This page highlights a selection of research funding opportunities available for historically underrepresented populations, including women, from various sponsor agencies and foundations. These are listed in alphabetical order according to the agency, including a program summary,  approximate application deadline, and anticipated award amount. This is not an exhaustive list of all available opportunities. Please also refer to the Internal Funding webpage for additional opportunities.

Note: The following program summaries are intended for informational purposes and do not replace the sponsor's actual funding opportunity announcement. Program availability, eligibility and requirements, and deadlines are subject to change. Always review the sponsor's full announcement to verify program guidelines, requirements and deadlines.

The Annie Jump Cannon Award is for outstanding research and promise for future research by a postdoctoral woman researcher. It is given to a North American female astronomer within five years of receiving her PhD in the year designated for the award. Self nominations are allowed, and all award requirements must be met at the time of nomination.

June

Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy

$1,500 plus travel expense

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The Alzheimer’s Association Research Fellowship to Promote Diversity (AARF-D) is up to three years (minimum two years) and is intended to support exceptional scientist from underrepresented groups working in Alzheimer’s and all other dementia research, and who are engaged in their post-graduate work (i.e. postdoctoral fellows) and before they have their first independent faculty positions (i.e. Assistant Professor) and working in diverse areas of research including basic, translational, clinical, functional and social-behavioral research. Investigators doing clinically-focused research without clinical practice are encouraged to apply to the AARF-D program. The objective of this award is to increase the number of highly trained investigators from diverse backgrounds whose basic, clinical and social/behavioral research interests are grounded in the advanced methods and experimental approaches needed to solve problems related to Alzheimer’s and all dementias in general and in health disparities populations.

 

April

Alzheimer's Association Research Fellowship to Promote Diversity (AARF-D) Program

$175,000 over 2-3 years

The Alzheimer’s Association Research Grant to Promote Diversity (AARG-D) award is up to three years (minimum 2 years) to increase the number of scientists from underrepresented groups at academic institutions in Alzheimer’s and other dementias research. The AARG-D aims to fund investigators who are less than 15 years past their doctoral or post residency (M.D. or D.O.). The objective of this award is to increase the number of highly trained investigators from diverse backgrounds whose basic, clinical and social/behavioral research interests are grounded in the advanced methods and experimental approaches needed to solve problems related to Alzheimer’s and other dementias in general and in health disparities populations. The program purpose is to provide new scientists from underrepresented groups with funding that will allow them to develop preliminary or pilot data, to test procedures and to develop hypotheses. The intent is to support early-career development that will lay the groundwork for future research grant applications to the NIH, NSF and other funding agencies and groups, including future proposals to the Alzheimer's Association.

April

Alzheimer's Association Research Grant to Promote Diversity (AARG-D)

$150,000 over 2-3 years

AFAAR offers a $40,000, one-year postdoctoral fellowship grant (with possible renewal) to a woman interested in developing, validating, or using alternatives to animal methods in the investigation of human health or sex differences. The award is available to postdoctoral female scientists researching human health or sex differences whose research involves development, validation, or use of non-animal alternatives. Applicants must hold an interest in using or promoting non-animal alternatives in research.

October

Fellowship Grant for Alternatives to Animal Research in Women's Health and Sex Differences

$40,000 for 1 year

The Edward A. Bouchet Award promotes the participation of underrepresented minorities in physics by identifying and recognizing a distinguished minority physicist who has made significant contributions to physics research and the advancement of underrepresented minority scientists. The program will help publicize the lecturer's work and career development to the physics community, especially among minority physics students. This award is not limited to physicists currently active in research.

 

JuneEdward A. Bouchet Award$5,000 plus a travel stipend
The Maria Goeppert Mayer Award recognizes and enhances outstanding achievement by a woman physicist in the early years of her career, and to provide opportunities for her to present these achievements to others through public lectures in the spirit of Maria Goeppert Mayer. This award is to be given to a woman during the early years of her career, not later than seven years after the granting of the Ph.D. degree (excluding career interruptions), for scientific achievements that demonstrate her potential as an outstanding physicist.JuneMaria Goeppert Mayer Award$3,000 plus a travel stipend

he Association for Women in Mathematics has administered the NSF-AWM Travel Grant Program for Women since 1988, supporting both travel to domestic or foreign research conferences and, more recently, longer-term visits with a mentor.

February/May/October

Several travel awards available for women

Various

Postdoctoral Enrichment Program (PDEP) provides a total of $60,000 over three years to support the career development activities for underrepresented minority postdoctoral fellows in a degree-granting institution in the United States or Canada whose training and professional development are guided by mentors committed to helping them advance to stellar careers in biomedical or medical research. Generally, up to 12 awards will be granted for enrichment activities annually. This grant is meant to supplement the training of postdocs whose research activities are already supported. It is not a research grant.

January

Postdoctoral Enrichment Program

$60,000 over 3 years

The Schwartz Research Fund is awarded to Ithaca and Geneva-based, as well as Cornell Tech, female faculty and faculty underrepresented in the life sciences at Cornell who display outstanding promise for conducting creative research. The primary goal is to provide seed money for investment in pilot experiments that generate novel preliminary data or open a significant new line of inquiry. Assistant and Associate Professors are eligible to apply.DecemberSchwartz Research Fund for Women and Other Underrepresented Faculty in the Life Sciences $25,000

The President’s Council of Cornell Women (PCCW) awards Affinito-Stewart Grants of up to $25,000 to advance the careers of non-tenured Cornell women and non-binary faculty as well as other junior faculty (of any gender identity, typically at the assistant level) engaged in research and scholarship relating to women’s issues and the advancement of women and non-binary persons. Recipients receive seed funding for research and other academic projects critical to the tenure process.

See website

Affinito-Stewart Grants

Up to $25,000

The Hanna H. Gray Fellows Program supports early career life scientists in academic labs across the U.S., and seeks to increase diversity in the biomedical research community by recruitment and retention of individuals from groups underrepresented in the life sciences. Through their successful careers as academic scientists, Hanna H. Gray Fellows will move science forward and inspire the next generation of scientists from America’s diverse talent pool. The competition is open to those dedicated to basic research from both doctoral and/or medical training paths in the biomedical and life science disciplines, including plant biology, evolutionary biology, biophysics, chemical biology, biomedical engineering, and computational biology. Fellows will receive funding through their academic institution for postdoctoral training and may continue to receive funding during their early career years as independent faculty.

 

JanuaryHanna H. Gray Fellows Program$70,000 for 2-4 years in postdoc phase; $250,000 for 4 years in faculty phase

The L’Oréal USA Fellowships for Women in Science program is a national awards program that annually recognizes and rewards five U.S.-based women researchers at the beginning of their scientific careers. Recipients each receive up to $60,000 that must be put towards their postdoctoral research.

February

Fellowships for Women in Science

$60,000 for 1 year

The Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) offers Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in two tracks: (i) Broadening Participation (SPRF-BP), and (ii) Interdisciplinary Research in Behavioral and Social Sciences (SPRF-IBSS). See the full text of the solicitation for a detailed description of these tracks.

October

SBE Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF)

$62,000 per year for 2 years