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Arts & Science Grants

Arts & Science Grants
  2. Graduate Students
  3. International Student Opportunities

Funding Opportunities for International Graduate Students

While some of the major grant and fellowship competitions are unrestricted with regard to citizenship (Social Science Research Council, for example), many others are not open to students who are not U.S. citizens. Be sure to check the eligibility requirements of a program before you apply!

On the other hand, non-U.S. citizens are eligible to apply for awards for which U.S. citizens don’t qualify—from their own countries, from other donor nations (Canada, Sweden, and Germany, to name just a few), or from the European Union. Some programs are region-specific, targeting students in Africa or Asia, for example. At the bottom of this page is a list of illustrative examples of research funding opportunities available to non-U.S. citizens.

Use SPIN, the searchable grants database, to identify other opportunities from among thousands of listings. Log in with your Vanderbilt e-mail address and use the “Advanced Search” function to enter your citizenship information as well as other parameters. You can name and save your specific searches and sign up for alerts that signal new or updated opportunities.

Be sure to consult staff at the International Student and Scholar Services Office (http://www.vanderbilt.edu/isss/about-isss/), who may have leads on other sources of funding.

Below are some of the many sources of research funding for which international graduate students in the social sciences and humanities are eligible:

  • American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) (social sciences and humanities)      

https://www.acls.org/grants/default.aspx?id=354

  •   American Institute for Economic Research 

https://www.aier.org/education

  •   American Research Center in Egypt 

http://www.arce.org/grants/fellowships/funded

  • American Schools of Oriental Research Fellowships

http://www.asor.org/fellowships/index.html

  • John Carter Brown Library (history and the humanities)

https://www.brown.edu/academics/libraries/john-carter-brown/fellowships  

  • Charles Babbage Institute (history of computing)

http://www.cbi.umn.edu/research/ntravelfund.html

  • Dumbarton Oaks (Byzantine and pre-Columbian studies, and landscape architecture

http://www.doaks.org/research/fellowships-and-grants

  • Elizabeth Greenshield Foundation (fine arts)

https://www.elizabethgreenshieldsfoundation.org/

  • Explorers Club (science and exploration)

https://explorers.org//expeditions/funding/expedition_grants

  • Fulbright Foreign Student Program

http://foreign.fulbrightonline.org/

  • Hagley Museum and Library (business, technology, and society)

http://www.hagley.org/research/grants-fellowships

  • Josephine De Karman Fellowship Trust (for advanced PhD candidates in writing stage)

http://www.dekarman.org/qualifications/

  • The Leakey Foundation (human origins and evolution)

https://leakeyfoundation.org/grants/research-grants/

  •  Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture (Jewish learning, living, and leadership) http://ngfp.org/
  • National Gallery of Art (curatorial internships)

http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/opportunities/interns-and-fellows/graduate/curatorial-internships.html.html

  • National Institute of Justice

http://www.nij.gov/funding/fellowships/graduate-research-fellowship/Pages/grf-sbs.aspx

  • National Science Foundation (fellowships are restricted to citizens and residents)

http://www.nsf.gov/funding/education.jsp?fund_type=2

  • PEO International Peace Scholarship Fund (scholarships for women who are not U.S. citizens)

http://www.peointernational.org/about-peo-international-peace-scholarship-ips

  • Samuel H. Kress Foundation (European Art and art conservation)

http://www.kressfoundation.org/fellowships/main/

  • Social Science Research Council

http://www.ssrc.org/fellowships/

  • Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues

http://www.spssi.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.ViewPage&PageID=482

  • Soros Foundation/Open Society Institute (justice and positive social change)

https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/grants-search-results/38/all/all/all/all

  • Spencer Foundation (education and the improvement of its practice)

http://www.spencer.org/dissertation-fellowships-1

  • Tinker Foundation (Latin America focus)

http://www.tinker.org/content/field-research-grants

  • United States Institute of Peace (conflict prevention, conflict management, and peacebuilding)

https://www.usip.org/grants-fellowships

  • Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research (anthropology and archaeology)

http://www.wennergren.org/grantprograms/2

  • Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation

http://woodrow.org/fellowships/