Research Funding Opportunities

Northwest Arkansas Design Excellence Program

Deadline: October 1, 2021 3:00 pm

Source: Walton Family Foundation

Description: The Northwest Arkansas Design Excellence Program promotes the highest level of design in the development of public buildings and spaces in Arkansas’ Benton and Washington counties. In 2021, the foundation is seeking statements of qualifications from architects, landscape architects, and urban designers. The Design Excellence Program selects professionals and projects based on four key principles: a commitment to strengthening public life; elevating standards of sustainability and resilience; celebrating local cultures and place; and building regional capacity. It is designed to accommodate nationally recognized, multi-disciplinary firms; smaller specialty firms; and young designers who may not yet be discovered. If selected, designers may participate for up to five years, or until they are chosen for a project. The program currently includes nearly fifty architecture and landscape architecture firms from fourteen states, Canada, and Denmark. See website for more info.

Award: Participation in the Design Excellence Program for up to five years or until selection for a project. Selection does not guarantee an interview for a project, nor does it guarantee that a project will ultimately be approved.

Eligibility: Design professionals, including those with experience in architecture, landscape architecture and urban design are encouraged to apply. This year’s application cycle places particular emphasis on firms with experience in inclusive and equitable public engagement, firms that would be interested in innovative neighborhood-scale projects, and firms with experience in mixed-income and missing middle housing.

Deadline: 5 pm CT, Oct. 1, 2021

All Disciplines Grant USC

Arts in Action Grants

Deadline: October 3, 2022 5:00 pm

Source: USC Visions and Voices

Description: Arts in Action provides funding for projects that connect USC faculty and students with LA community partners and use the arts to promote positive social change. Arts in Action builds on and extends USC’s historic commitment to addressing some of society’s most intractable problems. Arts in Action projects incorporate a range of arts-based practices designed to identify and tackle systemic forms of oppression connected to, for example, homelessness, mass incarceration, the COVID-19 pandemic, racism, gender oppression, sustainability and climate justice, educational inequity, xenophobia, and multiple forms of violence and hate. Arts in Action projects are often participant-driven, blurring the lines between “artist” and “audience.” The program prioritizes artwork that grows from a shared process and where the collaborative act of creating the work is core to the project’s impact and value. USC faculty and students working with community partners are invited to submit preliminary proposals for Arts in Action 2023 for projects beginning no earlier than February 1, 2023. These grants will support community-based projects that address social issues, bring people together, facilitate dialogue, and create spaces to imagine and design future change.

Award: Grant amounts range from $3,000 to $28,000.

Eligibility: Eligible disciplines include the visual arts and design, dramatic arts, cinematic and media arts, music, dance, and architecture. Projects involving multiple art forms are welcome and encouraged. Proposals that include at least one faculty member from one of USC’s six arts schools are encouraged and will be prioritized. Teams comprised of faculty/students from multiple USC schools are encouraged. Projects that centrally involve students are strongly encouraged. Project outputs should include at least one free public-sharing event, and projects should include at least one community partnership. Please see RFP for full guidelines.

Deadline: 5 pm, Oct. 3, 2022

Architecture Award External History / Theory

2021 IAWA Kristine Fallon Prize

Deadline: December 1, 2021 12:00 am

Source: International Archive of Women in Architecture (IAWA) Center, Virginia Tech

Description: The IAWA Center announces the 2021 IAWA Kristine Fallon Prize, inviting professionals and scholars to extend research into an important arena – women in architecture who have made significant contributions to the field through their work practicing at large U.S. firms in the second half of the 20th century. With important contributions made by women at large firms fundamentally unknown, research that documents this information is urgent. The IAWA Mission encourages such research in addition to the goal of preserving archival materials related to the work of women who shaped the designed environment, thus preserving for prosperity a record of their achievements. The recipient of the 2021 IAWA Kristine Fallon Prize will be selected through a jury process. The award will be granted to the best original work that addresses the call above. In the event that the jury finds no submission of adequate originality, substance and quality, the jury may decline to grant the Prize.

Award: $5000 prize will be awarded in two installments: $2,000 will be made available to the recipient upon announcement of the award in early January 2022 with the remaining $3000 of the award granted upon the presentation of the work during the 2022 IAWA Center Symposium in March at Virginia Tech. To complete the record of the prize, a copy of the final published work must also be donated to the IAWA.

Eligibility: The work submitted should be recently published (within the last five years) or publication-ready articles, chapters, books, manuscripts, dissertations, or exhibition catalogs, and should advance recognition of women’s contributions in architecture as framed above.

Deadline: Dec. 1, 2021

External Grant Heritage Conservation History / Theory

Craft Research Fund – Exhibition Grant

Deadline: October 4, 2021 12:00 am

Source: Center for Craft

Description: The Craft Research Fund – Exhibition grant is one of four categories that make up the Craft Research Fund, a visionary program dedicated to supporting scholarly craft research in the United States. The grant is intended to support scholarly research and is not for the creation of artwork. Examples of exhibition research might include: addressing work by significant craft artists; presenting a new understanding of the relationship between handmade production and digital technologies; placing American craft in a global context; or other topics that offer fresh perspectives within the field. Grant funds may be used to support research activities including travel for research, commissioning essays for contributors, documentation such as images or rights to use images or text, as part of the research for future exhibitions.

Award: Up to $15,000

Eligibility: Proposals welcome from museum, non-profit gallery, and independent curators. Applicants must be 18 years or older. Organizations must limit staffing/overhead costs to 15% of total budget ask. Applicants may not apply for both the project grant and exhibition grant in the same year. See website for full details.

Deadline: Oct. 4, 2021

External Grant Heritage Conservation History / Theory

Craft Research Fund – Project Grant

Deadline: October 4, 2021 12:00 am

Source: Center for Craft

Description: The Craft Research Fund – Project Grant is one of four categories that make up the Craft Research Fund, a visionary program dedicated to supporting scholarly craft research in United States. The grant is intended to support scholarly research and is not for the creation of artwork. Examples of exhibition research might include: addressing work by significant craft artists; presenting a new understanding of the relationship between handmade production and digital technologies; placing American craft in a global context; or other topics that offer fresh perspectives within the field. Grant funds may be used for research related expenses including travel, honoraria for contributors, salary for independent researchers, and/or support documentation such as images or rights to use images or text, as part of the research yet to be completed.

Award: Up to $15,000

Eligibility: Proposals welcome from academic researchers and independent scholars 18 years of age and older.

Deadline: Oct. 4, 2021

All Disciplines External Fellowship

Craft Research Fund – Artist Fellowship

Deadline: October 4, 2021 12:00 am

Source: Center for Craft

Description: The Craft Research Fund—Artist Fellowship is one of four categories that make up the Craft Research Fund, a visionary program dedicated to supporting scholarly craft research in United States. Awards will be granted to two artists to support research projects that advance, expand, and support the creation of new research and knowledge through craft practice. The Center, and by extension this grant, recognizes craft to be a particular approach to making with a strong connection to materials, skill, and process. Examples of craft research might include: archive- and museum-based research; material innovations/experimentation; process-oriented research/innovation; historical research; collaborations amongst artists and/or other disciplines and/or institutions; or projects that have the potential to transform questions that are being asked in an academic context. See website for more info.

Award: $20,000

Eligibility: Proposals are welcome from mid-career artists, artisans, designers, makers, sculptures, and so on, who identify their practice within the field of craft. Applicants must be 21 years of age or older; eligible to receive taxable income in the and for the duration of the fellowship period. Applicants cannot be an institution or small business; a full-time student; or a previously awarded Craft Research Fund – Artist Fellow. See website for full eligibility details.

Deadline: Oct. 4, 2021

All Disciplines External Fellowship

Guggenheim Fellowships

Deadline: September 17, 2021 12:00 am

Source: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation

Description: The Foundation offers Guggenheim Fellowships to further the development of scholars and artists by assisting them to engage in research in any field of knowledge and creation in any of the arts, under the freest possible conditions and irrespective of race, color, or creed. Fellowships are intended for individuals who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts. The Foundation understands advanced professionals to be those who as writers, scholars, or scientists have a significant record of publication, or as artists, playwrights, filmmakers, photographers, composers, or the like, have a significant record of exhibition or performance of their work. Grants are awarded to selected individuals made for a minimum of six months and a maximum of twelve months. Since the purpose of the Guggenheim Fellowship program is to help provide Fellows with blocks of time in which they can work with as much creative freedom as possible, grants are made freely. No special conditions attach to them, and Fellows may spend their grant funds in any manner they deem necessary to their work.

Award: The amounts of grants vary, and the Foundation does not guarantee it will fully fund any project. Working with a fixed annual budget, the Foundation strives to allocate its funds as equitably as possible, taking into consideration the Fellows’ other resources and the purpose and scope of their plans. Members of the teaching profession receiving sabbatical leave on full or part salary are eligible for appointment, as are those holding other fellowships and appointments at research centers.

Eligibility: Open to citizens and permanent residents of the U.S. and Canada. Previous Guggenheim Fellows are ineligible.

Deadline: Sept. 17, 2021

Architecture Building Science External Grant Landscape Architecture Urbanism

California Resilience Challenge

Deadline: September 13, 2021 5:00 pm

Source: Bay Area Council Foundation

Description: The California Resilience Challenge is a statewide effort, led by businesses, utilities, and a diverse range of partners, to build local and regional climate resilience and to support a shared vision for a resilient California in the face of increasing climate threats. The Challenge is providing grants for diverse, replicable and innovative climate change adaptation planning projects across California. These projects will reflect California’s diverse geography and showcase leadership in climate change adaptation. Eligible projects will consist of planning projects that are targeted at improving local or regional resilience to one or more of the following four climate challenges and water and air quality impacts of the foregoing: drought, flooding, including from sea level rise, extreme heat and increasing frequency of hot days, and wildfire. Please see RFP for full details.

Award: $100,000-200,000

Eligibility: California-based non-government organizations, including community-based organizations, representing under-resourced communities are encouraged to apply, as are local California public entities that represent under-resourced communities. See website for more info on eligible applicants. and communities.

Deadline: 5 pm PT, Sept. 13, 2021

Architecture External Fellowship History / Theory

Edilia & Francois-Auguste de Montequin Fellowship

Deadline: September 30, 2021 12:00 am

Source: Society of Architectural Historians

Description: Provides support for travel related to research on Spanish, Portuguese, or Ibero-American architecture.

Award: $2,000 fellowship for an advanced graduate student and a $6,000 fellowship for a senior or emerging scholar

Eligibility: Graduate students who have completed their coursework and are engaged in doctoral dissertation research and senior or emerging scholars who have completed their PhD or equivalent terminal degree are eligible. The research to be supported must focus on Spanish, Portuguese, or Ibero-American architecture, including colonial architecture produced by the Spaniards in the Philippines and what is today the United States. The applicant must be a current member of SAH.

Deadline: Sept. 30, 2021

External Fellowship Heritage Conservation History / Theory

ACLS Fellowships

Deadline: September 29, 2021 6:00 pm

Source: American Council of Learned Societies

Description: ACLS invites research proposals from scholars in all disciplines of the humanities and related social sciences pursuing research on topics grounded in any time period, world region, or humanistic methodology. The ultimate goal of the project should be a major piece of scholarly work by the applicant, which can take the form of a monograph, articles, digital publication(s), critical edition, or other scholarly resources. This program does not fund works of fiction (e.g., novels or films), textbooks, straightforward translation, or pedagogical projects. See website for more info.

Award: ACLS Fellowships are intended to help scholars devote six to twelve continuous months to full-time research and writing. The awards are portable and are tenable at any appropriate site for research. The fellowship stipend is set at $60,000 for a 12-month fellowship. Awards of shorter duration will be prorated at $5,000 per month, with the minimum award set at $30,000. Independent scholars, adjunct faculty, and faculty with teaching-intensive appointments will receive an award supplement of $3,000 for research support, access to manuscript development workshops, or learned society conference attendance.

Eligibility: Open to untenured scholars who have earned a PhD in the humanities or humanistic social sciences on or after September 30, 2013. Applicants must be US citizens, permanent residents, Indigenous individuals residing in the United States through rights associated with the Jay Treaty of 1794, DACA recipients, asylees, refugees, or individuals granted Temporary Protected Status in the United States.

Deadline: 9 pm ET, Sept. 29, 2021