While a general list of upcoming funding opportunities has limited utility, this one reflects a sense of which funding opportunities have the broadest appeal to our group of graduate students. You can use it as a starting point for your own research.
Financial Support
GradGrants Center
Individual students are best served by learning to navigate online databases and seeking one-on-one guidance from the GradGrants office. The GradGrants Center is a free service of the University Graduate School, open to currently enrolled graduate students within the Indiana University system. The advisors there will tell you that a successful grant application demonstrates a good fit between the sponsor and the individual applicant. While this list cannot guarantee such a fit on an individual basis, it is designed to be helpful as a model rather than a set of exhaustive funding options.
About the list
As a model for evaluating and pursuing funding, this list provides a template that you may find useful for constructing your own list. You will probably want to modify some of the categories or add others.
The “HPSC Rating” was created to evaluate funding organizations and libraries along two considerations:
- their orientation toward science related interests or collections
- a sense of the general interests of our body of graduate students
That means that while an organization given a one-star rating is unlikely to suit the majority of us, it may perfectly suit one or two of you. Again, this is a limitation of providing a ‘general listing’ model of funding opportunities: you are better served by applying your own rating of fit between the sponsor and your research project. Also, in lieu of the many international graduate students represented in our department, the list includes find specific opportunities for which all students could be eligible.
The most important feature of the list is the emphasis on funding organizations rather than simply specific funding opportunities. Because specific funding opportunities may change frequently or erratically, they are not the most stable nodes of social opportunity. Funding organizations, by contrast, are more stable since they often act as a source for several specific funding opportunities. If you can find a manageable set of organizations that are especially HPSC friendly and nicely fit with your research interests, you will save yourself time. Better to keep up with a few well-suited organizations rather than hastily scouring the web for many less well-suited opportunities. As you construct your own custom-fit list of funding opportunities, it’s a good idea to peruse and bookmark the organizations or libraries that are the source for the individual funding opportunities. (See the American Philosophical Society links for an example.)
Some navigating tips
This sample list was generated by using the two top recommended online resources. Both can be accessed from the “Search the Databases” tab on the GradGrants page.
Bear in mind that the staff at the GradGrants Center can help you navigate these databases more efficiently and effectively. You just need to book an appointment and they will start you on a personalized funding search program.
The College of Arts