Winter Funding Opportunities for Faculty

Dear Faculty,

With the holidays and winter recess approaching, we want to thank you for your work with us this semester, and let you know of some upcoming grant opportunities that you may be interested in looking at over the break:

• Each year, Harvard University Library invites applicants to the Woodberry Poetry Room Creative Fellowship (due January 15, 2020). Poets, writers, multimedia artists, and scholars of contemporary poetry are invited to propose creative projects that would benefit from the resources available in the room and to generate new work that further actualizes the Poetry Room’s collections. The Creative Fellow receives a stipend of $4,000 and a Harvard Library special borrower’s card, as well as in-depth research support from the curatorial staff.  (WLP, School of the Arts)
• LEF Foundation New England’s Moving Image Fund (due January 24) is designed to support new film and video work, and funds all phases of production, supporting films from the early risk-taking stage, through a film’s completion. LEF invests in documentary film and video projects that demonstrate excellence in technique, originality of vision and voice, and creativity in form. Priority is given to projects that have received previous LEF funding. Letters of Inquiry for Production & Post-Production Funding ($15,000) are due January 24, and Pre-Production funding ($5,000) is due on June 5 (VMA, School of the Arts)
• New America, formerly the New America Foundation, is a US think tank focusing on a range of public policy issues. New America’s Fellows Program (due February 2) invests in thinkers—journalists, scholars, filmmakers, and public policy analysts—who generate big, bold ideas that have an impact and spark new conversations about the most pressing issues of our day. The fellowship supports projects such as books, films, photo essays, long-form storytelling, policy projects, and any work that gets to broad audiences and changes the way we think, and voices that represent the diverse backgrounds and ideologies of the American community. Stipends for the fellowship year (September to August) are between $15,000 to $30,000. (School of the Arts, School of Communication, Institute of Liberal Arts & Interdisciplinary Studies)
• The National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar Program (due February 5) supports the creation of well-researched books in the humanities intended to engage broad audiences in exploring subjects of general interest. Such scholarship might present a narrative history, tell the stories of important individuals, analyze significant texts, provide a synthesis of ideas, revive interest in a neglected subject, or examine the latest thinking on a topic. Books supported by this program must be grounded in humanities research and scholarship. They must also be written in a readily accessible style, addressing significant humanities themes in a way that will appeal to a large audience of general readers. Applications to write books directed primarily to scholars are not appropriate for this program. Maximum funding is $5,000 per month for a 6- to 12-month fellowship. (School of the Arts, School of Communication, Institute for Liberal Arts & Interdisciplinary Studies)
• The Creative Capital Award (letters of inquiry due February 28) supports the work of individual artists, including works in film, literature, performing arts, visual arts, and a number of other media. Through funding, professional development, individual meetings and consistent engagement with development, individual meetings and consistent engagement with staff, Creative Capital provides each artist with the resources needed at strategic moments in the artistic process. Creative Capital provides each funded project with up to $50,000 in direct funding, as well as career development services valued at $45,000. Creative Capital is one of the only non-profit organizations to offer awards to individual artists through an open application process; therefore, it is very competitive, with less than 1 percent of applicants receiving awards. (School of the Arts, VMA, WLP)
• The Spencer Foundation Small Research Grants Program (due March 3) supports education research projects that will contribute to the improvement of education, broadly conceived, with budgets up to $50,000 for projects ranging from one to five years. The goal for this program is to support rigorous, intellectually ambitious and technically sound research that is relevant to the most pressing questions and compelling opportunities in education. The Small Grants program accepts applications three times per year, in March, July, and November. (School of Communication, Institute of Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies)
• The National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowships (Poetry Cycle due March 11) program offers $25,000 grants in prose (fiction and creative nonfiction) and poetry to published creative writers that enable recipients to set aside time for writing, research, travel, and general career advancement. Applications are reviewed through an anonymous process in which the criteria for review are the artistic excellence and artistic merit of the submitted manuscript. In 2020, fellowships in poetry are available. Fellowships in prose (fiction and creative nonfiction) will be offered in 2021. (WLP, School of the Arts)
  

On the internal funding front, the 2020 application competition for the Affiliated Faculty Development Fund will be announced in mid-January. A revised announcement on the 2020 Presidential Fund for Curricular Innovation (PFCI) grant program is also forthcoming. 

On behalf of the ORCS staff, we wish everyone a good holiday season and restful winter break.

Regards,
Eric Asetta
Executive Director, Office for Research and Creative Scholarship