Funding and Awards

FacultyAcademic staffNon-academic staff

The Dean’s Office makes annual funds available to all full-time faculty, lecturers, and non-academic staff. These expenses should support professional activities related to one’s work at SHASS.

Apply year round

Faculty

Global Seed Funds (GSF) help MIT faculty connect with colleagues abroad. GSF support early-stage, open, and publishable research collaborations at academic universities and public research institutions around the world.

Applications due Dec. 10, 2024

Faculty

The MIT-Balliol College Faculty Exchange sends MIT faculty to Balliol College at Oxford University for a period of one to four months. Faculty are part of an exchange program and air travel, room, and board expenses are covered.

Applications open Fall 2024

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FacultyAcademic staff

The Kelly-Douglas Fund supports teaching and research by members of MIT SHASS. Funds are distributed on a rolling basis each semester.

Apply in January or July

FacultyAcademic staffNon-academic staff

The de Florez Fund for Humor supports diverse humorous activities and initiatives. All members of the MIT community are welcome to apply.

Apply year round

Non-academic staff

These awards salute staff members who have made exceptional contributions to their academic units, the school, and the Institute.

Nominations open Winter 2025

FacultyAcademic staffNon-academic staff

This funding is intended as seed money for new, “high risk” initiatives that encourage creative curriculum and teaching changes, improve the quality of teaching, and enrich the learning experience.

Applications open Fall 2024

Faculty

This fund provides grants to faculty in support of educational initiatives to develop the undergraduate curriculum. Funding reflects the vision and priorities of the Office of the Vice Chancellor, who oversees the initiative.

Check site for details

Faculty

The Bose Research Grants provide funding over a three-year period to MIT faculty who explore areas that other researchers ignore. Original, risky, controversial, cross-disciplinary: The very reasons why conventional funding sources won’t fund certain research projects are precisely the reasons we will.

Check site for details

Faculty

The Jameel World Education Lab awards funding to MIT faculty and principal investigators for research and projects to address teaching and learning across the life cycle, from pK-12 to higher education to workforce learning.

Check site for details

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Faculty

The Office of Open Learning and the MITx Faculty Advisory Committee offer faculty grants to develop and operate learning modules and/or explore new tools or content that leverage the edX or MITx Online platforms for global and residential audiences in support of the digital strategies of MIT schools and departments.

Check site for details

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FacultyAcademic staffNon-academic staff

The Council for the Arts at MIT (CAMIT) is made up of alumni and friends of the arts at MIT who support arts engagement at MIT. CAMIT funds grant programs to support arts projects among the MIT community.

Check site for details

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FacultyAcademic staff

The fund is intended as a last resort for reimbursement of processing fees for articles authored by MIT faculty, research scientists, and postdocs, and accepted for publication in eligible open-access, peer-reviewed journals.

Apply year round

FacultyAcademic staff

This funding from MIT Libraries supports MIT authors who want to make their scholarly monographs open access without an embargo and with an open license.

Apply year round

FacultyAcademic staffNon-academic staff

The MIT Excellence Awards + Collier Medal acknowledge the extraordinary efforts made by members of our community toward fulfilling the goals, values, and mission of the Institute.

Nomination period runs each fall

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Below is a list of key external fellowships and funding opportunities relevant to SHASS faculty and postgraduate researchers. Visit the respective funding institutions’ websites for deadlines and details.

Please speak with your Head and your DAF before beginning the application process for any of the below opportunities.

To route your proposal through MIT, your department’s Director of Administration and Finance (DAF) can assist with uploading your application to Kuali Coeus, MIT’s award management system.

For full-time fellowships requiring teaching release, approval from your department head is necessary before applying.

The following proposals must be routed through Research Administration Services (RAS)

opportunities requiring Institute nomination, please note that internal deadlines are set well before the foundation deadlines.

If opting for a stipend to be paid through the Institute

If you apply for a fellowship directly, the funds won’t be payable through the Institute. Consult an accountant about possible tax implications.

Please note: The list may include limited submission opportunities. Limited submission opportunities are funding opportunities that will only accept a limited amount of proposals from the institution. If you are interested in submitting an application to a limited submission opportunity and no internal competition announcement has been posted in the MIT Funding Opportunities portal, submit an email signaling your interest in applying as soon as possible. Active internal competitions are posted here. An archive of opportunities distributed in the past year can be found here.

FacultyAcademic staff

Individuals can apply for between $30,000 and $60,000 paid as a monthly $5000 stipend over a 6- to 12-month period to pursue a project in the humanities that is at any stage of development. Eligible projects will reflect exceptional research, rigorous analysis, and clear writing.

April

FacultyAcademic staff

ACLS Fellowships are intended to help scholars in the humanities and interpretive social sciences devote six to twelve months to full-time research and writing. Maximum award of $60,000 for twelve months of fulltime research and/or writing for scholars at any stage of their career with a project at any stage of development.

September

FacultyAcademic staff

Individuals who have not previously held an NEH award in any of its programs can apply for a maximum award of $8,000 to stimulate new research in the humanities. Eligibility includes projects at any state of development, but early stage is preferred. By Institute nomination only. Internal deadline in early July.

September

FacultyAcademic staff

This full-year residential fellowship sponsors research in the traditional and emergent disciplines of the humanities and the interpretive social sciences. Applicants must be at least three years beyond receipt of the Ph.D. at the start of the fellowship year; there are no citizenship requirements; external faculty fellows are not eligible to reapply. October deadline.

October

FacultyAcademic staff

A full- or half-year residential fellowship in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. In addition to all fields of the humanities, the Center accepts applications from scholars in the natural and social sciences, the arts, the professions, and public life who are engaged in humanistic projects.

October

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FacultyAcademic staff

The program’s focus is on developing a body of research around political polarization in the United States. Fellows each receive a stipend of $200,000 to devote their time to significant research and writing. By Institute nomination only. Internal deadline in September.

November

FacultyAcademic staff

Through this 4-week residential program in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, humanities faculty from sponsoring institutions can experience a concentrated period of supported research and intellectual exchange at the Center, a setting customized for and highly conducive to humanities research and writing.

February

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FacultyAcademic staff

The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation offers fellowships to mid-career individuals who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts and exhibit great promise for their future endeavors.

September

FacultyAcademic staff

The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University welcomes applications from scholars and artists proposing innovative work that confronts pressing social and policy issues and seeking to engage audiences beyond academia.

September

FacultyAcademic staff

This residential fellowship in Princeton, NJ is for the full academic year. Applicants do not need to be U.S. citizens to apply and are able to reapply if they have been a member in the past, with priority given to new applicants.

October

FacultyAcademic staff

The Suzy Newhouse Center at Wellesley College hosts three to five external fellows each academic year. Junior and senior faculty members at other institutions may apply. Resident fellows devote themselves primarily to their own research, but they also participate actively in the intellectual life of the institution, attending fellows’ lunches and sharing their work in progress with one another and with the larger Wellesley community.

December