award.
American Sociological Association
Student Forum Travel Awards
Deadline: April 1, 2020
Link: https://www.asanet.org/careers/grants-and-fellowships/student-forum-travel-awards
Eligibility requirements: Applicants must be students pursuing an undergraduate or graduate sociology degree in an academic institution and a current student member of ASA at the time of application. Participation in the Annual Meeting program (e.g., paper sessions, roundtables), purpose for attending (e.g., workshop training, Honors Program participation), student financial need, availability of other forms of support, matching funds, and potential benefit to the student are among the factors taken into account in making awards. A travel award committee of the ASA Student Forum convened especially for this purpose will select awardees.
Association for the Sociology of Religion
Joseph H. Fichter Research Grant Competition
Deadline: May 1, 2020
Link: http://www.sociologyofreligion.com/lectures-papers/fichter-research-grant-competition/
Fichter Research Grants are awarded annually by ASR to members of the Association involved in promising sociological research on women in religion or on the intersection between religion and gender or religion and sexualities. A total of $12,000 is available to be awarded annually, and this amount is usually distributed among several of the leading applications in the year’s competition. Applicants must be members of ASR. Grant funds can be used to pay for direct research expenses, such as (1) transportation expenses to conduct research; (2) the cost of hiring a research assistant or transcriber; (3) computer software packages that are not typically provided by a college or university (e.g., specialized statistical software packages).
Application procedures:
-Craft proposal of no more than 5 double-spaced pages (1250 words) that outlines the rational and plan of research. It should have a descriptive title for the research project (e.g., “A Examination of Women’s Leadership Role in Two Catholic Parishes”), present a clear research question, review previous research and theory that forms the background for the study, describe the social scientific research method(s) that will be used to carry out the research as well as a research timetable, and summarize succinctly what the research aims to discover.
-A detailed, one-page budget. It should indicate the items for which the applicant is seeking funding, and next to each item, the amount it will cost (in U.S. dollars) and the exact purposes for which it will be used. An itemized budget is necessary to enable the Fichter Committee to determine if the budget is reasonable and for decisions concerning partial funding. Applicants are advised to NOT include items in their proposed budget that ASR does not cover (see above). IMPORTANT NOTE: A single proposal should prepare a budget that includes no more than $5,000.
-An updated curriculum vitae, including a statement of his/her qualifications to carry out the proposed research, and a current email address at which he/she can be contacted during the summer months.
National Science Foundation
Social Psychology
Deadline: July 15, 2020
Website: https://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5712&org=NSF&sel_org=NSF&from=fund
The Social Psychology Program at NSF supports research and research infrastructure to advance basic knowledge in social psychology. Projects funded by the Social Psychology Program support the NSF mission to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; and to secure the national defense. Proposals considered by the Social Psychology Program must communicate both the intellectual merit of the science and its broader societal impacts.
Proposed research should carry strong potential for creating transformative advances in the basic understanding of human social behavior. Among the many research topics supported are: social cognition, attitudes, social and cultural influence, stereotypes, motivation, decision making, group dynamics, aggression, close relationships, social and affective neuroscience, social psychophysiology, emotions, prosocial behavior, health-related behavior, and personality and individual differences. Proposals that develop new theories or methods for understanding social behavior are highly encouraged. Research samples should represent substantial ranges of ethnicities, socioeconomic backgrounds, cultures, and other dimensions of human populations.
Interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and convergent research approaches are encouraged. Proposals involving non-human animals are considered only if the research offers clear and direct contributions to understanding human social behavior. The program does not fund research that seeks to improve clinical practice as its primary outcome, nor does it consider proposals with disease-related goals, including work on the etiology, diagnosis or treatment of physical or mental disease, abnormality, or malfunction in human beings or animals.
In assessing intellectual merit, the Social Psychology Program places highest priority on research that is theoretically grounded, based on empirical observation and validation, and with designs appropriate to the questions asked. In assessing broader impacts, the Social Psychology Program places highest priority on proposals that offer strong potential to benefit society, strengthen our national security interests, improve the quality of life, broaden participation in science, enhance infrastructure for research and education, and include a plan for sharing the results with a wide variety of audiences.
The Social Psychology Program accepts regular research proposals, including Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) proposals, proposals for research in undergraduate institutions (RUI), rapid response research proposals (RAPID), and early-concept grants for exploratory research (EAGER). The Program also accepts small conference proposals for events (including workshops) being planned one year or more after submission. The Social Psychology Program does not accept proposals for doctoral dissertation improvement awards.
Sociological Initiatives Foundation
Grant
Deadline: August 14, 2020
Website: http://www.sifoundation.org/
The Sociological Initiatives Foundation is dedicated to the belief that research and action are intrinsically inseparable. We invite concept proposals for projects that link an explicit research design to a concrete social action strategy. Projects should also have clear social change goals.
SIF has funded projects in the areas of civic participation, community organizing, crime and law, education, health, housing, immigration, labor organizing, and language/literacy.
Some examples of desired applicants are:
- community-led academic partnerships
- advocacy or community groups that conduct research that can withstand challenge in academic and policy arenas
- grassroots organizations that organize or link to a constituency through their research
- A limited number of concept applicants will be invited to submit full proposals in the fall of 2020.
Projects typically take two years, so applicants should think in terms of such a timeline.
The Sociological Initiatives Foundation supports social change by linking research to social action. It funds research projects that investigate laws, policies, institutions, regulations, and normative practices that may limit equality in the United States and Puerto Rico. It gives priority to projects that seek to address racism, xenophobia, classism, gender bias, exploitation, or the violation of human rights and freedoms. It also supports research that furthers language learning and behavior and its intersection with social and policy questions.
The Foundation supports research that focuses on improving services and systems and increasing positive social and physical conditions through:
Policy development
Placement and shaping of the policy agenda
Policy adoption or implementation
Policy blocking
Increasing advocacy capacity and political influence
Shaping public sentiment
Addressing challenges related to language and literacy
Language issues include literacy, language loss and maintenance, language policy, language and national security, bilingualism, language and gender, language and law, language disabilities, language and health, language and education, different language cultures, and second language acquisition.
In the context of social and racial inequality dating back centuries, the Foundation supports projects that address institutional rather than individual or behavioral change. It seeks to fund research and initiatives that provide insight into sociological and linguistic issues that can help specific groups and or communities expand opportunities and challenge injustices.
Grant sizes normally range from $10,000 to $20,000. We look for projects that have an explicit research design and a concrete connection to public or community impact. It is not enough to just write a report or add a focus group to a social change project. The research should build an organization or constituency’s potential to expand public knowledge, impact policy, and create social change.
Short concept proposals are due on August 16th each year. A limited number of concept applicants are then invited to submit full proposals in November. Our analysis of past grant recipients has shown that projects typically take two years, so applicants should think in terms of such a timeline.
Some examples of desired applicants are:
- academic-community partnerships
- advocacy or community groups that conduct research that can withstand challenge in academic and policy arenas
- academics that organize or link to a constituency through their research
Types of Support and Limitations
- Preference is given to providing support in areas that tend to be under-funded and for projects of a size where a Sociological Initiatives Foundation grant can make a difference.
- For nonprofits, grants are restricted to organizations that are tax-exempt under Section 501(c) 3 of the Internal Revenue Code and classified as “not a private foundation” under section 509(a).
- The Sociological Initiatives Foundation does not make grants directly to individuals for any purposes.
- SIF also welcomes applications from academic institutions and other qualified organizations wishing to sponsor research projects by individual scholars or practitioners.
- No awards are made for dissertation research, honoraria or political purposes.
- The Foundation does not provide operating support or capital grants.
- Grant sizes normally range from $15,000 to $20,000.
- The geographic focus is limited to the United States and its territories.
National Science Foundation
Division of Social and Economic Sciences
Sociology
Deadline: August 17, 2020
Link: https://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5369
The Sociology Program supports basic research on all forms of human social organization — societies, institutions, groups and demography — and processes of individual and institutional change. The Program encourages theoretically focused empirical investigations aimed at improving the explanation of fundamental social processes. Included is research on organizations and organizational behavior, population dynamics, social movements, social groups, labor force participation, stratification and mobility, family, social networks, socialization, gender, race and the sociology of science and technology. The Program supports both original data collections and secondary data analysis that use the full range of quantitative and qualitative methodological tools. Theoretically grounded projects that offer methodological innovations and improvements for data collection and analysis are also welcomed.
In assessing the intrinsic merit of proposed research, four components are key to securing support from the Sociology Program: (1) the issues investigated must be theoretically grounded; (2) the research should be based on empirical observation or be subject to empirical validation or illustration; (3) the research design must be appropriate to the questions asked; and (4) the proposed research must advance our understanding of social processes, structures and methods.
Crosscutting Research & Training Opportunities:
- ADVANCE: Increasing the Participation and Advancement of Women in Academic Science and Engineering Careers
- Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program
- Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)
- Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Program
- SBE Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF)
- Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU)
- Research at Undergraduate Institutions (RUI)
- Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program
Russell Sage Foundation
Small Grants
Deadline: None
Link: https://www.russellsage.org/how-to-apply/small-grants-apply/guidelines
Eligibility
Non-tenured junior faculty members who are no more than two years beyond the receipt of their Ph.D. (or equivalent graduate degree). There are no limitations on the disciplinary background of the researcher. The Foundation encourages applications from scholars who are traditionally underrepresented in the scientific disciplines and RSF’s application pool.
Proposal
Proposals should be submitted through RSF’s online application portal. The maximum length of a proposal is four single-spaced pages, excluding budget and bibliography (with standard 11 or 12-point font, and 1-inch margins). Proposals should outline the rationale of the research, clearly state the question(s) under study and the methods and analytic approach to be employed. The proposal should briefly discuss the project’s relevance to the foundation’s programs and how it would contribute to RSF’s mission to improve social and living conditions in the U.S.
Budget
Representative categories of expenditure that should be described in the budget narrative include:
Data acquisition, such as data access fees or the purchase of data sets;
Laboratory costs;
Research assistance;
Subject payments;
Travel (for data collection or access only)
Other research expenses will be considered on a case by case basis.
No funds may be used to support (1) salary or conference travel for the investigator or co-authors, or (2) the purchase of computer hardware or software. RSF does not allow indirect costs on small grants and restricts the project period to one year. A budget that appears to be excessive will be grounds for rejecting a proposal. For detailed information about what can and cannot be included in the budgets, as well as the budget template, see the RSF Budget Guidelines at: http://www.russellsage.org/how-to-apply/apply-project-awards/budget.
Application procedures:
-Applications must be submitted via the RSF online application portal, Fluxx.
-Create an account or log in to your existing account. **Allow up to 48 hours for a new account to be approved**
-Start a new “Small Grants” application and select the appropriate program (BE or CSS) option.
-Submit the following documents:
A concise single-spaced proposal (4 pages maximum) describing the proposed work;
A detailed Excel budget using the Foundation’s budget template;
A budget narrative;
An up-to-date abbreviated CV (maximum of 5 pages per CV);
An organization confirmation letter – a letter from your home institution stating that it will manage the funds for the project should a grant be made;
Applications are generally reviewed within 6-8 weeks. Grants will be approved or rejected with no possibility of subsequent negotiation.
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