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External Funding Opportunities

Check out these additional funding opportunities that are available to GCPR students. Please note that these funding opportunities are external to the GCPR and are included as a resource for students. These funds are independent from our program.

UNC Funding Opportunities

UNC Richard Bland Fellowship Professional Pathways Program

January, annually

  • Summer internship opportunity to explore a specific non-faculty career path
  • Create and propose a relevant, hands-on internship, min 200 hours
  • $4000
  • Must be nominated by department
  • Application requirements

UNC Community Engagement Fellowships

February, annually

  • Develop and implement engagement or engaged scholarship projects that address social needs and have an academic connection
  • Can apply as individual or teams, interdisciplinary teams preferred
  • March-October, implement project in summer
  • Awards eight fellowships of up to $2500

UNC Environmental Justice Graduate Research Scholarship

  • Funds research that “broadens understanding of environmental justice issues in marginalized communities in North Carolina”
  • Interdisciplinary and collaborative proposals are encouraged
  • Expression of interest due late January; full proposals due in March
  • Eligibility: for U.S. citizens or Permanent Residents; priority to students who are first-generation or from low-income backgrounds
  • $25,000 for academic year + $5,000 for community collaborator stipend

Mingma Norbu Sherpa Fellowship

February, annually

  • Open to graduate and professional students to support field study and engaged research in environmental areas at field sites
  • Students must be enrolled as a graduate or professional student at UNC and continuing their studies in the semester following their fellowship
  • Applications open in November and close in February
  • $2,500

Ronald W. Hyatt Rotary Public Service Award

February/March, annually

  • Supports innovative public service projects exemplifying the motto “Service above Self”
  • Develop local or international community-based projects during the summer
  • For UNC undergraduate and graduate students
  • $3000 if international; $2000 if local

Carolina Digital Humanities Initiative Graduate Fellows Program

Mid-March, annually

  • PhD students in all field interested in developing digital humanities as a significant expression of their professional practice
  • One year individually tailored program
  • Connects fellows to community of fellow digital humanists
  • Includes $5000 in summer support and up to $5000 for project development…couldn’t find how much the actual stipend fellowship is…

Antipode Foundation Scholar-Activist Project Awards

Mid-March, annually

  • Supports collaborations between academics, non-academics, and activists
  • Projects can be collaborative research with artistic, community, cultural grassroots, or social movement groups; the production of educational materials and other innovative pedagogical initiatives; and the promotion of links between universities and institutions/organization outside the academy
  • Max £10,000

The Institute of African American Research Summer Graduate Student Research Grant

Mid-March, annually

  • Supports research that concerns African Americans or the broader African diaspora with funding of $2500

APPLES Service Learning Program: Graduate Assistant for Alternative Breaks

Mid-April, annually

  • 18 hours/week for 32 weeks, August – April
  • $16,000
  • Work with a total of 15 alternative break experiences

UNC Impact and Horizon Awards

October, annually

  • Awarded to graduate students whose research has a direct impact on the well-being of residents of North Carolina
  • Internal nomination by department

Regional Funding Opportunities

UNC Center for the Study of the American South

Mid-March, annually

Check out the website if you do research on the South and are curious about the following fellowships/grants:

  • McColl Early-Stage Research Fellowship in Southern Studies
  • McColl Dissertation Year Fellowship in Southern Studies
  • Summer Research Grants, Mid March
  • Graduate Student Travel Grants, submissions on rolling basis
  • Graduate Research Grants, submissions on rolling basis

The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina – People in Need Grants

Early August, annually

  • Provides grants for organizations located in or serving select Western NC counties
  • People in Need Grants up to $20,000 for economically-disadvantaged people
  • Organizations are eligible if they are financially sustainable, tax-exempt, serve a Western NC county, and have not received a People in Need grant in the previous year.

Norman Wettenhal Foundation

February, May, August, November, annually

  • The objectives of the Small Environmental Grants Scheme are to support Australian biodiversity projects that are concerned with one or more of the following:
    • monitoring and recording data
    • community education
    • community capacity building (training)
    • research and science

National and International Funding Opportunities

African Women’s Development Fund

  • AWDF supports both established and small, African-based women’s organizations in the following thematic areas:
    • Economic empowerment and livelihoods
    • HIV and AIDS
    • Women’s Human Rights
    • Governance, Peace, and Security
    • Health and Reproductive Rights
    • Arts, Culture, and Sports

Archaeological Institute of America (AIA)

  • The AIA Society Outreach Grant Program encourages societies to plan and implement outreach activities in their local community. Any event that promotes archaeology, the AIA’s mission, and focuses on public outreach and education will be considered for funding.

Foundation for the Carolinas

  • The foundation is one of the largest community foundations in the U.S., dedicated to building collective strength in communities in North and South Carolina.

Green Foundation

  • The Foundation is dedicated to supporting institutions that focus on arts outreach and education and we continue to encourage growth in all areas of the arts. Priority is given to those institutions that promote the expansion of community arts programs and/or support youth and adult creativity in their regular schedules.

Greenstone Foundation

  • Our Mission is to assist organizations, in our community that offer help to those in need by supporting educational programs, health and nutrition programs, and affordable housing.

Russell Sage Foundation

  • The foundation is one of the oldest in the U.S., dedicating itself exclusively to strengthening the methods, data, and theoretical core of the social sciences as a means of diagnosing social problems and improving social policies.

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