RFPs

A request for proposals (RFP) is a funder’s written announcement inviting proposals, usually for a specific grant program.

Our office serves as a clearinghouse for many RFPs. Current opportunities can be found below.
We disseminate select RFPs via email directly to faculty and administrators in relevant schools and centers.
If an RFP is a limited funding opportunity, for which a limited number of applicants per institution may apply, it is generally announced by the Stanford Research Development Office and an internal selection committee decides on the final candidate(s). UCFR manages a small number of limited RFPs, as indicated below.
Additional RFP resources are listed on the Funding Search Tools page.

Funding Opportunities & Resources

June Deadlines:

Whitehall Foundation

Research Grants and Grants-in-Aid

The Whitehall Foundation, through its program of grants and grants-in-aid, assists scholarly research in the life sciences. It is the Foundation's policy to assist those dynamic areas of basic biological research that are not heavily supported by Federal Agencies or other foundations with specialized missions.

The Foundation is currently interested in basic research in neurobiology, defined as follows: Invertebrate and vertebrate (excluding clinical) neurobiology, specifically investigations of neural mechanisms involved in sensory, motor, and other complex functions of the whole organism as these relate to behavior. The overall goal should be to better understand behavioral output or brain mechanisms of behavior.

Research grants are available to investigators that meet all of the Foundation’s eligibility requirements and are working at accredited institutions in the United States. Applications will be judged on the scientific merit and the innovative aspects of the proposal as well as on the competence of the applicant.

The Grants-in-Aid program is designed for researchers at the assistant professor level who experience difficulty in competing for research funds because they have not yet become firmly established. Grants-in-Aid can also be made to senior scientists. All applications will be judged on the scientific merit and innovative aspects of the proposal, as well as on past performance and evidence of the applicant’s continued productivity.

Funding amounts: Up to $300K (Research grants); up to $30K (Grants-in-Aid)

Deadline: June 1, 2026 (Letter of Intent)

See the guidelines for more details.

Michelson Medical Research Foundation

Michelson Prizes: Next Generation Grants

The Michelson Medical Research Foundation seeks to unravel the complexity of the human immune system, accelerating the development of vaccines and therapies for some of the world’s most threatening diseases.

The Michelson Prizes is looking for research proposals on human immunology and vaccine research. The committee will look for research that aims to tackle the current roadblocks to human vaccine development and expand our limited understanding of key immune processes that are fundamental to successful vaccine and immunotherapy development.

While the Michelson Prizes are focused on research in the fields of immunology, vaccine, and immunotherapy discovery, applicants from the full spectrum of related disciplines, including clinical research, biochemistry, molecular biology, protein engineering, computer science, artificial intelligence/machine learning, biophysics, nanotechnology, etc., are encouraged to apply.

Applicants must be born on or after January 1, 1990. Early-career investigators, postdoctoral fellows, clinical fellows (including residents and interns), doctoral students, and other researchers currently in training positions are eligible for these awards.

Funding amount: $150K

Deadline: June 22, 2026

See the guidelines for more details.

Smith Richardson Foundation

Strategy & Policy Fellows Program

The Smith Richardson Foundation sponsors an annual Strategy and Policy Fellows grant competition to support young scholars and policy thinkers on American foreign policy, international relations, international security, military policy, and diplomatic and military history. The purpose of the program is to strengthen the U.S. community of scholars and researchers conducting policy analysis in these fields.

The Foundation will award at least three research grants of $60,000 each to enable the recipients to research and write a book. Within the academic community, this program supports junior or adjunct faculty, research associates, and post-docs who are engaged in policy-relevant research and writing. Within the think tank community, the program supports members of the rising generation of policy thinkers who are focused on U.S. strategic and foreign policy issues.

Applicants must be an employee or affiliate of either an academic institution or a think tank. While there is no age limit for applicants, the Foundation will give priority to applicants who earned their Ph.D. within the past seven years.

Funding amount: $60K

Deadline: June 22, 2026

See the guidelines for more details.

July Deadlines:

Research Corporation for Science Advancement

Cottrell Scholar Award

The Cottrell Scholar Award honors and helps develop exceptional teacher-scholars recognized by their scientific communities for the quality and innovation of their research and academic leadership. Awardees join a multigenerational community of scholar‑educators across the U.S. and Canada who contribute significant research and educational advancements. Each three-year award provides $120,000 and may support both research and educational activities.

The award is open to early‑career tenure‑track faculty at U.S. or Canadian research universities or primarily undergraduate institutions. Applicants must hold primary or courtesy appointments in chemistry, physics, or astronomy departments offering bachelor’s or graduate degrees in the relevant discipline. For the 2026 cycle, applicants must have started their first tenure‑track position anytime during calendar year 2023. Eligibility extensions may be granted for parental leave, medical circumstances, or other approved tenure clock delays.

Funding amount: $120K

Deadline: July 1, 2026

See the guidelines for more details.

John Templeton Foundation

Online Funding Inquiries

The John Templeton Foundation supports interdisciplinary research and catalyzes conversations that inspire awe and wonder. Funding areas include:

The Character Virtue Development funding area supports the elevation and cultivation of character, with a focus on moral, performance, civic, and intellectual virtues.
The Individual Freedom & Free Markets funding area supports education, research, and outreach projects to promote individual freedom, free markets, free competition, and entrepreneurship.
The Life Sciences funding area supports research and engagement projects on the fundamental structures of the biological world.
The Mathematical & Physical Sciences funding area supports research seeking to shed light on the fundamental concepts of physical reality.
The Public Engagement funding area supports a wide variety of grantees to create content, cultivate thought leadership, and develop campus programming.
The Religion, Science, & Society funding area supports the discovery of meaningful and practical insights into the religious, spiritual, and cultural dimensions of humanity.
The Intelligence Venture invites researchers, scholars, practitioners, and creators whose work engages foundational questions about intelligence in many forms.

Funding amount: Varies

Deadline: July 15, 2026

See the guidelines for more details.

Russell Sage Foundation

Core Research Grants

RSF will only accept letters of inquiry (LOIs) under its core programs for Behavioral Science and Decision Making in Context (BSDMC) and Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration (REI) and its special initiatives on Immigration and Immigrant Integration (III) and Implications of the 2023 Supreme Court Decision to Ban Conscious Admissions at Colleges and Universities for Educational Attainment and Economic Mobility (SCD23).

Grants are available for research assistance, data acquisition, data analysis, and investigator time for conducting research and writing up results. We are particularly interested in analyses that make use of newly available data or demonstrate novel uses of existing data, to answer emerging or long-standing questions of interest in the foundation’s program areas and special initiatives. We also support original data collection. Proposals to conduct field experiments, in-depth qualitative interviews, and ethnographies are also encouraged. All applicants (both PIs and Co-PIs) must have a doctorate.

Funding amount: Up to $200K

Deadline: July 15, 2026 (Letters of Inquiry)

See the guidelines for more details.

Burroughs Wellcome Fund

Climate Change and Human Health Seed Grants

The Burroughs Wellcome Fund aims to stimulate the growth of new connections between thinkers working in largely disconnected fields, who, together, may change the course of climate change’s impact on human health. We are primarily, but not exclusively, interested in activities that build connections between basic and early biomedical scientific approaches and ecological, environmental, geological, geographic, and planetary-scale thinking, as well as with population-focused fields, including epidemiology and public health, demography, economics, and urban planning. Also of interest is work piloting new approaches or interactions aimed at reducing the impact of health-centered activities, such as developing more sustainable systems for healthcare, care delivery, and biomedical research.

Another area of interest is preparation for the impacts of extreme weather and other crises that can lead to large-scale disruptions, immediately affecting human health and the delivery of healthcare. Public outreach, climate communication, and education efforts focused on the intersection of climate and health are also appropriate for this call. This program supports work conceived through many kinds of creative thinking. Successful applicants include academic scientists, physicians, and public health experts, community organizations, science outreach centers, non-biomedical academic departments, and more.

Note: The program will end with the July 2026 deadline.

Funding amount: Up to $50K

Deadline: July 23, 2026

See the guidelines for more details.

William T. Grant Foundation

Research Grants on Reducing Inequality; Research Grants on Improving the Use of Research Evidence

Research grants on reducing inequality fund research studies that examine programs, policies, or practices to reduce inequality in the academic, social, behavioral, or economic outcomes of young people ages 5–25 in the United States, along dimensions of race, ethnicity, economic standing, sexual or gender minority status (e.g., LGBTQ+ youth), language minority status, or immigrant origins. We welcome descriptive studies that clarify mechanisms for reducing inequality or elucidate how or why a specific program, policy, or practice operates to reduce inequality. We also welcome intervention studies that examine attempts to reduce inequality.

Research grants on improving the use of research evidence support studies of strategies that aim to improve the use of research evidence in ways that benefit young people ages 5-25 in the United States. We want to know what it takes to get research used by decision-makers and what happens when research is used. And we are particularly interested in studies of strategies that are robust enough to facilitate research use in decision-making regarding divisive youth issues or in highly polarized environments. We welcome letters of inquiry for studies that pursue these broad aims.

We invite studies from a range of disciplines, fields, and methods, and we encourage investigations into various youth-serving systems, including justice, housing, child welfare, mental health, and education.

Funding amount: $100K-$600K (Research grants on reducing inequality); $100K-$1M (Research grants on improving the use of research evidence)

Deadline: July 29, 2026

See the guidelines for more details.

Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

Symbiosis in Aquatic Systems Initiative RFP

The Symbiosis in Aquatic Systems Initiative at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation supports novel methods development and research that substantially advances knowledge of symbiosis in marine and freshwater environments. Through this request for proposals, the Initiative seeks to catalyze new collaborations that combine disciplinary expertise in aquatic symbiosis with leading-edge techniques from other areas of science and/or complementary disciplines to enable and accelerate discovery that will address – in new ways – fundamental and often long-standing questions regarding the origin, function, and evolution of symbiotic relationships of aquatic organisms. Competitive proposals will articulate how innovative collaborations will open new lines of scientific inquiry, redefine existing paradigms, or overcome critical methodological and technological limitations in the study of aquatic symbioses. Symbioses within scope for this call must inhabit an aquatic environment and include a microbial partner. Microbes include bacteria, archaea and single-celled eukaryotes. Microbe-microbe associations are within scope.

Applications are welcome from scientists based in the United States and internationally. Teams may be based in the same or different countries. Tenure-track and non-tenure track researchers at academic institutions are eligible to apply, as are scientists at nonprofit and for-profit companies, provided all data, protocols, and methods generated projects are openly shared with the scientific community.

Funding amount: Varies

Deadline: July 31, 2026

See the guidelines for more details.

Nasdaq Foundation

Economic Opportunity Grant Program

Established in 1994, the Nasdaq Philanthropic Foundation, Inc. works to connect business, capital and innovative ideas to advance global economies and local communities to champion greater access in investor engagement.

The Nasdaq Foundation's Economic Opportunity Grant Program drives impact through five key areas—regional revitalization and rural wealth building, access to capital, employee and community ownership, financial literacy, and investor identity.

Regional Revitalization / Rural Wealth Building: Promoting community development, improving infrastructure, and offering workforce training to strengthen economies and increase market opportunities.
Access to Capital: Supplying financial resources that catalyze the growth of businesses and projects originating from revitalized regions, supporting both new and established ventures.
Employee and Community Ownership: Enabling individuals to directly control assets and promote shared ownership to achieve fairer distribution of wealth, resources, and economic opportunities.
Financial Literacy: Empowering individuals with the knowledge and skills necessary to make informed financial decisions, thus cultivating financially resilient communities.
Investor Identity: Cultivating a new generation of investors equipped to shape the future financial markets.

There is no set minimum or maximum grant amount. There is no limit to the number of proposals an entity may submit at one time.

Funding amount: Varies

Deadline: July 31, 2026 (Expression of Interest)

See the guidelines for more details.

December Deadlines:

Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation

2027 Dreyfus Prize

The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation has selected Chemical Probes of Biological Systems as the topic of the 2027 Dreyfus Prize.

The Dreyfus Prize in the Chemical Sciences is awarded to an individual in a selected area of chemistry to recognize exceptional and original research that has advanced the field in a major way. The prize is awarded biennially and consists of a monetary award of $250,000, a medal, and a certificate.

The development of probes to understand biological function, particularly in the context of cells or organisms, is an important discipline in the chemical sciences. Advances in this area of chemical biology, which are distinct from the development of imaging technologies, have revealed the functions of biological molecules such as proteins, glycans, and nucleic acids; the regulation of pathways; and an understanding of disease mechanisms.

The Prize is awarded to an individual. There is no restriction on the number of nominees from a given institution, nor is institutional approval required. Any person may nominate a candidate for the Dreyfus Prize. Self-nominations are not accepted.

Funding amount: $250K prize

Deadline: December 3, 2026

See the guidelines for more details.

Ongoing Deadlines

Arnold Ventures

Causal Research on Community Safety and the Criminal Justice System

Arnold Ventures (AV) is a nonpartisan philanthropy whose core mission is to invest in evidence-based solutions that maximize opportunity and minimize injustice. AV focuses on correcting system failures in the United States through evidence-based solutions. AVs’ Criminal Justice Initiative seeks to generate new evidence to inform policies that will make communities safer and make the criminal justice system more fair and effective. This Request for Proposals (RFP) from the Criminal Justice Initiative (CJI) seeks letters of interest to conduct causal research projects of policies, practices, and interventions related to community safety and the criminal justice system.

To be eligible to submit through this funding opportunity, research projects must adhere to the following criteria:

Propose a strong causal research design, which can reliably and validly isolate the treatment effect of a policy, practice, or intervention. Examples of such research designs include difference-in-differences, regression discontinuity, instrumental variable, and randomization.
The policy, practice, or intervention being tested is in the United States.
Outcomes include measures of real-world behaviors (such as crime rates or criminal justice involvement), as opposed to measures collected in a controlled lab setting or measures of perceptions. Submissions are welcome across all issues of crime and criminal justice that meet the above criteria. The ultimate goal of this RFP is to build credible evidence on policies, practices, and interventions that can improve crime and justice system outcomes and grow the number of policies and practices rigorously shown to produce improvements in community safety and to make the justice system fairer and more effective.

Arnold Ventures anticipates that project budgets will depend on a variety of factors, including the complexity of the data acquisition and analysis plans, the number of study sites, and the study timeline. While there is no budget ceiling or fixed period of performance for applications received under this RFP, we expect to support projects that align with a typical CJI research project that has a 3-4 year period of performance and a median budget of $500,000.

We will prioritize studies that:

Focus on interventions where there is a clear path to federal and/or state policy adoption or implementation. Is there a state or federal policy lever available to scale this intervention?
Outcomes are measured using administrative data, where they exist.
Align with the CJI’s priority research areas: reducing violent crime; reducing unnecessary use of force or arrests by police; facilitating police investigations and increasing clearance rates; effects of alternative models of police/crisis response; reducing intimate partner violence; prosecutor-initiated resentencing; improving pretrial outcomes; strategies to improve the quality of public defense; improving community supervision outcomes; effects of prison oversight; effects of policy changes related to fines and fees or the payment of court debt; effects of record clearance/expungement policies; effects of sentencing reforms; projects using Criminal Justice Administrative Records (CJARS) data to measure effects of interventions on people with criminal records.
Are led by researchers who have not previously received funding from Arnold Ventures as the primary or principal investigator, or are early-career/junior researchers (those who received their PhD in the past 6 years). We recognize the need to expand and diversify the pool of researchers doing causal research in the criminal justice space. Thus we strongly encourage researchers who are new to causal research, including those from groups historically underrepresented in the research community – such as researchers of color, women, and justice[1]impacted individuals – to participate in this funding opportunity.

Funding Amount: Varies (anticipated median budget of $500K)

Deadlines: Rolling

See the guidelines for more details.

Charles Koch Foundation

Trade Policy Research

The Charles Koch Foundation is pleased to invite proposals for research and related projects that bridge the gap between theory and practice and contribute to contemporary debates around important trade-policy issues. We are especially interested in research related to the topics below.

Getting our approach to trade with China right

Examining the potential impact of China’s mega-initiatives on the United States, such as the Belt and Road Initiative or China’s large-scale investments in Africa. This could be along economic, social, diplomatic, and/or security lines.
Exploring issues and topics related to U.S-China trade and foreign direct investment and implications for national security.
Examining how to better protect U.S. intellectual property in China and other markets.
Exploring the impact of Chinese tech theft and commercial espionage on American businesses.
Examining the real threat of China as compared to the threat claimed by domestic interest groups, businesses, think tanks, and the media.
Exploring opportunities for U.S.-China economic cooperation.
Exploring the role of the WTO in dispute settlement.

National industrial policy

Assessing the historical track record of national industrial policy in the United States.
Conducting a comparative analysis of countries’ industrial policies, with a focus on possible lessons for the United States.
Exploring alternative means of achieving the stated goals of national industrial policy, e.g. increasing innovation, productivity growth, unemployment gains, etc.

Free trade and flourishing

Examining the impact and value of Free Trade Agreements, especially in comparison to managed trade agreements.
Presenting solutions to any concentrated costs that may be caused by Free Trade Agreements.

Funding Amount: Varies

Deadline: Rolling

See the guidelines for more details.

Smith Richardson Foundation

Domestic Public Policy Program

The mission of the Smith Richardson Foundation is to contribute to important public debates and to address serious public policy challenges facing the United States. The foundation seeks to help ensure the vitality of our social, economic, and governmental institutions. It also seeks to assist with the development of effective policies to compete internationally and to advance U.S. interests and values abroad. The Domestic Public Policy Program supports projects that will help the public and policy makers understand and address critical challenges facing the United States. To that end, the foundation supports research on and the evaluation of existing public policies and programs, as well as projects that inject new ideas into public debates.

Funding Amount: Varies

Deadline: Concept papers accepted anytime

See the guidelines for more details.

Simons Foundation

Targeted Grants in Mathematics and Physical Sciences

The Simons Foundation’s Mathematics & Physical Sciences (MPS) division invites applications for its Targeted Grants in MPS program. The program is intended to support high-risk theoretical mathematics, physics and computer science projects of exceptional promise and scientific importance on a case-by-case basis. The Targeted Grant in MPS program provides funding for up to five years. The funding level and duration is flexible and should be appropriate based on the type of support requested in the proposal. There is no recommended or assumed funding level for this program. Applications may be submitted by established U.S. and foreign public and private educational institutions and stand-alone research centers. PIs and co-Investigators (co-Is) must hold a tenured or tenure-track faculty, or equivalent, position at said institutions or centers at the time of application and for the duration of the award.

Funding Amount: Varies

Deadline: Letters of Intent accepted anytime

See the guidelines for more details.

Limited Programs:

Deadline passed - for reference only

Fall 2025 New Directions Fellowship Competition

Mellon Foundation New Directions Fellowships

Previous New Directions Fellows

Purpose:

Assist faculty members in the humanities and humanistic social sciences who seek to acquire systematic training outside their own areas of formal expertise.
Contribute to humanities at large by encouraging the highest standards in cross-disciplinary research.

Eligibility:

Received Ph.D. between 2013 and 2019 in the humanities and humanistic social sciences.
Have cross-disciplinary research interests that require formal substantive and methodological training beyond their disciplinary expertise.

Terms:

The fellowship aims at longer-term investments in scholars’ intellectual range and productivity. It does not facilitate short-term outcomes, such as completion of a book or staging conferences, seminars, or events.
Recipient receives (a) the equivalent of one academic year’s salary; (b) two summers of additional support (each at the equivalent two-ninths of the previous academic year salary); and (c) tuition/course fees or equivalent direct costs associated with the fellow’s training programs.
Training may consist of coursework or other programs of organized study. It may take place either at Stanford, or elsewhere as appropriate.
The project should cover a minimum of 2 years. Funds may be used over a maximum of 3 full academic years following the award date.
The budget cannot exceed $300K. Grant amount cannot be adjusted after the grant is awarded. Previous fellows’ budgets have ranged from $175K to $250K.
The first budget period of the project must begin on May 1, 2026.

Mellon Selection Criteria:

Overall significance of the research.
Importance of extra-disciplinary training for furthering the research.
Candidate’s ability to derive satisfactory results from the proposed training program.
A well-developed plan for acquiring the necessary training within a reasonable period of time.
The second field of study must be a foray into a new area of intellectual inquiry/subject and not just an enhancement of skills to go further in the primary field. Language study, technical training, or skills acquisition such as GIS mapping do not, by themselves, constitute a new direction.

Internal Nomination Process:

Submit your application to Amanda Reilly (Associate Director, University Corporate and Foundation Relations) at amanda.reilly@stanford.edu by November 3.
Selected nominee will be notified by November 18 and will be provided detailed instructions to prepare their final proposal to be submitted to Mellon Foundation by December 11.

Preliminary Applications for November 3 should consist of:

A project summary of no more than 200 words (max. of 1,300 characters with spaces).
CV (max. 5 pages), clearly listing Ph.D. award date.
A letter of recommendation from a senior colleague (e.g., department chair) addressing your preparation for the proposed project and how the “new direction” will enhance your research and teaching efforts. Additional letter from a colleague in the new field is strongly encouraged.
A note to Stanford’s selection committee specifying whether you have consulted your department chair about any anticipated absence from campus or buy-out time.
No budget is required at this time.

Further Inquiries:

Contact Amanda Reilly, Associate Director of University Corporate and Foundation Relations, by email at amanda.reilly@stanford.edu.

Deadline passed - for reference only

2026 Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program Competition

Limited submission program for sabbatical-eligible faculty (see eligibility) - a university-wide internal nomination process is required. The fellowships of $200,000 each enable recipients to take sabbaticals of one or two years from their institution to focus on research and writing.

The 2026 Class of Andrew Carnegie Fellows will mark the third year of the program’s focus on building a body of research focused on political polarization. The next class of fellows will be announced in spring 2026.

Award Purpose

The fellows program was established in 2015 to provide philanthropic support to extraordinary scholars and writers for high-caliber research in the humanities and social sciences.

Topic

The Corporation anticipates that the work of the Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program will explore the many ways political polarization in the United States manifests itself in society and suggest ways that it may be mitigated. Studies of polarization in other countries will be welcomed, provided they offer lessons that can be applied to the United States. Projects based in disciplines across the humanities and social sciences are welcome.

# of nominations:

Two nominations are permitted from each university: one junior scholar and one senior scholar. (See eligibility below)

Timeline:

Internal university deadline: Mon., Sept. 22, 2025, 5:00 pm (see the internal nomination process below)

The nominee(s) selected to represent Stanford will be notified: Wed., Oct. 8, 2025

Sponsor’s deadline: Nov. 7, 2025

Fellows announced: Apr. 2026

Start of the fellowship: by Sept. 1, 2026

See the guidelines for more details.

Eligibility:

Senior, junior, and emerging scholars; journalists; and public intellectuals
University presidents may nominate one junior scholar (sabbatical-eligible faculty) and one senior scholar (any holder of a tenured post)
Nominees must have a Ph.D. or other terminal degree
U.S. citizenship or permanent U.S. residency status
Candidates who have been nominated in the past two years are not eligible for candidacy, regardless of who nominated them
See the award terms below

Award terms

Fellowships of $200,000 each, enabling recipients to take sabbaticals of one or two years from their institution to focus on research and writing. Fellowships may be used for such expenses as salary, fringe benefits, project-related travel, research assistants, data collection, and surveys. No indirects are provided to the university.
While the fellowship can be paid directly to the individual or through the home institution, Stanford highly recommends that it be paid to the individual. (Please consult your financial advisor and department manager on tax implications, benefits, contributions, etc.)
Carnegie does not fund dissertations, debt repayments, lobbying efforts, the purchase of equipment, or rent.
In accepting the nomination, candidates are affirming that, if chosen for the fellowship, s/he will accept the fellowship.
Recipients may not accept other fellowships of equal caliber or at a comparable level of funding that overlap the same timeline as the Carnegie fellowship, especially awards that have specific time requirements. However, smaller grants and project support are acceptable on a case-by-case basis.

Carnegie’s Selection Criteria and Process:

Originality and promise of the idea
Quality of the proposal
Record of the nominee
Plans to communicate findings to a broad audience
Promise to offer solutions to harmful polarization or to enhance social cohesion
Carnegie’s selection process will consist of two stages. First, anonymous evaluators — nationally prominent experts in fields related to political polarization in the United States — will review all proposals. Next, the top-ranked proposals will be forwarded to the members of the jury for their scrutiny and ultimate decision.

STANFORD NOMINATION SELECTION PROCESS:

By Mon., Sept. 22, 2025 5:00pm please send one PDF file containing the following in the order listed below via email attachment to:

Amanda Reilly

Associate Director

University Corporate and Foundation Relations

650-498-7726

amanda.reilly@stanford.edu

File name: Last Name_Carnegie.pdf

1) Title page

2026 Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program

Name of nominee

Nominee Scholar Category: junior or senior

Title

Department

Email address, phone number

2) Nomination letter from your Department Chair or Dean printed on department letterhead and addressed to the Carnegie Fellows Program Review committee, which provides a brief description of the candidate’s qualifications and potential, and how his or her contributions will address political polarization in the United States. (This letter is for internal review only.)

3) Internal Application materials

3-5 page prospectus describing the project, including a projected work plan and approximate time frame. The prospectus should be double-spaced and set at a minimum 12-point font. Note: jurors will not read any prospectus beyond the five-page limit (footnotes and bibliography excepted). Bibliography and footnotes do not count toward the page limit.
CV
Budget in Carnegie’s format: Carnegie’s budget instructions are located here, and the budget template is located here. (Please download the template before inputting your budget information, as all Stanford applicants will be using this budget template link.)

Selection Process

A committee appointed by the Provost will review applications and select up to two nominees. Applicants will be notified by Oct. 8, 2025. The selected nominee(s) will then be asked to provide additional materials (1-page summary of the prospectus, a description of the project in 75 words or fewer, 1-page summary of the CV [bulleted form], and a short narrative biography (250-400 words). The University Corporate and Foundation Relations office will help assemble and submit the application by November 7, including the necessary institutional letter of nomination.

Deadline passed - for reference only

Sawyer Seminars 2024

Purpose

The program was established in 1994 to provide support for comparative research on historical and contemporary topics of major scholarly significance.
October 2024 marks the program’s 30th year. To observe this milestone, at a time when universities and humanities study are facing a myriad of unprecedented challenges, the foundation is reorienting the 2024 competition and beyond from the study of comparative cultures to the study of major social and political challenges that directly impact the structures,policies, and practices of the American university.
Mellon seeks to fund humanities-grounded seminars wherein multidisciplinary teams of faculty and other academic leaders collaboratively address timely issues affecting their campuses.
Mellon invites proposals that meaningfully engage faculty, other academic leaders, and visitors from a variety of fields in the study of academic freedom and democracy in the American university.
Mellon seeks to support seminars that demonstrate through humanistic methods the ways in which a higher education system featuring a multiplicity of perspectives, thoughts, and voices is essential to a functional democracy.

Terms

Maximum grant for each seminar is $300,000.
Each seminar normally meets for one year (though some have continued for longer periods).
To allow for planning, seminars need not be scheduled for the coming academic year.
The seminar should be led or co-led by humanities faculty; however, the proposed seminar should be a collaborative effort involving participation by scholars and administrators from across disciplines and units, with varying perspectives on the problem being addressed.
The foundation encourages applicants to invite participants from nearby institutions, such as community colleges, liberal arts colleges, museums, research institutes, and local organizations to achieve interdisciplinary and community-engaged collaboration.
Grant recipients would be expected to highlight and disseminate findings across campus units using a medium that best fits their campus context, such as a white paper or town hall.
As Mellon reviews proposals, preference will be given to those that seek to:
- Bridge the gap between the socially equitable world envisioned in much humanities scholarship and the policies and practices characterizing today’s universities
- Empower humanists to be active participants in the strategic conversations and planning that many universities are engaged in or preparing to undertake
- Imagine new and revised university structures that would enhance the growth of the humanities and promote the realization of more just futures
Funds may support: one postdoc; up to two dissertation research fellows (in the form of graduate tuition or supplemental funding). Please note: hiring of postdocs or awarding dissertation research fellowships is not a requirement this year.
Funds may also support: travel and living expenses for short stays by visiting scholars; costs associated with coordinating seminars, including meals, honoraria, consulting fees, and stipends.
Unlike in previous years, there are no required expenditures.
Funds may not be used to cover released time for regular faculty participants, rentals of university space, or indirect costs.
Annual reports on the progress of the seminar are required for the term of the grant.

Mellon Selection Criteria and Process

Invitations have historically been limited to a rotating subset of a larger invitation list. This year, all institutions on that larger list will be invited to apply. Up to 20 finalists will be selected and recommended to the Mellon Trustees for funding.
Mellon is fundamentally interested in the themes of social and racial justice.
Competitive proposals will demonstrate the ways in which the humanities might reform or reimagine existing institutional structures and campus cultures. They might promise to amplify the work of a pre-existing institutional committee or envision a new committee or seminar-style initiative, with academic freedom and democracy in the American university as the central subject of inquiry.
Applications will be evaluated on a) the centrality of humanities leadership to the proposed project; b) evidence of concrete buy-in and support for the proposed structure from university administration; and c) the strength of the plan for disseminating the project’s findings across campus units to catalyze institutional transformation.

Timeline

Sept 25: Deadline to submit application to Amanda Reilly, University Corporate and Foundation Relations.
Senior faculty members will review applications and choose Stanford’s nomination.
Selected seminar will be notified in early October and involved faculty will need to prepare the final proposal by early November (detailed instructions available to nominee).
Mellon Foundation Trustees confirm selection and funding in June 2025; following approval by the Foundation’s Trustees, funds will be disbursed to the host institution. Past experience suggests that it can take a year or more to organize the seminars.

Preliminary Applications for Sept 25 should consist of:

Proposal should include the following. The text covering the first three questions typically ranges from 3,000 to 6,000 words and must not exceed 8,000 words:

Executive Summary - Description of proposed work.
Rationale - The rationale for raising the indicated problem/topic, the central questions to be addressed, and the potential significance of the inquiry to be pursued, including its impact on the institution.
Project Description and Significance - A description of the cases to be studied and the humanities methodologies to be brought to bear on them; the thematic “threads” that will run through the seminar; and evidence of concrete buy-in and support from university administration.
Selection Criteria - If support for a postdoctoral fellow and/or dissertation research fellow(s) is envisioned, the procedures to be used in recruiting for these positions. (As noted in the terms above, hiring of postdocs or awarding dissertation research fellowships is not a requirement this year.)
Preliminary Seminar Plan - A well-developed preliminary plan for the seminar that outlines the specific topics to be addressed in each session, provides the names and qualifications of the scholars and community partners who would ideally participate, and offers direction for developing a resource that summarizes and aims to institute the seminar’s findings.
Budget and Budget Description in Mellon format - See Mellon’s budget template and budget description template. Budget periods should align with reporting dates that work for the institution, but the first budget period must begin with July 1, 2025. For this reason, the first period may be longer or shorter, than 12 months. (Please download the templates before inputting your budget information as all Stanford applicants will be using these template links.)
Short CVs (1-2 pages) for the principal seminar organizers. Information about other core participants should be limited to a few lines of text included as an appendix.

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