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External Opportunities

University of Maryland graduate students have been highly successful in competing for fellowships awarded by outside agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, and the Ford Foundation. Even if you have a funding guarantee from your department, there are compelling reasons to apply for a competitive external fellowship.

  • A competitive external fellowship is an honor that will stay with you throughout your career
  • Distinguish your CV when you enter the job market.
  • Clarify your thinking about your research and expose you to valuable feedback.
  • Increase your flexibility in selecting advisors, choosing research projects, and conducting fieldwork.
  • Help faculty support more students by bringing your own funding to a field.

Listed below are various funding opportunities external to the University. Deadlines vary.

SPINPlus Search System:  The university subscribes to the SPINPlus database that houses more than 40,000 funding opportunities worldwide. UMD faculty, staff and students can request a profile and then begin using the site free of charge.  Use SPIN to set up one or more sets of parameters, save your searches, download results, and set up email alerts.

UMD National Scholarships Office (NSO):  This office is located in Marie Mount Hall and they primarily support undergraduate students.  However, NSO does provide support for graduate students applying for the NSF GRFP, Fulbright, Ford Predoctoral Fellowship, and others.  Consult the NSO Graduate Student webpage for more information.

Students interested in being nominated for limited submission fellowships (Apple Scholars, Google PhD fellowship, etc...) should talk to their department to learn about the nomination process. 

AAUW - American Association of Women American Fellowship
AAUW - American Association of Women Career Development Grants
AAUW - American Association of Women International Fellowships
AAUW - International Fellowships For Women
ACLS: Henry Luce Foundation Program in China Studies
ACLS: The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Program in Buddhist Studies
American Philosophical Society (Postdoctoral)
American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT)
Azrieli International Postdoctoral Fellowship
Big Ten Academic Alliance-Smithsonian Fellowship
Canadian Federation of University of Women
Center fo Khmer Studies
Center for Khmer Studies Dissertation Fellowship
Consortium on Race, Gender and Ethnicity - Advanced Doctoral Student Dissertation Grants
DAACS Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery - DAACS
DOE Office of Science Graduate Student Research Program
Elizabeth Munsterberg Koppitz Fellowship Program
Frasure-Kruzel-Drew Memorial Fellowship at the U.S. Department of State
History of Art Institutional Fellowships (Kress Foundation)
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
John F. Kennedy Library: Ernest Hemingway Research Grants
Marshall Sherfield Fellowships
Meta Fellowship Program
National Gallery of Art: Ailsa Mellon Bruce Predoctoral Fellowships for Historians of American Art to Travel Abroad
National Gallery of Art Predoctoral Dissertation Fellowship Programs
National GEM Consortium
National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowships
Newberry Long-Term Fellowships
NIH and NIMH Fellowships
Omohundro Institute - Short Term Fellowships
Organization of American Historians: Huggins-Quarles Award
PhRMA Foundation: Health Outcomes Predoctoral Fellowship (Limited Submission)
SSRC: Next Generation in Social Sciences in Africa: Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Fellowship
Wenner Gren Foundation

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