Humanities, Cultural Studies & Social Services
Last Updated: June 6, 2025
Below are currently active opportunities for research funding listed in ascending order by the external due dates. Contact the Sr. Grant Facilitator at orsp-preaward@newark.rutgers.edu for additional information regarding any of these.
Listed in Ascending Order of External Due Dates
(i.e. if it’s listed first it’s due to the sponsor sooner)
Funding Source: NEH State and Impact of the Humanities
Amount: $75,000 to $150,000 across 47 open opportunities
Key Deadline: Various dates – 05/21/2025 through 02/12/ 2026
Details/Guidelines/Instructions: National Endowment for the Humanities – you must click into each individual opportunity for the details
Brief Overview: The funding opportunity offers grants of up to $150,000 for research that seeks to understand the humanities in one or more of the following categories: Humanities Education, Humanities Research, Public Humanities, Preservation and Access, and Humanities Infrastructure. Supported activities may include but are not limited to data analysis, data collection, digitization, dissemination, and planning.
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Funding Source: Smith Richardson Foundation invites applications for policy analysis research, writing
Amount: $60,000
Key Deadlines: 06/09/2025
Details/Guidelines/Instructions: Application details
Brief Overview: 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.
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Funding Source: Spencer Foundation – Rapid Response Bridge Funding Program
Amount: $25,000
Key Deadline: 06/13/2025 at noon
Details/Guidelines/Instructions: Instructions and application
Brief Overview: In the face of recent abrupt shifts in federal funding for education research, including large-scale terminations of National Science Foundation (NSF) research grant awards, we have developed a rapid response bridge grant opportunity for impacted scholars, in collaboration with The Kapor Foundation, The William T. Grant Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. This rapid response bridge funding opportunity is for scholars and teams whose grants have recently been cancelled by NSF. While it is impossible for private philanthropy to close the gap left by federal funders, we can provide modest grants to mitigate some of the impact on scholars, projects, and project teams.
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Funding Source: American Psychological Foundation invites applications for Kenneth B. and Mamie P. Clark Fund
Amount: $8,500 grant will be awarded
Key Deadlines: 06/19/2025
Details/Guidelines/Instructions: Application Instructions
Brief Overview: The Kenneth B. and Mamie P. Clark Fund supports research and demonstration activities that promote the understanding of the relationship between self-identity and academic achievement with an emphasis on children in grade levels K–8.
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Amount: $150,000-$350,000 per year and total pool of funding: $6,000,000 for 24 awards
Key Deadline: 06/26/2025
Details/Guidelines/Instructions: Purpose, funding and instructions
Brief Overview: The Department of Education (Department) is issuing a notice inviting applications for new awards for fiscal year (FY) 2025 for Personnel Development to Improve Services and Results for Children with Disabilities—Preparation of Early Intervention and Special Education Personnel Serving Children with Disabilities who have High-Intensity Needs.
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Funding Source: Personnel Development to Improve Services and Results for Children with Disabilities at Minority Serving Institutions (84.325M)
Amount: $4,500,000 – 18 awards anticipated
Key Deadline: 06/26/2025
Details/Guidelines/Instructions: fr-fy25-84325m-nia-5272025-110082.pdf
Brief Overview: The Department of Education (Department) is issuing a notice inviting applications for new awards for fiscal year (FY) 2025 for Personnel Development to Improve Services and Results for Children with Disabilities—Personnel Preparation of Special Education, Early Intervention, and Related Services Personnel at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities, and Other Minority Serving Institutions.
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Funding Source: Preparation of Special Education and Early Intervention Administrators (84.325D)
Amount: $1,500,000
Key Deadline: 06/26/2025
Details/Guidelines/Instructions: Application details
Brief Overview: The purposes of this program are to (1) help address State-identified needs for personnel preparation in special education, early intervention, related services, and regular education to work with children, including infants and toddlers, with disabilities; and (2) ensure that those personnel have the necessary skills and knowledge, derived from practices that have been determined through scientifically based research and experience, to be successful in serving those children.
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Funding Source: Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy
Amount: up to $10,000
Key Deadline: Application opens 07/01/2025
Details/Guidelines/Instructions: Grant application details
Brief Overview: The Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy was established in 1997 by Irving Louis Horowitz and Mary Curtis Horowitz and has been funded by contributions from them since its inception. The Foundation received approval as a not-for-profit 501 (c)(3) organization in 1998. The Foundation’s general purpose is to support the advancement of research and understanding in the major fields of the social sciences. Its specific purpose is to provide small grants to aspiring PhD students at the dissertation level to support the research they are undertaking for their project.
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Funding Source: Furthermore grants in publishing invites applications for nonfiction book publishing
Amount: $1,500 to $12,000
Key Deadline: 07/01/2025
Details/Guidelines/Instructions: Application
Brief Overview: Furthermore, supports publication of nonfiction books that concern the arts, history, and the natural and built environment. The program was founded by Joan K. Davidson, who loved books for the role they play in expanding knowledge, provoking thought, and evoking change. Since its inception, more than 1,400 books have been assisted with grants that total over $8 million.
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Funding Source: Morgan Stanley Alliance for Children’s Mental Health invites applications for mental health solutions for children and youth
Amount: $25,000 – $50,000 for pilot projects and $100,000 for innovation winners
Key Deadline: 07/07/2025
Details/Guidelines/Instructions: Application
Brief Overview: The Morgan Stanley Alliance for Children’s Mental Health Innovation Awards aims to seed-fund transformative mental healthcare solutions for children and youth across the United States. The program will support new or piloted projects from direct-service organizations that help address stress, anxiety, depression, or other mental health issues in children and young adults. Awards are made in two categories: the Innovation Awards, which are open to all, and the Next Gen Innovation Awards, which are open to nonprofits founded or led by leaders younger than 32 years old.
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Funding Source: Queer|Art invites applications for Illuminations Grant for Black Trans Women Visual Artists
Amount: $10,000
Key Deadline: 07/02/2025
Details/Guidelines/Instructions:
Brief Overview: The organization invites applications for the Illuminations Grant for Black Trans Women Visual Artists, which aims to shed light on the under-recognized contributions of Black trans women visual artists and provide critical support to their continuing work. Winning artists and finalists will receive additional professional development resources and further guidance to bolster their creative development in the field.
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Funding Source: American Psychological Foundation invites applications for Marian R. Stuart Grant
Amount: $20,000
Key Deadline: 07/10/2025
Details/Guidelines/Instructions: Application Details
Brief Overview: The Marian R. Stuart Grant will further the research, practice, or education of an early career psychologist on the connection between mental and physical health, particularly for work that contributes to public health. Examples include but are not limited to research-based programs that teach medical doctors counseling skills; research-based programs on the effect of behavior on health; and research-based programs on psychologists’ role in medical settings for the benefit of patients.
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Funding Source: The Diverse Writers Grant and The Diverse Worlds Grant
Amount: $500
Key Deadline: Open July 1, 2025 – July 31, 2025
Details/Guidelines/Instructions: Grant Application Process
Brief Overview: The Diverse Writers grant is intended to support speculative fiction writers from underrepresented and underprivileged groups — such as writers of color, women, queer writers, disabled writers, etc. — whose marginalized identities may present additional obstacles in the writing and publishing process.
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Funding Source: 2025 Scholarship — Shelley Prose and the HWA Award
Amount: $2,500
Key Deadline: 08/02/2025
Details/Guidelines/Instructions: Mary Shelley Scholarship
Brief Overview: The Scholarships are effectively two facets of the same award; applicants enter the same competition using the same application form. A sub-committee of the HWA Board chooses the scholarship winners from that pool of applicants. The Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Scholarship is available for those members who identify as women and the Horror Writers Association Scholarship is available for any member, regardless of gender.
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Funding Source: Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, Inc.
Amount: $500 – $2,000
Key Deadline: portal opens January 1 – 31, 2026
Details/Guidelines/Instructions:
Brief Overview: Support grants ($500 – $2000) to individual feminist women in the arts with primary residence in the US and Canada. Money for Women especially encourages applications from writers and artists in the early and middle stages of their artistic development. To be successful, your application must be complete and follow the guidelines here. Fiction & Visual Arts Awards – Apply January 1-31, in even years. Non-Fiction and Poetry Awards – Apply January 1-31, in odd years.
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Funding Source: Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize
Amount: $15,000 prize
Key Deadline: 01/15/2026
Details/Guidelines/Instructions: Application form
Brief Overview: Each year a substantial cash prize is awarded annually to a woman who is a US citizen, and who has written the best book-length work of prose fiction, whether novel, short stories, or experimental writing. We are interested in calling attention to the work of a promising but less established writer.
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