Funding

Explore the resources below to find information on internal student awards and scholarships, as well as resources to help you find and apply for external grants, fellowships, and awards. Quick links are located below for questions about financial aid and the KU Scholarships portal.

Info on KU Scholarships

KU Scholarship Opportunities Portal

Info on Loans from KU's Office of Financial Aid & Scholarships

Grant and Fellowship Development and Search Resources for All Students 

Writing, developing, and submitting grant and fellowship applications to support your research and writing is an essential component of your graduate career. Writing effective materials is a skill that develops over time and with practice. There are a number of resources available at and beyond KU that will be helpful to you as you develop and submit your materials, such as Rocky Mountain Public Health Training Center's guide to writing a competitive grant proposal. Make sure to also check the graduate student newsletter, GradPaths, from the Office of Graduate Studies and emails from research offices across campus for grant and fellowship development workshops held throughout the year.

A guide to professional development during the graduate years developed by Cynthia Verba, Chapters 4 and 7 cover fellowship and postdoc application materials. Appendix A includes samples of winning fellowships and application materials for all areas and disciplines. 

View Scholarly Pursuits: A Guide to Professional Development during the Graduate Years>>

KU Libraries has partnered with DMP Tool to give KU researchers access to an online Data Management Plan creation tool. This tool will walk you through the items that are required to be included in your Data Management Plan for various funding agencies and applications such as in the NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grants. 

Learn more about Data Management Services and the DMP Tool>>

The KU Writing Center's Graduate Writing Specialist works exclusively with you to help you learn how to improve you graduate-level writing. Office hours are held for graduate students whose needs go beyond the Writing Center's traditional graduate writing consultations, including adjusting to graduate-level writingovercoming writer's blockpublishing journal articleswriting grant/fellowship applications, and completing academic job applications. In addition, you can receive writing coaching, which may be particularly helpful if you are in the thesis/dissertation writing process.

Learn more about the KU Writing Center's Graduate Student Resources, Programs, and Book Appointments>>

KU provides an institution-wide subscription to Research Development & Grant Writing News, which lists a selection of current funding opportunities and provides insights on agency developments, grant-writing tips and other topics of value to strategy-conscious grant seekers. Through this newsletter, which has been published monthly since 2010, authors Mike Cronan and Lucy Deckard share their decades of experience in research development. For access, sign in using your KU account.

KU also provides faculty, staff and you with subscription access to the PIVOT search tool. PIVOT is an easy-to-use key-word-searchable database for finding current funding opportunities specifically tailored to your research needs. PIVOT also provides a number of other resources that may be of interest to researchers.

Please note that in the advance search function of PIVOT, you can search opportunities by applicant type, citizenship, research subject matter, research location, type of opportunity and additional filters to help narrow the search within the global database. 


Research Centers and Additional Discipline-Specific Resources

The KU Office of Research manages a full listing of research centers and institutes as well as a basic overview of the Grant Process. Below you will find additional discipline-specific resources, external funding lists, and helpful newsletters that you are welcome to subscribe to. 

For Students in the Natural Sciences & Math

You should check with your Director of Graduate Study and graduate support staff about specific courses in your degree program on grant development. Many departments in the natural sciences and math offer these courses or grant development and grant writing as part of other departmental courses and proseminars. 


For Students in the School of the Arts 

Explore the funding resources provided by the Hall Center for the Humanities' Research & Grant Development Office (RGDO). Many of these resources are developed for research and work in the creative arts.

SOTA also provides internal travel and research funding. Guidelines, deadlines, and other information can be found on the Student Resources section of the SOTA website. 


For Students in the Humanities and Humanistic Social Sciences

The Hall Center for the Humanities Research & Grant Development Office (RGDO) provides resources, services, and workshops on grant and research development for you as a graduate student in the humanities and humanistic social sciences.

RGDO staff support you by providing workshops on crafting effective proposals, one-on-one assistance for select grants, and advice on grant development time management. 

Learn more about RGDO Services>> 

The RGDO maintains a number of extensive funding opportunities lists including opportunities for creative writing research and writing support, digital humanities funding opportunities, and general funding opportunities for you as a graduate student across the humanities and humanistic social sciences.

View the RDGO funding opportunities lists>>

The Hall Center for the Humanities holds a number of internal funding and fellowship competitions including the Richard and Jeannette Sias Graduate Fellowship in the Humanities, Graduate Student Research Travel Grants, Applied Humanities Summer Fellows, and the Applied Humanities Boot Camp.

View details about Hall Center the Humanities funding and fellowship competitions>>


For Students in the Social & Behavioral Sciences 

IPSR brings together social scientists from a broad range of disciplines to pursue and conduct sponsored research at the international, national, regional, state, and local levels.

IPSR staff can support you as a graduate student of affiliated faculty members with grant and fellowship support. Visit their website to learn more.

Learn more about IPSR services>>

Visit IPSR's Grant Resources>>

Fulbright U.S. Student Program Applications

  • KU International Programs coordinates student Fulbright applications. Use the links below to find out more about the program and their services.

Fulbright Quick Links

Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS)

  • Foreign Language & Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships provide financial support for students to immerse themselves in the study of these critical languages.

  • The University of Kansas has three designated FLAS granting institutions providing funding for seventeen less commonly taught languages:

  • Kansas African Studies Center (KASC) Center for East Asian Studies (CEAS) Center of Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS)

FLAS Quick Links

GTA, GRA, and GAs

College Awards

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences works to provide meaningful support and recognition to both you and faculty. To learn more about these opportunities, visit our Awards page.