Internal Funding Opportunities

College of Liberal Arts Opportunities

Internal Awards and Funding Sources Available to CLA Faculty: Funding opportunities including the Imagine Fund, Mid-Career Faculty Research Awards, Social Science Research Grants, and Tenure Track Single Semester Leaves. For general research-related questions in the College of Liberal Arts, contact [email protected].

Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA)

• Community Action Research Grant: Supports University faculty to carry out research projects that answer questions about important regional issues, in partnership with community groups, agencies, or organizations in Minnesota.
• Fesler-Lampert Chair in Urban and Regional Affairs: One year of support for research activities on a project related to urban and regional affairs in Minnesota.

Center for Writing

• Research grants: Center for Writing offers small grants to support faculty and instructors who want to learn more about how writing is conceptualized, taught, and learned (or unlearned) in the disciplines. 

Human Rights Initiative (HRI)

• The Human Rights Initiative (HRI) supports faculty-led interdisciplinary human rights research.

Institute for Global Studies

• Funding Opportunities: Opportunities including the FLAS fellowships, J.W.G. Dunn Jr. Scholarship, and the Title VI Faculty Travel Grants. 

Imagine Fund

• The Imagine Fund is an arts and humanities endowment supported by the McKnight Foundation. The foundation provides faculty research awards, visiting distinguished professorships, and a special events fund.

Institute for Advanced Study

• IAS Incubator: Call for Concepts provides small grants, project development assistance, and fundraising support for promising, early-stage, interdisciplinary projects.
• Humanities Without Walls consortium links the humanities centers at 16 research universities throughout the Midwest and beyond. HWW supports two ongoing initiatives: Grand Research Challenge grants and Predoctoral Career Diversity Residential Summer Workshops.
• Research and Creative Collaboratives provide support for interdisciplinary collaboration, research, or activities.
• Residential Faculty Fellowships offer faculty time and space to pursue intellectual and creative work among the IAS’s interdisciplinary community of scholars.

Research and Innovation Office (RIO)

• UMN Internal Funding Opportunities
• Artist-in-Residence grant. The program allows artists to collaborate with scientists to benefit both science and art, spurring creative thinking and innovation.
• Grant-in-Aid of Research, Artistry and Scholarship Program (GIA): Grants to promote the scholarly and artistic activities of the faculty and their graduate students and to foster academic excellence within the University.
• Social Justice Impact Grants: Social Justice Impact Grants (SJIG) aim to catalyze rigorous, solution-oriented research on social justice topics. These funds are to support research that holds high potential for building a more equitable and just society, future external funding, and career advancement. All research designs and methodological approaches (e.g., quantitative, qualitative, mixed method, record reviews) are welcome. Focus may be on any geographical place or scale, but work benefiting the state of Minnesota is prioritized.

Office of the Vice President and Vice Provost for Equity and Diversity

• Innovation, Diversity, Equity, and Achievement: Established by the Office of the Vice President and Vice Provost for Equity and Diversity, the University of Minnesota IDEA (Innovation, Diversity, Equity, and Achievement), IDEA supports transformative research and provides opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration. By convening University of Minnesota scholars to collaborate across disciplines, departments, colleges, and campuses, IDEA fosters an welcoming campus climate for all faculty.