Grants / National Science Foundation / U.S. National Science Foundation

NSF 24-605: Cultural Anthropology Program - Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants

Closed Closed Opportunity NSF 24-605 ☆ Save

This grant is closed. A newer notice from the same program is open now: Major Research Instrumentation Program: (MRI) (NSF 27-500). Status: Closes January 29, 2027 (83 days left). It is in our archive of U.S. National Science Foundation notices from 2024.

• Total funding$800,000
• Expected awards50
• Cost sharingNot required
• Funding typeGrant

Key dates

Who can apply

This opportunity was open to the applicants described in the notice.

• Others (see text field entitled "Additional Information on Eligibility" for clarification)

*Who May Submit Proposals: Proposals may only be submitted by the following: -Non-profit, non-academic organizations: Independent museums, observatories, research laboratories, professional societies and similar organizations located in the U.S. that are directly associated with educational or research activities. -Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs): Two- and four-year IHEs (including community colleges) accredited in, and having a campus located in the US, acting on behalf of their faculty members. Special Instructions for International Branch Campuses of US IHEs: If the proposal includes funding to be provided to an international branch campus of a US institution of higher education (including through use of sub-awards and consultant arrangements), the proposer must explain the benefit(s) to the project of performance at the international branch campus, and justify why the project activities cannot be performed at the US campus. -Tribal Nations: An American Indian or Alaska Native tribe, band, nation, pueblo, village, or community that the Secretary of the Interior acknowledges as a federally recognized tribe pursuant to the Federally Recognized Indian Tribe List Act of 1994, 25 U.S.C. §§ 5130-5131. *Who May Serve as PI: The proposal must be submitted through regular organizational channels by the dissertation advisor(s) on behalf of the graduate student. The advisor is the principal investigator (PI); the student is the co-principal investigator (co-PI). The student must be the author of the proposal. The student must be enrolled at a U.S. institution, but need not be a U.S. citizen. To be eligible to serve as the PI, the advisor must be available during the period of submission, review, and performance of the research to relay information and communications from NSF to the student.

Is this a realistic fit?

• Most of the program's money (87% over five years) went to colleges and universities.
• No cost sharing or match is required.

What the grant funds

The primary objective of the Cultural Anthropology Program is to support basic scientific research on the causes, consequences and complexities of human social and cultural variability. Contemporary cultural anthropology is an arena in which diverse research traditions and methodologies are valid in investigations of human cultural variation. Recognizing the breadth of the field's contributions to science, the Cultural Anthropology Program welcomes proposals for empirically grounded, fieldwork/lab-based theoretically engaged and methodologically sophisticated research in all sub-fields of cultural anthropology. Because the National Science Foundation's mission is to support basic research, the NSF Cultural Anthropology Program does not fund research that takes as its primary goal improved clinical practice, humanistic understanding or applied policy. A proposal that applies anthropological methods to a social problem but does not propose how that problem provides an opportunity to make a theory-testing and/or theory-expanding contribution to anthropology will be returned without review. Program research priorities include, but are not limited to, research that increases our understanding of: Sociocultural drivers of critical anthropogenic processes such as deforestation, desertification, land cover change, urbanization and poverty. Resilience and robustness of sociocultural systems. Scientific principles underlying conflict, cooperation and altruism, as well as explanations of variation in culture, norms, behaviors and institutions. Economy, culture, migration and globalization. Variability and change in kinship and family norms and practices. General cultural and social principles underlining the drivers of health outcomes and disease transmission. Biocultural work that considers the nexus of human culture and its relationship with human biology. Social regulation, governmentality and violence. Origins of complexity in sociocultural systems. Language and culture: orality and literacy, sociolinguistics and cognition. Theoretically-informed approaches to co-production in relation to scientific understandings of human variability and environmental stewardship. Mathematical and computational models of sociocultural systems such as social network analysis, agent-based models, multi-level models, and modes that integrate agent-based simulations and geographic information systems (GIS).

Category: Science and Technology and other Research and Development.

Applying now

This notice no longer takes applications. Apply under the newer notice, NSF 27-500, which is open now.

The notice on Grants.gov keeps its full text and attachments, which is useful for planning a resubmission.