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UC Berkeley and the Arts & Humanities Division offer a number of resources to support faculty research, including grants and fellowships administered by the Dean’s office. In addition, staff from the Arts & Humanities Dean’s Office and from the Berkeley Research Development (BRDO) and Foundation Relations & Corporate Philanthropy (FRCP) offices are on hand to help find and secure fellowships and grants from foundation, government, and other sources, both nationally and internationally.
Campus and systemwide funding opportunities include:
Center for Interdisciplinary Critical Inquiry (CICI)
CICI offers a number of grants to faculty and graduate students, including an exchange program in partnership with the Ludwig Maximillian University, Munich. Contact Breana George for more information.
As the flagship courses of the Division, Compass Courses offer new undergraduate students the opportunity to learn from a team of faculty members in a dynamic format that explores a shared theme or topic using the various methods and materials of their respective disciplines. Compass course awards support instructors who teach a Compass Course with generous research funds, course enrichment funds, and GSI support. Annual call with October deadline. Contact Emily Rabiner for more information.
Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities
The Townsend Center offers a range of grants to support collaborative work in the humanities, manuscript preparation, and conferences and lectures. Contact Rebecca Egger for more information.
Funding Assistance for Book Publication
UC Berkeley’s Vice Chancellor for Research provides up to $3,000 to support the work of faculty whose merit, tenure, and promotion depends on the publication of books. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis through December 31, 2024. For additional information, contact vcr@berkeley.edu
Humanities Research Fellowship (HRF)
Offered by the Division of Arts & Humanities and funded by the McEnerney Endowment, the HRF supports faculty at critical junctures in their careers by enabling awardees to take sabbaticals with full pay before they have accrued sufficient sabbatical credits to do so otherwise. Applications are due annually in October. Contact Aimee Chang for more information.
Mellon Project Grants (MPG)
Funded by a generous grant from the Mellon Foundation to the UC Berkeley Division of Arts & Humanities, MPGs are designed to support full professors undertaking significant research projects, particularly those that involve collaboration, travel, publication, exhibition, performance, equipment purchases, public humanities projects, or hosting conferences or symposia. The program is designed for full professors; however, funds permitting, we may be able to support advanced associate professors undertaking major projects. The program is open to people working in the arts, humanities, and humanistic social sciences, regardless of their departmental home. Awards range from $5,000 to $50,000 in total and applications are due in the spring. Contact Aimee Chang for more information.
Society of Hellman Fellows Fund
This unique opportunity is designed to support assistant professors early in their career but after startup funding may be depleted. All assistant professors who have been at UC Berkeley for two years but who have not yet been formally recommended for tenure are eligible. The Vice Provost for Faculty’s office contacts eligible faculty directly each year. Contact Aimee Chang for more information.
UC Humanities Research Institute Grants
Based at UC Irvine, UC’s systemwide humanities research institute offers a number of grants for faculty and graduate students. Most applications are due February 3, 2025. These applications require that you contact your research administrator a minimum of 10 business days prior to the deadline. This allows sufficient time to assemble, organize, and route your application for internal department-level approvals and Sponsored Projects Office (SPO) review. More time may be needed if you plan to work with collaborators outside of UC Berkeley. Contact Aimee Chang for more information.
Outside funding opportunities include:
The FRCP and BRDO track non-campus funding opportunities, including annual calls and limited submissions. Current repeating grants are listed below.
For external non-campus funding opportunities please contact your research administrator a minimum of 10 business days prior to the deadline. This allows sufficient time to assemble, organize, and route your application for internal department-level approvals and Sponsored Projects Office (SPO) review. More time may be needed if you plan to work with collaborators outside of UC Berkeley.
American Council of Learned Societies
The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) supports the creation and circulation of knowledge that advances understanding of humanity and human endeavors in the past, present, and future, with a view toward improving human experience. The ACLS supports individual scholars and scholarly teams around the world in their pursuit of research that advances knowledge in the humanities and interpretive social sciences. Each year the ACLS issues a call for ACLS Fellowships, due in September, for 6- to 12-month research fellowships. Other upcoming fellowship and grant deadlines can be found here. Contact Emma Attard for more information.
Provides $200,000 to support extraordinary scholars and writers doing high-caliber research in the humanities and social sciences. Funding is for a period of one or two years with the anticipated result of a book or major study. current focus on political polarization in the United States. UC Berkeley may nominage one junior and one senior scholar. Please note that this is a limited submission opportunity and will need to be coordinated through the BRDO. Internal deadline mid-late September; see this announcement for the campus process. Contact Margaret Guerrero for more information.
California Documentary Project (CDP) grants in support of film, audio, or digital media projects that document California subjects and issues and that use the humanities to provide context, depth, and perspective. Application deadline November. Contact Emma Attard for more information.
Provides fellowships for mid-career individuals who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts and who exhibit great promise for future endeavors. Annual open call: application portal opens mid-August and deadline to submit applications is mid-September. Contact Margaret Guerrero for more information.
Hamburg Institute for Advanced Study (HIAS)
Funds fellowships of three to ten months' in Hamburg, Germany (actvities conducted in English). Open to all scholars, artists, and cutlrual professionals. Fellowships offer stipend or work replacement funds to home campus, workspace (though not artist studios), staff support, weekly colloquia and lunches, and housing suitable for families. Applications for AY 2026-27 due March 31, 2025.
The Luce Foundation offers grants through eight programs: American art; Asia; women in STEM; democracy, ethics, and public trust; indigenous knowledge; a scholar program offering one-year professional placements in Asia; public policy; and religion and theology. Contact Margaret Guerrero for more information.
Institute for Citizens & Scholars: Career Enhancement Fellowship
Funded by the Mellon Foundation, the fellowships are awarded to junior faculty committed to campus diversity and innovative research in the humanities and humanistic social sciences. Due October. Contact Aimee Chang for more information.
Mellon New Directions Fellowships
Provides funding for faculty awarded their Ph.D. within the last six to twelve years to undertake formal training in an area outside of their expertise. Berkeley is not necessarily invited to apply for this program every year. Please note that this is a limited submission opportunity and will need to be coordinated through the BRDO. See this announcement for the most recent campus process for this opportunity. Contact Margaret Guerrero for more information.
Provides funding for "temporary research centers" that bring together faculty, foreign visitors, post-doctoral visitors, and graduate students for comparative research on the historical and cultural sources of contemporary developments. Current focus is on academic freedom and democracy in the American University. Mellon seeks seminars that demonstrate through humanistic methods the ways in which a higher education system featuring a multiplicity of perspectives, thoughts and voices is essential to a functional democracy. Awards of up to $300,000. Berkeley is not necessarily invited to apply for this program every year. Please note that this is a limited submission opportunity and will need to be coordinated through the BRDO. The most recent campus application deadline was in September 2024; see this announcement for the campus process. Contact Margaret Guerrero for more information.
National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Creative Writing Fellowships
The NEA literature fellowships offer $25,000 grants in prose and poetry on an alternating annual basis to published creative writers that enable recipients to set aside time for writing, research, travel, and general career advancement. Contact Emma Attard for more information.
National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Grants for Arts Projects
Provides project-based funding ($10,000 to $100,000m with 1:1 cost share) to support public engagement with the arts and arts education, for the integration of the arts with strategies promoting the health and well-being of people and communities, and for the improvement of overall capacity and capabilities within the arts sector. Applications are typically due in February or July. This is a limited submission opportunity and will need to be coordinated through the BRDO. See this announcement for the most recent campus process for this opportunity. Contact Emma Attard for more information.
National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Translation Fellowships
Awards up to $25,000 to published translators for the translation of specific works of prose, poetry, or drama from other languages into English. Contact Emma Attard for more information.
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Humanities Initiatives at Colleges and Universities
Awards up to $150,000 to support the development of new or enhancement of existing programs, educational resources, or courses that explore, interpret, and preserve the diversity of human cultures, ideals, and practices, past and present. The annual deadline is typically in May. Contact Emma Attard for more information.
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Humanities Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence
This new agency-wide research initiative supports research projects that seek to understand and address the ethical, legal, and societal implications of AI. NEH is particularly interested in projects that explore the impacts of AI-related technologies on truth, trust, and democracy; safety and security; and privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties. Please note that, within this initiative, the Humanities Research Centers on Artificial Intelligence opportunity is a limited submission opportunity and will need to be coordinated through the BRDO. This is the announcement of the campus process for this round. Contact Emma Attard for more information.
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Public Humanities Projects
Supports projects that bring the humanities to life for general audiences through public programming in non-classroom settings in the U.S. Planning grants are up to $60,000 and implementation grants are up to $400,000. The annual deadline is usually in January and the 2025 deadline is January 8, 2025. Contact Emma Attard for more information.
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Stipends program
Provides up to $6,000 to support full-time work on humanities projects over two months. Deadline September 2024. Contact Emma Attard for more information.
National Park Service Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant
Provides up to $500,000 to organizations working to preserve and interpret historic confinement sites where Japanese Americans were detained during World War II so that present and future generations may learn from these locations. Applications are typically due in November. This is a limited submission opportunity and will need to be coordinated through the BRDO. This is the most recent announcement for the campus process.
Via Art Fund Artistic Project Grants
Provides funding ($25,000 - $100,000) to individual artists, nonprofit organizations, and institutions to support new artistic commissions that take place outside museum or gallery walls, within the public realm, or in non-traditional exhibition environments. LOIs due in May and November. Contact Aimee Chang for more information. Campus Resources
The Berkeley Research Development Office (BRDO) and Foundation Relations and Corporate Philanthropy are available to help with all steps of the application process, from conceptualization to editing. Please contact Emma Attard in BRDO for federal opportunities such as those from NEA or NEH or Margaret Guerrero in FRCP for foundation opportunities.
The Vice Chancellor for Research’s office (VCRO) also subscribes to PIVOT, a searchable database of funding opportunities offered by US and foreign agencies, foundations, corporations, and individual funders. Users need to create an account to access the database. The database will send you opportunities based on your profile so users are encouraged to add details about their research. A slidedeck and video from a recent training on using PIVOT are both available, along with an online user guide.