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How to Find PhD Scholarships and Grants

Financing your PhD studies can be challenging, but it's essential to your academic journey. Scholarships and grants can ease this burden, although finding and securing them may seem daunting. 

Navigating your financial prospects can present a challenge, but scholarships and grants are there as available resources. In this blog, we will explain the opportunities to fund your PhD. We’ll also provide practical advice to help you find the right funding options for your PhD. Our guidance aims to give you a strong foundation for success.

Finding Doctoral Scholarships and Grants

Finding funding for graduate studies can be stressful, but scholarships and grants are available if you know where to look. 

• University Funding: Universities often offer scholarships and research grants to PhD students. For instance, the SMU provides various funding options for doctoral students through the Moody School for Graduate and Advanced Studies.
• Professional Associations: Depending on your field of study, grants are often available from professional associations. Have a look at your specific discipline’s association website or reach out to them directly.
• Government and Non-Government Organizations: Both government and non-government organizations offer grants to encourage research in various fields. Explore resources like Grant.gov and The National Science Foundation.
• Industry Partners: Companies often work with universities to fund research in their industry, supporting specific projects or areas of study.
• International Scholarships: International students can find PhD scholarships in the USA, like Fulbright and DAAD .

Essential Scholarship Application Tips

• Start Early: Keep in mind that securing funding takes time, so don’t wait to start your search. The application deadline is often way before the program application deadline.
• Be Thorough and Organized: Keeping track of deadlines, application components and other details can be overwhelming. Create a system that helps you keep everything organized and in one place.
• Tailor Your Applications: Tailor each application to the specific sponsor to maximize its appeal. Remember to show why you’re a perfect fit for their funding.
• Leverage Your Network: Don't hesitate to use your academic network. Professors, colleagues, and alumni can be valuable resources for scholarship and grant opportunities.

Grants and Scholarships for PhD Students vs. Other Forms of Aid

Initially, most students think of scholarships as a lifeline for PhD funding , but it's surprisingly uncommon for students to fund their PhD with scholarships alone. Can you get a scholarship for a PhD? Absolutely. But scholarships for doctoral students can be quite competitive.

In reality, most PhD students utilize a variety of funding sources. PhD programs commonly offer doctoral assistantships and fellowships, which are typically more widely available. Some students even explore additional routes like postgraduate loans, employer support, crowdfunding, and research council grants.

Knowing the ins and outs of each type of funding can help you make a decision that best suits your academic and financial needs. 

Scholarships

Scholarships, financial awards you don't need to repay, often reward merit or specific factors like demographics or career aspirations.

• Doesn't require repayment
• No obligation to perform services

Potential drawbacks:

• High competition
• May need exceptional qualifications

Grants operate much like scholarships in that they do not need to be repaid. They are frequently awarded based on need, although some may also take into consideration academic merit or field of study.

Benefits: 

• Doesn’t require repayment
• Can offset a significant amount of educational expenses

Potential drawbacks: 

• Competition can be fierce
• May have to meet eligibility criteria or conditions

Assistantships & Fellowships

Assistantships and fellowships are also common ways to pay for a PhD.  Assistantships involve providing services to the university by undertaking teaching or research roles, usually in exchange for a stipend and tuition waiver. Fellowships, like scholarships, are merit-based and don't require repayment or work in return. Fellowships usually offer generous resources and are specific to the student's field of study.

• Provide hands-on experience in teaching or research (assistantship)
• Accompanied by generous funding and resources (fellowship)
• Fellowships often provide greater freedom for research compared to assistantships
• Time commitment can impact personal studies (mainly assistantships)
• High competition may require exceptional qualifications or research proposals

While fellowships, assistantships, grants and scholarships for PhD programs aim to reduce the financial burden, they’re understandably different in their commitments, benefits, and application process. 

Discover PhD Funding at SMU

Finding and securing the right funding for your PhD is crucial in shaping a stress-free and productive doctoral journey. Remember, scholarships and grants, while beneficial, are just pieces of a wider resource puzzle that may include assistantships or fellowships. 

These funding options are aimed to ease your financial commitments, so explore opportunities for each, align them with your academic goals, and pave your way towards a rewarding PhD experience .

For more helpful resources or information about SMU's Moody School of Graduate and Advanced Studies, contact us — we're here to help you on your academic journey!

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Find Education Scholarships for PhD Students

Every little bit helps, get a head start funding your doctoral degree using the U.S. News scholarship database. Apply for money now.

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Elevar Scholars Program

California State University, Fullerton

What You'll Need

• Application Form
• Recommendation
• Demonstrated Financial Need
• Merit-based Aid

Description

Funded by the CSU and Giles T. Brown Endowment for Graduate Studies through the Cal State Fullerton Philanthropic Foundation, this program seeks to increase the diversity of students completing graduate degree programs, encourage further study in doctoral programs and promote consideration of university faculty careers. If provides fellowships to economically disadvantaged CSUF students who have overcome educational disadvantages or hardships. The fellowships are intended to minimize students’ debt burden, allowing them to complete their program more quickly and commence doctoral study.

Fletcher Jones Fellowship

University of California, Irvine

• Need-based Aid

The Fletcher Jones Fellowship is a highly prestigious award, made available through funding from the Fletcher Jones Foundation. It is competitively awarded to an outstanding doctoral student who has advanced to candidacy and demonstrates financial need. The award of a one-year fellowship of approximately $22,290, to be used as a stipend, is intended to assist with doctoral degree completion.

Chancellor's Club Fellowship

Chancellor’s Club Fellowships recognize our most academically superior doctoral and MFA students — those who exhibit outstanding promise as scholars, researchers, and public leaders. Nominated students must be first-generation college students, with neither parent having received a four-year degree. Nominations are made by Associate Deans for scholars in their respective schools.

Miguel Velez Scholarship

The Miguel Velez Scholarship provides financial support to graduate students who demonstrate outstanding past academic achievement as well as future promise, have financial need, and are citizens and residents of a Latin American country. Preference is given to citizens of Colombia.

James Harvey Scholar

The James Harvey Scholar award provides financial support to graduate students who demonstrate outstanding past academic achievement as well as future promise, have financial need, and are completing a publishable thesis or dissertation on homosexuality or the life or works of James Harvey.

Otto W. Shaler Scholarship

The Otto W. Shaler Scholarship provides financial support to international graduate students who have financial need, and who demonstrate outstanding past academic achievement as well as future promise. Each school may submit no more than two applications for this award.

Brython Davis Fellowship

Overview: The Brython Davis Fellowship provides financial support to students who demonstrate outstanding past academic achievement as well as future promise, have financial need, are U.S. citizens, and are the child of a service member or veteran of the U.S. Navy or Marine Corps.

La Verne Noyes Fellowship

The La Verne Noyes Fellowship provides financial support to graduate students who demonstrate outstanding past academic achievement as well as future promise, have financial need, are U.S. citizens, and are descendants of World War I U.S. Army or Navy veterans.

Barbara Bell Blake Nursing Scholarship

Purdue University, Northwest

Need Based: Please note: This specialty scholarship requires a separate application. Even if you've already applied for a PNW admissions scholarship, you need to submit a separate application to be eligible.

Intel SWE Scholarship (Graduate)

Society of Women Engineers (SWE)

SWE Scholarships support those who identify as a female/woman and are pursuing an ABET-accredited bachelor or graduate student program in preparation for careers in engineering, engineering technology and computer science in the United States. US Citizenship required. Minimum GPA: 3.0. Class: Graduate (Masters, Doctoral) Major: CprE, CS, EE.

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•       Financial Aid       Grants for Graduate School Students

Grants for Graduate School Students

Tips for securing funds for advanced degrees.

For those who want to advance in their careers, graduate school can be a good investment to help them meet their goals. However, this investment can be extremely costly, so students may rely on different types of financial aid to help them pay for their advanced education. Grants are an excellent form of financial aid because, like scholarships, they do not have to be paid back. This guide discusses the places where students can find grants and how they can increase their chances of winning them.

FAQ: Understanding Grants for Graduate School

Students who are looking for funding for their graduate studies may have many questions about how to receive grants. The following are the answers to some of those questions.

What is a grant for graduate school?

Grants are a form of financial aid that do not have to be repaid and are often provided to students based on their financial need. In some cases, the organization providing the grant may also consider other factors, like academic performance, when awarding these funds.

Who is eligible to receive a grant in grad school?

Generally, students must be enrolled in an accredited college or university in order to be eligible to receive a grant. Also, depending on the award, there may be other eligibility requirements, such as minimum grade point average, type of degree program, and research goals.

What’s the difference between grants and fellowships?

Grants are generally offered to students based on their financial need, while fellowships are often based on academic achievement and research.

What is the application process like?

The application process for grants is similar to that of scholarships. In some cases, as with some governmental awards, students can be considered by filling out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid. In other cases, students are required to fill out a separate application to receive a grant, and in addition to being asked for financial information, they may be required to submit a statement about their academic achievements and goals.

What are the different types of grants for grad students?

Grants can be provided by public and private sources, such as government agencies, professional organizations, corporations, and the schools that students attend. Some grants are provided based on the students’ demographic or the field of study they’re pursuing.

• Federal. The federal government offer grants to graduate students that are based on financial need, including the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant , Fulbright Grants , and Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grants .
• State. Just as students can receive grants from the federal government to fund their graduate studies, they may also be able to receive grants from the state they live in. For example, the Colorado Graduate Grant provides up to $5,000 for students who demonstrate financial need, and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources offers $2,000 grants for earth science graduate students to conduct research.
• School specific. Schools want to attract the best students to their graduate programs, so they may offer grants to help those who show promise pay for their education. For example, the State University Grant Program is available to graduate students attending schools in the California State University system, and Michigan State University provides funding for master’s and doctoral fine arts students through its University Fellowship Programs .
• Organization and corporate grants. Professional and non-profit organizations, as well as private companies, offer grants to help students get the advanced education they need to enter their professions—which goes a long way toward building a strong workforce.
• By demographic. Demographics may also play a role in the grants that graduate students can receive. Some grants are provided to members of a certain race, for example, to help bridge the gap of underrepresentation in a specific field.
• By field. Colleges and universities, as well as professional organizations, may offer grants based on what program the student is enrolled in.

Recommended Online Programs

Students can find grants in a variety of untapped places. There are community-based organizations that provide scholarship support in various interest areas (e.g., business) and there are small trusts/foundations often administered by community foundations and local banks. In addition, many national organizations provide scholarship and grant support for students who meet their defined criteria. Students should monitor philanthropy websites and take the time to do Internet searches. A number of professional organizations also sponsor writing/research competitions that often come with scholarships or cash prizes.

Patricia E. Salkin, Provost and CAO of Graduate and Professional Divisions at Touro College

18 Grants for Graduate School

Grants for graduate school can come from a variety of sources, so students should be aware of all of their options in order to win as many awards as they can. The following are some examples of these grants, and the qualifications students are expected to have in order to win them.

Federal Grants for Graduate Students

U.s. department of education: teacher education assistance for college and higher education (teach) grant.

Award: Up to $4,000

Deadline: Late October

Graduate students who are studying to become teachers can receive this grant in exchange for committing to work at schools in low-income areas for a minimum of four years. Students are eligible to receive this award if they are preparing to teach in numerous subject areas, such as mathematics, foreign language, science, special education, and English. In addition, applicants must have at least a 3.25 grade point average or score above the 75th percentile on college admissions exams.

U.S. Department of Education: Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant

Award: Up to $6,095

Deadline: Varies

This grant is available to students whose parent or guardian died during military service in Afghanistan or Iraq after September 11, 2001. Applicants must be under the age of 24 or enrolled in college when their parent or guardian died.

U.S. Department of State: Fulbright Grants

Award: Varies

Fulbright Grants are designed to promote international studies and research projects. Some of the countries that students may use the grant to study in include Australia, Germany, Uganda, Indonesia, and Portugal.

Fellowships for Graduate Students

Dolores zohrab liebmann fund: dolores zohrab liebmann fellowships.

Award: Full tuition plus $18,000 stipend

Deadline: Early January

Based on academic performance and financial need, these fellowships are available to students enrolled in graduate programs in the natural sciences, humanities, or social sciences. Students must attend one of the organization’s designated colleges or universities in order to receive this annual award. Fellowships are renewable for up to three years.

Institute for Humane Studies: Humane Studies Fellowship

Award: Up to $15,000

Deadline: Mid-February

Designed to support teaching and scholarship in the humanities and social sciences, this fellowship is available to students enrolled in doctoral programs on a full-time basis. In order to qualify, students should be studying areas such as sociology, history, political science, economics, and law. Applicants should describe the research they intend to conduct and explain how it will advance classical liberal ideas.

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine: Ford Foundation Fellowship Programs

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine provides predoctoral, dissertation, and postdoctoral fellowships through the Ford Foundation Fellowship Programs. These awards are available to students in a variety of academic disciplines, including archaeology, history, earth sciences, computer science, and art and theater history. In addition, students must demonstrate high academic performance and the ability to contribute to the field as a teacher or researcher.

Organization & Corporate Grants for Graduate Students

American cancer society: doctoral training grants in oncology social work.

Award: $20,000

Deadline: Mid-October

This grant is available to doctoral students studying social work who want to conduct oncology research. This is a two-year award that may be renewable.

Geological Society of America: Graduate Student Research Grants

Award: Up to $5,000

Deadline: Early February

The Geological Society of America offers grants for students in geological sciences master’s and doctoral programs who are conducting research. Applicants must be a member of the organization in order to receive the award.

University Film and Video Association: Carole Fielding Student Grant

Award: Up to $1,000

Deadline: Mid-December

Graduate students enrolled in film and televisual arts programs are eligible to receive this grant. Applicants should provide an in-depth description of their research project with information on proposed budget, how the project will advance the field, and how they plan to present their findings. Students must be sponsored by a professor who is a member of the University Film and Video Association.

Grants for Graduate Minorities

American anthropological association: aaa minority dissertation fellowship program.

Award: $10,000

Deadline: Early March

This grant is available for doctoral anthropology students. Applicants must be a member of an underrepresented racial group, such as Pacific Islander, African American, Latino, and Asian American. In addition, students must demonstrate academic excellence.

American Society of Criminology: Ruth D. Peterson Fellowship for Racial and Ethnic Diversity

Award: $6,000

The Ruth D. Peterson Fellowship for Racial and Ethnic Diversity is available to minority students--such as Asians, Latinos, and African Americans--enrolled in a doctoral criminal justice or criminology program. Students must demonstrate acceptance in a criminology or criminal justice Ph.D. program, as well as financial need.

Wisconsin Higher Educational Aids Board: Indian Student Assistance Grant

Award: Up to $1,100

This grant is available to Wisconsin graduate students who are at least 25 percent Native American. In order to receive this award, students must be enrolled at the University of Wisconsin, independent colleges and universities, proprietary institutions, or tribal colleges in the state.

Grad School Grants for Women

American association of university women: career development grants.

Award: Up to $12,000

Deadline: Mid-November

This grant is designed to help women get the education they need to advance in their careers. Eligibility requirements include enrollment in an advanced degree program and financial need.

American Physical Society: M. Hildred Blewett Fellowship

Award: Up to $45,000

Deadline: Early June

The American Physical Society provides this fellowship to female physics students who are returning to their studies after a hiatus. In order to be eligible, students must have completed some work toward their physics doctoral degree.

Zonta International Foundation: Amelia Earhart Fellowship

This award is designed to encourage women to pursue the aerospace sciences or aerospace engineering fields. Students should be enrolled in an aerospace studies doctoral program to receive this award.

Field-Specific Grants for Grad School

American psychological association: grants in aid for students.

Deadline: Late September

The American Psychology-Law Society, which is a division of the American Psychological Association, offers grants to graduate students who want to conduct research on psycholegal issues. Applicants must submit information describing their project and its significance.

National Science Foundation: Graduate Research Fellowship Program

Award: $34,000

This fellowship is for students enrolled in research-based science, technology, engineering, and mathematics graduate degree programs. Applicants must be enrolled in an eligible degree program in order to be considered for the award.

Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program: Graduate Student Grant Program

This grant is provided for master’s and doctoral students who want to do research related to sustainable agriculture issues for their degree program. Students who receive funding may work on their projects for up to 36 months.

When students seek funding (that will not need to be repaid) for graduate studies, they typically look at two sources: graduate assistantships and fellowships. However, graduate assistantships tend to be the most plentiful funding source. Students can be awarded one of three types of competitive graduate assistantships: graduate teaching assistantships, graduate research assistantships, and graduate administrative assistantships. These assistantships pay students' tuition and/or a monthly stipend.

Kimberly L. Douglass, Associate Dean at Middle Tennessee State University College of Graduate Studies

7 Expert Tips to Landing Grad School Grants

Once students have found the graduate school grants they are eligible for, they need to present themselves in the best way in order to win them. The following tips can help students increase their chances of winning these awards.

Search organizations that cater to a profession.

Pay attention to writing., explain a low grade point average., tailor information., incorporate history., build a relationship with faculty members., always look for funding opportunities., additional resources to help pay for grad school.

Graduate students can never have too much information about funding their education. The following are additional resources that students can use to help them find financial aid.

• Understanding Financial Aid for Graduate School
• Top Scholarships for Graduate Students
• Paying for Your Master’s Degree

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Finish Your PhD or Doctorate with Money from Grants

Just say "no" to student loans.

By the time you reach your Doctoral degree you will have seriously tapped your savings. In combination with other forms of financial aid make student Doctoral grants a part of your education strategy. Consider your main concerns when shopping for extra grant funding:

• Do you have large amounts of research left to conduct?
• Do you have any travel plans for which you need funding?
• Do you need straight-up tuition assistance?
• Do you qualify as an ethnic minority studying in an under-represented area?

These questions will help you identify specific areas in which you might seek additional grant funds. Research and travel grants are fairly common for students pursuing their doctorate degree. While these grants may not meet all of your financial needs they can help to defray costs and get you back to focusing on your studies.

Let's take some time to explore the best sources or grant programs targeted at students working toward their PhD and Doctorate degree.

Government Sources for Doctoral Student Grant Money

Don't assume that government sources only provide free college money to undergraduates. Federal and state governments are providers of various types of grants and fellowships that could fit your needs. You must be thorough and motivated to succeed in routing out all the funding opportunities. A few examples to get your juices flowing, include:

The U.S. Department of Education and the Federal government offer financial aid programs that go beyond the needs of undergraduates. Federal and state governments provide various types of grants and fellowships designed to benefit graduate and post graduate degree seekers. If you've come this far in your higher education now is the time to re-double your motivation and search out all the funding opportunities available to you.

Here are a couple of examples of grant programs that are designed to benefit graduate and post – graduate students:

• The Fulbright Grant program is one of the largest and most respected educational exchange programs in the world. Since it's inception in 1946 the Fulbright program has encouraged and developed exceptional students from around the world by giving them the resources to study or conduct research abroad. Fulbright grants are offered in a variety of disciplines including humanities and the arts, social sciences, mathematics and the natural and physical sciences.
• The Federal TEACH or Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education grant program is open to graduate students pursuing their doctorate in education studies. In exchange for a term of service in a high need low income elementary or secondary school applicants are awarded grant monies to help them complete there doctorate programs.

The U.S. Government's Student Aid on the Web site is a good tool to use when searching for Federal grants for you graduate studies. Many Federal agencies such as the EPA, the Justice Department and the National Science Foundation offer grants to qualifying students to enable them to complete their graduate and doctorate studies.

Doctoral Grant Money from Your University

Many universities offer grant and fellowships for students enrolled in their doctoral or PhD programs. These programs provide much needed financial aid in return for research and/or teaching assistance. Many of these fellowships are decided on the basis of gender, ethnicity and financial need. Be sure to check with your university for research grants and fellowships in your field of study for which you may be qualified.

Private Sources

Professional associations in the sciences, healthcare, education and many more fields are prime sources for student aid. Many of these aid packages are based on area of study, ethnic background or gender. Besides tuition assistance for professional members and student members, keep in mind that these are also excellent sources for research grants and travel grants.

• The Geological Society of America awards annual research grants to students pursuing their masters or doctoral studied in the geological science fields. The program is open to students attending accredited universities in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
• The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation annually administers the Doctoral Dissertation Research Grant in Women's Studies to qualifying female students attending an accredited U.S. University.
• The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation sponsors the Guggenheim Fellowships to Assist Research and Artistic Creation which are designed to encourage graduate studies in all aspects of the humanities and liberal arts.

These few examples of private sourced grants and fellowships available to graduate students should give a good indication of the diversity of fields and disciplines for which financial aid is available. A little research and detective work will uncover a vast array of privately funded graduate and post graduate fellowships and grants available to students studying in a diverse number of disciplines.

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Grants & funding.

The National Institutes of Health is the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world. In fiscal year 2022, NIH invested most of its $45 billion appropriations in research seeking to enhance life, and to reduce illness and disability. NIH-funded research has led to breakthroughs and new treatments helping people live longer, healthier lives, and building the research foundation that drives discovery.

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Grants Home Page

NIH’s central resource for grants and funding information.

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Find Funding

NIH offers funding for many types of grants, contracts, and even programs that help repay loans for researchers.

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Grant applications and associated documents (e.g., reference letters) are due by 5:00 PM local time of application organization on the specified due date.

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How to Apply

Instructions for submitting a grant application to NIH and other Public Health Service agencies.

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An orientation to NIH funding, grant programs, how the grants process works, and how to apply.

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By accepting a grant award, recipients agree to comply with the requirements in the NIH Grants Policy Statement unless the notice of award states otherwise.

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News, updates, and blog posts on NIH extramural grant policies, processes, events, and resources.

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• CAREER FEATURE
• 24 May 2024

What steps to take when funding starts to run out

• Neil Savage 0

Neil Savage is a science and technology journalist in Lowell, Massachusetts.

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Bridge-funding programmes can provide researchers with enough money to sustain their work until they have secured a bigger grant. Credit: Getty

Zhen Jiang had spent several years studying molecules that regulate insulin signalling and glucose transport, and his results were urging him in a new research direction, focused on inflammation in obesity and how it relates to tissue damage. After five years, his first grant from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) was running out, so he applied for new funds to follow the leads he’d uncovered.

But reviewers scored his grant application too low to qualify for funding, and suddenly Jiang, a biochemist at Boston University’s Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine in Massachusetts, found himself without the funds he needed to keep his laboratory, of three people, running. “We depend on grant support, and if you don’t have money, a school can let you go.” A stressful situation to be in, he says.

Trying to work out what to do, he turned to the programme officer at the NIH. The officer noted that his score was close to being accepted, and suggested he apply for an NIH bridge grant, which would give him US$350,000, allowing him to gather more data and strengthen his next, larger, grant application. He also received some funding from his university, which he says was crucial to keep the lab going. After 6 months of accumulating data, he reapplied to the NIH and won a 3-year grant of about $415,000 per year to study inflammation in liver tissue, then a second 4-year grant for more than $500,000 per year to apply his work to the heart.

NIH pay rise for postdocs and PhD students could have US ripple effect

“This kind of bridge fund is so necessary for a lab,” Jiang says, even though the amount was tens of thousands of dollars less than one year’s worth of standard funding, which can be around $500,000 per year. It does mean, however, that researchers need to make sacrifices. “You have to cut your cost,” he says. “That’s the only way to do it.” He was forced to lay off one member of his lab and take on more of the work himself.

Jiang, who had worked as a physician in Jiangxi, China, before switching to research, knew that he’d have to fight for funding in this line of work. “This is always a competitive field. The money’s always not enough,” he says. “You have to work very hard in order to find something new and convince your funder into supporting you. It’s a tough business.”

Ahead of the game

The problem of maintaining enough support to keep lines of research going is a continuing one for academics, with the major government funding bodies regularly awarding money to only one-quarter — or less — of the proposals that they receive. The funding gaps lead to stress for researchers, who might have to curtail a line of enquiry, lay off support staff or postdocs and even potentially lose their position.

Statistics show that the problem hasn’t changed much in years, although budgets might now be spread thinner. Over the past two decades, the percentage of successful applications for NIH research grants has hovered at around 20% (see go.nature.com/4bghwbi ). Although the gross amount of those grants has increased, the NIH’s spending power has remained relatively constant; the average NIH grant size was $247,000 in 1998 and in 2022, it was $288,000 in 1998 dollars (see go.nature.com/3uh4mup ). And although the funding has stayed the same, the money has to go further, because the NIH approved an 8% pay raise for postdoctoral researchers earlier this year.

The NIH, which is the world’s largest funder of biomedical research, gave out just shy of 59,000 awards in 2023, a total of $34.9 billion.

Around only one-quarter of grant proposals that are submitted to major funding bodies are successful. Credit: Adapted from Getty

The US National Science Foundation (NSF), meanwhile, handed out more than 11,000 awards in the 2020–21 fiscal year, the latest year for which statistics are available. Applicants had a success rate of 26%. The situation in the United Kingdom is similar; the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funding agency gave out £3.1 billion (US$3.9 billion) in the 2022–23 fiscal year, with a success rate of 27%.

The success rate for Horizon Europe, a European Union funding scheme with €95.5 billion (US$103.6 billion) to give out between 2021 and 2027, is even lower. As of 2022, applicants had a success rate of 16% for 5,509 grants, up from 12% in the final year of Horizon 2020 (the EU’s previous funding scheme that ran from 2014 to 2020). The European Commission says that 71% of high-quality proposals don’t get funded (see go.nature.com/3yuzhp4 ). Germany is the leading European country in research expenditures, and the German Research Foundation (DFG) had around €3.9 billion to work with in 2022. It funded 26.5% of applications, including humanities and social sciences.

Boom and bust

Post-pandemic spikes in inflation have caused researchers to run out of grant money quickly, especially in the United Kingdom, where prices have soared much more rapidly than in the United States. Researchers estimate their costs when applying for a grant, says Bryony Butland, a former programme director at UKRI and now director of research and innovation at Queen Mary University of London, but thanks to inflation, those estimates don’t hold over four or five years of funding. “You’re in the middle of spending it, and suddenly you find that goods prices, things that you want to do, consumables have all gone up,” she says.

The uncertainty in funding can be hard on researchers, says Stuart Buck, a lawyer based in Houston, Texas. Buck runs the Good Science Project, which is searching for more sustainable ways to fund research. He says he spoke to a principal investigator with several postdoctoral students at a leading university, who told him that because of the 20% success rate, he applies for multiple grants at one time. One year the researcher applied for ten five-year grants, and not one was funded, Buck says. The next year, three applications that he resubmitted were successful.

US postdocs on strike: how will demands for higher wages be met?

Aside from the stress that this kind of boom-and-bust cycle creates for researchers, Buck says, it also introduces uncertainty. “It’s hard to have long-term planning for who to offer multi-year positions to when you’re not sure whether your funding might double one year because you got two grants, or it might be cut in half one year because you lost one of your grants.” And time spent submitting proposals is time not spent doing research. “We want people who are trained scientists to be able to focus on science and not just worry about having to hustle for money,” Buck says.

Toll on trainees

The loss of grants can also take a toll on trainee researchers’ careers. Wei Yang Tham, an economist at the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, and his colleagues compared data from a group of NIH grants with data from the US census and tax records to look at what effect lapses in funding had on people working in labs with a single grant (see go.nature.com/4br9fli ). After a grant ran out, personnel in these labs were 40% more likely than others to disappear from the tax records, he found, meaning that they probably became unemployed. A lot of those people, many of whom had gone to the United States to study, end up leaving the country, Tham says. The largest effects are not on the faculty members, but on postdocs, graduate students and non-research staff such as project managers. Those who do stay, Tham and his colleagues found, earn on average 20% less five years later than do their continuously funded peers.

Bridging the gap

To avoid such problems, many institutions have programmes that provide labs with bridge funding, which can be used to tide over labs for a relatively short period of time while a larger package of money is sought from a research funder. A portion of research grants are intended to pay for the indirect costs of an academic lab, including fees for building maintenance, student services and utilities, which are distributed among the academic department, the school it’s in or the university as a whole. University administrators might be able to use some of that funding to provide a cushion for researchers whose money runs low.

Bridge-funding programmes are important both to make sure that a university can treat its employees well and to ensure the continuity of the science, says Deborah Thomas, a geographer and interim associate vice-chancellor for research at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Labs would prefer not to lose their graduate students, postdocs and research scientists, and then have to look for new staff members when funding is restored. “If you have to let that person go, then you have to rehire, there’s a lot of time involved in that. Plus, you lose knowledge,” she says.

Allan Jacobson, a molecular biologist at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School in Worcester, agrees. “We’ve put so much into these people and see them as assets,” he says. “Just because they have a bit of a funding problem doesn’t mean you should let them sink. It’s in the department’s interest to keep everybody happy and functional.”

Jacobson, who spent 30 years as chair of the department of microbiology and physiological systems at the Chan Medical School, negotiated funding from the school to develop what he called a rejuvenation programme. If faculty members were struggling to get grants, he would offer them multi-year in-house ‘sabbaticals’, with funding for supplies and technical help, to work with another researcher at the medical school and learn something new that could bolster their own research.

Jacobson says there can be other creative ways to drum up research support. That includes considering whether research that is struggling to get funding might have some commercial potential, and if so turning to the university’s commercialization office, which can sometimes provide “fairly sizeable grants”, he says. That can then be used for the translation of that research into a product. For instance, one researcher in his department whose funding was on the edge had done work which showed promise as a treatment for an eye disease. The department helped him to team up with a researcher in ophthalmology to develop a mouse model for the study, and the commercialization department helped to license the technology.

How philanthropy can nurture your research

Funding policies and support structures differ across countries. For example, some researchers at German universities have access to bridge funding. Postdocs whose positions are expiring can apply for funding from the DFG to set up their own groups, through the Emmy Noether Programme. At the University of Potsdam in Germany, applicants to the programme who are waiting for a decision and whose applications look promising can receive up to six months of bridge funds, says Barbara Höhle, a linguist and vice-president for research at the university.

Tenured and tenure-track faculty members in Germany, by contrast, don’t have to look to funding agencies to pay their salaries. They have salaries and a budget guaranteed by the universities, which are publicly funded, and agency funding goes towards the implicit cost of hiring researchers. “It’s more the employees in the projects that can be affected by these gaps,” Höhle says. The downside for aspiring researchers, she says, is that universities don’t have much room to increase the number of faculty members.

Planning helps

Researchers can keep their projects going when their laboratory income drops by planning ahead, Jacobson says. It’s a good idea to apply for several grants with different expiration dates, so that money doesn’t run completely dry. And careful budgeting can allow faculty members to save some of their grant in a rainy-day fund; the NIH allows one-time ‘no-cost extensions’ using unspent funds to complete or phase out a project for up to 12 months. Jacobson has twice had a grant expire with no replacement, and was able to survive for a few months until the next grant came along thanks to both of these strategies, he says. “It’s easy to lose funding,” he says. “Most divisions of the NIH are funding 10–12% of approvable grants. It’s a rough world out there.”

The University of Houston in Texas holds grant-writing workshops for its faculty members, says Claudia Neuhauser, a mathematician and the university’s interim vice-chancellor for research. For those who might be funded by, for example, the NIH, but whose research might also appeal to the grants office at the US Department of Defense, the university introduces them to proposal-writing companies that can provide researchers with insights on how to tailor their grant applications for each agency. “Helping somebody make that transition so they can expand the types of grants they can apply for, that’s obviously important,” she says. The university also provides bridge funding of up to $100,000 that faculty members can apply for if their proposal has received a high enough score from the funding agency, which means there’s a good chance it could win funding after a revision.

“We do push team science at the moment quite strongly because there are many more opportunities where you can apply as a team,” Neuhauser says. Collaborating with other scientists can lead to larger grants that are funded for longer and that often include funding for shared equipment.

Some researchers might think that they can improve their odds of success by making the costs in their proposals as low as possible. Butland cautions against this. Not only might the researchers run out of money sooner that way, but they’re also misleading funding agencies about the true costs of research. “We need to try and not underprice ourselves, which then just feeds that underfunding of the system as well,” she says.

New funding opportunities

There is new hope for UK researchers. After being cut out of the EU’s Horizon Europe funding programme by Brexit, the country rejoined it in January this year. Therefore, UK scientists can once again apply to it and to Copernicus, a component of the EU’s space programme.

Butland worries about the effects of the low success rates. “You can be spending a lot of time putting in a research application and actually never winning anything,” she says. “There is a point at which running a full competitive process doesn’t make any sense. It’s a lot of bureaucracy and burden on people.”

But competitive funding is a fact of life in science, she concedes. So researchers whose grants are nearing an end should try to expand their horizons when it comes to looking for funding sources, Butland says. UK researchers shouldn’t just stick with the research council they’re used to, and scientists in the United states can look to other NIH institutes and even other funding agencies. “Maybe another part of the funding landscape actually would find your work really interesting,” she says. “You just need to think about it a little bit differently, speak a slightly different language, but relate to their challenges and opportunities in a way that maybe you haven’t thought about before.”

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-01570-y

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States invest their PHHS Block Grant dollars in a variety of public health areas. PHHS Block Grant dollars are used to support existing programs, implement new programs, and respond to unexpected emergencies. Below are examples of how grantees use PHHS Block Grant Funding.

State and Community Efforts

• Developing and implementing seven teaching modules called the Core Essentials of Public Health: Applications for Public Health Nursing in Minnesota.
• Developing an educational campaign for dengue fever in Hawaii.
• Enhancing laboratory surveillance technologies to provide the rapid identification of causative agents in New York.
• Supporting approximately 32 states to create intervention strategies including nutrition, physical activity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
• Providing support for communities to develop and review health assessments.
• Supporting Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data within states to monitor health status and develop health campaigns to promote healthier living.
• Fluoridating of community water systems.

Additional Initiatives

• Providing support to Governor's councils on Physical Fitness and Sports campaigns and health events.
• Implementing walking trails and walking programs.
• Establishing data and surveillance systems to monitor health status and track the leading health indicators.
• Providing child safety seats and inspections at check sites for proper installation and providing bicycle helmets.
• Training emergency medical service providers.
• Providing funding for screening services to people for hypertension, cholesterol, diabetes, cancers, and infectious diseases for underserved and uninsured populations.
• Developing performance standards for local boards of health to establish consistent governance and performance of local health departments.
• H.R.3982 - 97th Congress (1981-1982): Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981 | Congress.gov | Library of Congress

Preventive Health and Health Services (PHHS) Block Grant

The Preventive Health and Health Services (PHHS) Block Grant Program (Notice of Funding Opportunity OT19-1902) provides federal funding for 61 recipients: all 50 states, the District of Columbia, 2 American Indian tribes, 5 US territories, and 3 freely associated states.

For Everyone

Health care providers, public health.

Home » News » South Africa » Elections

By Enkosi Selane

Digital Journalist

4 minute read

26 May 2024

‘Apply your brains’: IFP leader urges voters to topple ANC; promises graduate grant

Ifp leader velenkosini hlabisa told rally-goers that an ifp government would introduce a r3k unemployed graduate grant for a fixed period..

IFP leader Velenkosini Hlabisa. Picture: Khethukuthula Xulu

Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) leader Velenkosini Hlabisa has lambasted the ANC government, urging South Africans to “apply their brains” and vote the ruling party out of power.

During his keynote address at the party’s Sizonqoba rally in Umhlathuzi, KwaZulu-Natal, Hlabisa condemned the corruption and maladministration that has plagued the country for 30 years.

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“For 30 years South Africa was undermined by those entrusted to fulfil the promise of democracy,” he stated.

Hlabisa singled out individuals fingered in the Zondo Commission Inquiry into State Capture report, accusing them of selling out South Africa for personal gain.

He expressed outrage that these same individuals are now standing for re-election.

Elections 2024: These are the battlegrounds you need to watch

“The IFP can’t stand by and watch the destruction of South Africa. It must stand as a party for an alternative government,” he said.

ALSO READ: WATCH: MK party claims sabotage amid another  Zuma no show at rally 

IFP election promise: R3k for unemployed graduate grant

Furthermore, the IFP leader expressed his discontent with the employment of foreign nationals in entry-level jobs.

He said the country is in crisis and its citizens should be shielded from “hunger and deprivation and despair before helping other African nationals”.

Hlabisa shared the party’s policy of introducing the “unemployed graduate grant”, a move aimed at alleviating poverty and stimulating economic growth.

He promised that an IFP government would provide R3,000 unemployed graduates for a fixed period in order to “enable those already equipped with skill to enter the labour market”.

Need for WiFi and internet services

Furthermore, Hlabisa said during his campaign trails he engaged with the youth who shared with him their need for basic WiFi and internet services.

He highlighted the struggles of young people in rural South Africa, who lack connectivity and are thereby deprived of learning and working opportunities.

ALSO READ: WATCH: DA leader John Steenhuisen tells voters ‘help is on the way’

Load shedding will be back after elections – IFP

Like many other politicians, and citizens alike Hlabisa predicted an “immediate” return of load shedding after the elections.

He called the halt of load shedding a “sudden and predictable” move.

“After 17 years of rolling blackouts, the lights stayed on for two months and every time we turn on the radio another official is claiming that this has nothing to do with elections,” the IFP leader said.

He promised that an IFP government would put an end to it by opening markets to clean energy products.

“Let us become the gamechangers on the continent to do so,” he urged.

WATCH: IFP Sizonqoba rally in Umhlathuze, KZN

ALSO READ: WATCH: ‘If Nelson Mandela was around, he would be voting for Bosa’ – Maimane

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