Finding Grant and Fellowship Opportunities

The best way to find external funding is through databases linked on the library’s grants and funding research guide.

Grant Forward is worth a look. (Create an account using your GC email address, and set up a profile to begin receiving automatic grant recommendations based on your research interests. You must list The Graduate Center, City University of New York as your institution).

Pivot is a particularly handy database for scholars in all disciplines that allows users to set alerts for opportunities featuring keywords of your choice.

The Council on Library and Information Resources offers fellowships generously funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for dissertation research in the humanities or related social sciences.

The Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad program provides grants to fund individual doctoral students who conduct research in other countries, in modern foreign languages and area studies for periods of six to 12 months. Projects focusing on Western Europe are not supported. Contact Rachel Sponzo in the Provost’s Office at 212-817-7282 or rsponzo@gc.cuny.edu.

If you do research in China studies, the American Council of Learned Societies has some grant opportunities.

If you are traveling for research, check whether research libraries at your travel destination offer grants to visiting researchers.

If you are traveling for a conference presentation, check with the conference organizers for travel funds. Many professional organizations offer travel funding to graduate students and/or contingent faculty. Applications for such grants are usually announced shortly before the conference, so keep your eye on your email. Sometimes, you won’t learn till after the conference whether you’ve secured any funding (or, if so, how much), so keep all of your travel-related receipts, as many grantors will want to see these.

Finding Internal Grants

Students can also win internal grants provided through CUNY.

GC students can apply for conference presentation support of up to $300 once a year from the GC. Applications are usually announced by email, so keep your eye on your @gradcenter.cuny.edu account. Know that you will need to follow certain requirements for international travel under the auspices of the GC.

The GC also offers Doctoral Student Research Grants (scroll to “Doctoral Student Research Grant Program) for students in their second through sixth years at the GC; these grants can be up to $1,500.

CUNY Academy for the Arts and Sciences offers Adjunct Faculty Travel Awards for up to $500 for academic conferences (travel, conference registration and/or lodging). This award is for part-time faculty at any CUNY college.

If you are a member of our union, the Professional Staff Congress (join!), and you are teaching six or more classroom hours, you may be eligible for PSC/CUNY Adjunct Professional Development Grants of up to $3,000.