Cultural Anthropology Program - Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants
This grant supports doctoral students in cultural anthropology conducting fieldwork/lab-based research on human social and cultural variability.
This grant is no longer accepting proposals
U.S. National Science Foundation has archived this opportunity.
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation
Due Dates: January 15, 2025 | August 15, 2025 | January 15, 2026 (Annually thereafter) | August 15, 2026 (Annually thereafter)
Funding Amounts: Up to $25,000 in direct costs per award (indirect costs additional); approximately 40–50 awards per year; total program funding ~$800,000/year.
Summary: Supports doctoral dissertation research that advances basic scientific knowledge in cultural anthropology through empirically grounded, theoretically engaged, and methodologically rigorous projects.
Description
This opportunity from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) provides Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants (DDRIG) through the Cultural Anthropology Program. The program aims to support fundamental research that enhances understanding of human social and cultural variability. Eligible research must be empirically grounded, theoretically engaged, and methodologically sophisticated, spanning all subfields of cultural anthropology. The NSF does not fund research with the primary goal of clinical practice, humanistic understanding, or applied policy.
Research priorities include, but are not limited to:
- Sociocultural drivers of anthropogenic processes (e.g., deforestation, urbanization, poverty)
- Resilience of sociocultural systems
- Conflict, cooperation, altruism, and cultural variation
- Economy, migration, globalization
- Kinship, family, and health outcomes
- Biocultural research
- Social regulation, governmentality, and violence
- Complexity in sociocultural systems
- Language, sociolinguistics, and cognition
- Mathematical and computational models (e.g., social network analysis, agent-based modeling)
- Socio-cultural drivers of technology and technological systems (AI, machine learning, platforms)
Awards are intended to support research costs not typically covered by the student’s institution (e.g., travel, field equipment, participant incentives), but not stipends, tuition, or post-fieldwork expenses.
