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

December Deadlines:

Carnegie Corporation of New York

Call for Proposals: Movements of People and Non-State Actors

Carnegie Corporation of New York has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) to invite the submission of promising ideas that generate new insights, practical solutions, and policy-relevant approaches to the political, security, economic, and governance dimensions of both the movements of people and the growing influence of non-state actors.

We are especially interested in work that translates research, policy analysis, and knowledge exchange into concrete actions capable of shaping peace and conflict outcomes in tangible ways. This call is not intended for program evaluations or impact assessments but seeks initiatives that combine rigorous analysis with innovative applications. 

While most proposals will focus on one of the two themes, Carnegie will also consider select proposals that explore their intersections — for example, how migration pressures and non-state actors together influence governance, legitimacy, and durable peace.

Funding amount: $1M $3M

Deadline: December 1, 2025

See the guidelines for more details.

McKnight Foundation

McKnight Scholar Awards

The McKnight Scholar Awards are given to exceptional young scientists who are in the early stages of establishing an independent laboratory and research career. The intent of the program is to foster the commitment by these scientists to research careers that will have an important impact on the study of the brain. The program seeks to support scientists committed to mentoring neuroscientists from underrepresented groups at all levels of training. Applicants for the McKnight Scholar Award must demonstrate their ability to solve significant problems in neuroscience, which may include the translation of basic research to clinical practice. They should demonstrate a commitment to an equitable and inclusive lab environment. 

Applicants for the McKnight Scholar Award must be independent investigators at not-for-profit research institutions in the United States; must hold a faculty position at the rank of Assistant Professor (or equivalent) and must have served at that rank for less than five years at the time of the application deadline (exceptions may be made for family leave). For this year’s round, that means that the applicant must not have started serving in the rank of Assistant Professor any earlier than December 1, 2020.

There is no limit to how many applications we can receive from the same institution in the same funding round, and while we strive for institutional diversity, multiple Scholar Awardees from the same institution can be awarded in the same grant period. 

Funding amount: $225K

Deadline: December 1, 2025

See the guidelines for more details.

Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation

Transformation of Mental Health Care Program

We are soliciting applications for academic investigators conducting research to demonstrate the benefits of novel ways to access or deliver mental health care or prevention approaches that can be implemented at scale. This application is specifically for high quality research that builds upon promising pilot work, adapts interventions for future scaling using established principles from community participatory approaches and implementation science frameworks, and has the potential to lead to a larger demonstration project. Requests for service projects and applications that primarily focus on expanding services or measuring quality within an organization without a rigorous research component or without pilot data related to the intervention will not be reviewed.

In particular, Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation is interested in improving access to high quality mental health care and prevention for children and adolescents through the use of novel models or promising approaches leveraging the latest science from mental health services research and implementation science.

Academic researchers from universities, research institutions, health systems or other settings that are positioned to provide rigorous high-quality research focused on transforming mental and behavioral health care that improves outcomes for children and adolescents are eligible. Investigators can be at any stage in their career but must have collected enough pilot data to inform the development of the proposed research project and must be well enough established to lead an effort such as this.

Funding amount: $200K

Deadline: December 15, 2025

See the guidelines for more details.

Spencer Foundation

Research Grants on Education: Small

The Small Research Grants on Education Program supports education research projects that will contribute to the improvement of education, broadly conceived, with budgets up to $50,000 for projects ranging from one to five years. This program is “field-initiated” in that proposal submissions are not in response to a specific request for a particular research topic, discipline, design, method, or location. Our goal for this program is to support rigorous, intellectually ambitious and technically sound research that is relevant to the most pressing questions and compelling opportunities in education. We anticipate that proposals will span a wide range of topics and disciplines that innovatively investigate questions central to education, including for example education, anthropology, philosophy, psychology, sociology, law, economics, history, or neuroscience, among others. Principal Investigators (PIs) and Co-PIs must have an earned doctorate in an academic discipline or professional field.

Funding amount: Up to $50K

Deadline: December 15, 2025

See the guidelines for more details.

January Deadlines:

William T. Grant Foundation

Research Grants on Reducing Inequality and 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. Our research interests center on studies that examine ways to reduce inequality in youth outcomes. 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 fund research studies that examine strategies to improve the use of research evidence in ways that benefit young people ages 5-25 in the United States. We seek proposals for studies that advance theory and build empirical knowledge on ways to improve the use of research evidence by policymakers, public agency leaders, organizational managers, intermediaries, community organizers, and other decision-makers that generally shape youth-serving systems in the United States. This year we will prioritize funding applications that: 1) investigate and test strategies to improve the use of research evidence to benefit young people concerning politically charged and contested issues, particularly in highly polarized contexts and 2) propose experimental tests of strategies to improve research use in policy and practice to improve youth outcomes.

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: January 7, 2026

See the guidelines for more details.

Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

Call for ideas: Small-scale experiments in fundamental physics

The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation is seeking bold ideas for small-scale experimental physics projects that shed light on “big questions” fundamental to our understanding of physics. We intend to collect ideas from the community to better understand how the foundation might make a difference in advancing the frontiers of science. We are interested in high-risk, high-reward projects that could lead to new discoveries beyond the standard models of particle physics and cosmology. 

“Small-scale” refers to table-top-size experiments or to ones that could fit in a typical university physics research lab. We welcome ideas from individuals and small teams. The use of national user facilities is allowed. However, we are not considering projects that require large teams and facilities (e.g., CERN, LIGO, kiloton detectors). Examples of topics include: 

• Tests of interaction laws and symmetry principles.
• Foundational tests of quantum physics.
• Searches for new particles.

Currently, there is no guaranteed or allocated funding level for this program. Our goal is to understand promising research directions in this area and use this information to consider how the Moore Foundation could impact the field. If we do move forward with funding, we anticipate inviting teams interested in these areas to submit full proposals in early 2026 with the potential to provide support by late 2026 or early 2027. You must submit an idea for consideration to be eligible for any funding that might become available.  

Funding amount: N/A

Deadline: January 13, 2026

See the guidelines for more information.

Allen Family Philanthropies

Accelerating Natural Climate Solutions in the United States

Allen Family Philanthropies has issued a call to non-profit organizations across the U.S. that are working in the Natural Climate Solutions (NCS) space to break implementation barriers using science and technology. NCS are some of the few shovel-ready climate change mitigation technologies available today, and they have broad public support.

Allen Family Philanthropies believes that science and technology solutions can be catalytic in deploying high integrity NCS projects. For this RFP, we are particularly interested in projects that develop, test, and deploy science and technology solutions for overcoming NCS implementation barriers recently identified by Brumberg et al. (2025) and Kroeger et al. (2025). These studies identified eight types of barriers: 1) material inputs, 2) finance, 3) markets, 4) adverse NCS impacts, 5) knowledge, 6) social and behavioral, 7) rules and laws, and 8) governments and organizations. The foundation believes that the collaborative development of generalizable science and technology solutions to overcome these barriers will be critical for NCS to meet their mitigation potential.

Priority will be given to: 1) Projects demonstrating expertise through partnerships. For example, a project team focused on developing new technology to alert unregulated grazing on protected grasslands using remotely sensed data would likely benefit from a partner with strong ties to landowners, an expert on remotely sensed data, and an expert on processes for triggering enforcement; 2) Projects must articulate a study design for developing, testing, and deploying solutions; and 3) Projects that have secured co-funding.

Funding amount: Varies

Deadline: January 15, 2026 (Letter of Interest)

See the guidelines for more details.

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 prefers to support young scientists at the beginning of their careers. However, productive senior scientists who wish to move into new fields of interest are also considered.

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 amount: Up to $100K (Research grants); Up to $30K (Grants-in-Aid)

Deadline: January 15, 2026 (Letter of Intent)

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.

Funding amount: $2.5K-$50K

Deadline: January 22, 2026

See the guidelines for more details.

Caplan Foundation for Early Childhood

Early Childhood Grants

The Caplan Foundation for Early Childhood is an incubator of promising research and development projects that appear likely to improve the welfare of young children, from infancy through 7 years, in the United States. Welfare is broadly defined to support, acculturation, societal integration and childcare. The Foundation’s goal is to provide seed money to implement those imaginative proposals that exhibit the greatest chance of improving the lives of young children, on a national scale.

The Foundation provides funding in the following areas:

Parenting Education: To help parents create nurturing environments for their children, we support programs that teach parents about developmental psychology, cultural child rearing differences, pedagogy, issues of health, prenatal care and diet, as well as programs which provide both cognitive and emotional support to parents.

Early Childhood Welfare: Providing a safe and nurturing environment is essential as is imparting the skills of social living in a culturally diverse world. Therefore, the Foundation supports projects that seek to perfect child rearing practices and to identify models that can provide creative, caring environments in which all young children thrive.

Early Childhood Education and Play: We seek to improve the quality of both early childhood teaching and learning, through the development of innovative curricula and research based pedagogical standards, as well as the design of imaginative play materials and learning environments.

Funding amount: Varies (typical range: $25K-$100K)

Deadline: January 31, 2026 (Letters of intent)

See the guidelines for more details.

February Deadlines:

Esther A. & Joseph Klingenstein Fund

Klingenstein Fellowship Awards in Neuroscience

The Klingenstein Fellowship Awards in Neuroscience supports innovative research by early career investigators. The research should have relevance for understanding the mechanisms underlying neurological and behavioral disorders, that may lead to improvements in the diagnosis and treatment of these disorders. We recognize, however, that some of the most important contributions toward disease cures can come from basic research, without an immediate understanding of their relationship to disease, so we also support basic research.

Our hope is that our funding will seed new directions in the fellows’ research programs by providing an unencumbered addition to their regular sources of research support. Through our yearly meetings we hope to foster collaboration and mentorship between current and former fellows at different stages in their careers. We give priority to candidates who may not have received substantial funding from other private awards yet have highly promising scientific careers. We encourage neuroscientists from underrepresented and minoritized groups to apply. The Klingenstein Fellowship Awards in Neuroscience gives recognition to outstanding scientists who have made valuable contributions in their early research efforts, and who show the greatest promise for a successful research career.

Several areas within neuroscience are of particular interest:

• Cellular and molecular neuroscience. Studies of the mechanisms of neuronal excitability and development, and of the genetic basis of behavior.
• Neural systems. Studies of the integrative function of the nervous system.
• Translational research. Studies to improve our understanding of the causes, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders.

To qualify for an award, investigators must hold a Ph.D. and/or an M.D., and have completed all research training, including post-doctoral training. Candidates must also meet these four qualifications at the time of the application deadline:

1. The candidate must have a tenure track appointment or equivalent.
2. The candidate must be an independent investigator at a university, medical center, or research institute with a maximum of four years between the completion of last postdoc and the application deadline.
3. Applicants must have a primary tenure track position at an institution in the United States.
4. Applicants must inform the Esther A. & Joseph Klingenstein Fund of other sources of funding

Funding amount: $450K

Deadline: February 1, 2026

Please 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.

Arnold Ventures

Strengthening Evidence: Support for RCTs to Evaluate Social Programs and Policies

Arnold Ventures’ (AV) Evidence and Evaluation team aims to identify, evaluate, and scale evidence-based solutions targeting the nation’s most pressing social problems. One of the strongest tools in the evidence-building toolkit is the randomized controlled trial (RCT). While not applicable to all policy and program contexts, RCTs are often the strongest choice for evaluating social programs because they fairly compare results between a treatment group and a control group, making it clear whether the program or policy truly works. This strong evidence can be important for informing decision-makers and stakeholders to support effective programs.

This Request for Proposals (RFP) aims to build the body of proven, effective policies, programs, and interventions by funding researchers to conduct rigorous RCTs across the spectrum of social policy.

Proposals that demonstrate alignment with AV’s strategic areas of interest, such as higher education, housing, climate, transportation, and public finance, are encouraged.  Explore the full list of AV areas of investment . (RCTs primarily measuring Criminal Justice outcomes will not be considered under this RFP; for such studies, please see the RFP titled “Causal Research on Community Safety and the Criminal Justice System").

Funding amount: Varies

Deadline: 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 and Physical Sciences (MPS) division invites applications for its new Targeted Grants in MPS program. The program is intended to support high-risk projects of exceptional promise and scientific importance on a case-by-case basis. A typical Targeted Grant in MPS provides funding for up to five years. The funding provided is flexible and based on the type of support requested in the proposal. Indirect costs are limited to 20% of direct costs, with the following exceptions: equipment, tuition, and any subcontracts with budgets, including indirect expenses. Indirect costs paid to a subcontractor may not exceed 20% of the direct costs paid to the subcontractor. Expenses for experiments, equipment, or computations, as well as for personnel and travel, are allowable. Applications may be submitted by established U.S. and foreign public and private educational institutions and stand-alone research centers.

Funding Amount: Varies

Deadline: Letter of Inquiry accepted anytime

See the guidelines for more details.

Limited Programs:

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. 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:   

1. Executive Summary - Description of proposed work.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.)
5. 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.
6. 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.)

7. 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.

    

Please click here for the limited submissions opportunities portal (VPDoR/RMG)

Please click here for a list of recurring limited submission programs (DoResearch)