Graduate Research & Creative Inquiry

Professor Evelyn Davies-Venn with SLHS students

The College of Liberal Arts is a Research 1 institution offering graduate degrees, ranging from the minor to professional MA degrees to the PhD, in more than 50 program areas. While our 1,500 graduate students develop their capacity to produce distinguished research and creative work, they also are instilled with a commitment to serve, lead, teach, and inspire future generations of students and professionals.

Competitive funding resources are available for graduate students along with proposal development and consultative services for collecting, managing, and analyzing data to researchers in CLA and across the University. Detailed information about specific graduate research, publications, and awards can be found on individual department sites

Search Tools

  • SPIN contains over 40,000 funding opportunities from 10,000 federal, public, non-profit and private funders. Please note that to access SPIN off-campus, you will need to set up an account.
  • Pivot covers grants from around the world, including those from government agencies and private groups.
  • Foundation Directory Online (FDO) Profiles and recently awarded grants from over 80,000 foundations.

UMN Resources 

  • Center for Writing. Get student writing support for free face-to-face and online writing consultations for all University of Minnesota students—graduate and undergraduate—at all stages of the writing process. Tips especially for graduate writers

  • Data Management Plan (DMP). Assistance is available in person or online. The Libraries also have links to institutional policy regarding intellectual property, sharing in data repositories, and data reuse.

  • Research Resources, Forms, and Policies. The Office of the Vice President for Research maintains a list of commonly used forms and policies. This list includes forms for IRB review, animal care, RCR policy and training, effort certification, etc.

  • Sponsored Projects Administration (SPA). The SPA website provides support for faculty and staff through the lifespan of proposals and awards. The Standard Institutional Information page of the SPA website provides institutional information needed for proposal development and submission. 

  • Statistical Consulting Services. Statistical Consulting Services in the School of Statistics provides fee-for-service statistical support to improve research in all areas at the University of Minnesota. They can assist with designing experiments and surveys, selecting and performing appropriate analyses, interpreting results, and writing about statistical methods or results.

  • University Libraries. The University Libraries provide support to researchers in all stages of the research process. From finding appropriate funding sources to answering copyright questions, or assisting with specialized media production, the University Libraries are an excellent resource.

Proposal Development