Connecting Your Research to Ethics and Funds

The need for ethics in intradisciplinary research and interdisciplinary research is vast. Below is a collection of annotated links to help connect you with funding opportunities that focus primarily on ethics (broadly construed) or include an ethical component. Whatever stage you're at in your academic life (undergraduate, graduate, post-graduate, faculty member, etc.), if funding is what you desire this collection will be of interest to you.

Please, note that we are very happy to help write the proposals and/or conduct the research.

If any of these funding opportunities interests you and you would like to involve the Ethics Center in the application process or implementation of the project upon receiving the award, contact us.

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Internal Funding Opportunities

Provides a useful table detailing the funding opportunities for those in the UNL academic community.  Those that have a focus that is open ended in the sense that the individual applying for the grant/fellowship may specify the topic of study can be aimed at the exploration of applied ethics.  We are happy to help in the development of such a proposal.

National Science Foundation (NSF)

These are NSF funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) primarily focused on ethics in the sciences or with ethics components.

Start by selecting ‘Sort By Date’ (right hand side of the page under the tabs ‘News’ and ‘Statistics’)

NSF – Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs)


These are NSF funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) for REUs primarily focused on ethics in the sciences or with ethics components.

Start by selecting ‘Sort By Date’ (right hand side of the page under the tabs ‘News’ and ‘Statistics’)

NSF – Research Experiences for Teachers (RETs)


These are NSF funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) for REUs primarily focused on ethics in the sciences or with ethics components.

Start by selecting ‘Sort By Date’ (right hand side of the page under the tabs ‘News’ and ‘Statistics’)

National Institute of Health (NIH)

These are NIH funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) primarily focused on ethics or with ethics components.

National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
Enduring Questions


This supports the creation and implementation of an undergraduate humanities course.  Their (non-exhaustive) list of enduring questions addresses fundamental questions about value, how we should live, and what should be allowed.

Collaborative Research Grants (individual or group)


This supports collaborative research in the humanities construed as basic research, conferences, and/or archaeological projects. The project must be used to “enhance understanding of science, technology, medicine, and the social sciences” (NEH FOA, Collaborative Research Grants).  Given the wide scope of this opportunity, the Ethics Center is happy to help you develop a program focused on the exploration of ethics via basic research or a conference as well as in the study of archaeology.

Department of Bioethics – NIH – Fellowship Opportunities

These appear to be ongoing fellowship opportunities.  The application process seems to begin in August of the year preceding the one in which the fellowship will be instituted.

John Templeton Foundation

This foundation supports research on the areas of overlap between science, society, and value.

Getty Images

This foundation supports a variety of projects.  Of particular interest to those seeking to develop a project with an ethics component is the Getty Images Creative Grants. The Ethics Center is happy to help with that development.  Note, however, that Getty Images supports other projects that might be plausibly construed as focusing primarily on ethics or contain an ethical component.  We are happy to help in the development there as well.

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

This institution supports the research of public policy in the form of a residential fellowship.

Social Science Research Council

This institution supports the research of social science scholars most of focus on public policy or other questions of value in relation to global and local public life.  Those that have a focus that is open ended in the sense that the individual applying for the grant/fellowship may specify the topic of study can be aimed at the exploration of applied ethics.  We are happy to help in the development of such a proposal.

American Council of Learned Societies

This institution supports a variety of studies some of which are primary focuses on public policy or questions of value in relation to a particular culture or region.  Those that have a focus that is open ended in the sense that the individual applying for the grant/fellowship may specify the topic of study can be aimed at the exploration of applied ethics.  We are happy to help in the development of such a proposal.

Sociological Initiatives Foundation

This foundation supports a variety of studies most of which concentrate on the U.S. Many of these opportunities are projects aimed primarily at fundamental questions about value and public policy. Those that have a focus that is open ended in the sense that the individual applying for the grant/fellowship may specify the topic of study can be aimed at the exploration of applied ethics. We are happy to help in the development of such a proposal.

It appears that there is not a separate page dedicated to the FOAs offered by this institution.  Rather, site visitors will need to scroll through them on the foundation’s homepage.

Brochard Foundation Center on Law and Aging
Research Grant Program


Grants supporting research on “public policies, laws and/or programs that will enhance the quality of life for the elderly” (BFCLA webpage).

Fellowship


Funds and “oversees the work of three fellows interested in an academic or professional career in law and aging” (BFCLA webpage). 

Harry Frankfurt Guggenheim Foundation (HFG)
Research Grants


Funds science and humanities research focused on understanding violence and aggression.

Dissertation Fellowships


Funds scholars in their final year of Ph.D. work “violence and aggression in relation to social change, intergroup conflict, war, terrorism, crime, and family relationships, among other subjects” (HFG webpage).

Post-Doctoral Support


Funds post-doctoral scholars  whose scientific or humanities research will “increase understanding of the causes, manifestations, and control of violence and aggression” (HFG webpage).

Open Society Foundations

This foundation offers a variety of funding opportunities.  The website provides an excellent search engine for browsing current opportunities offered via this foundation.

The Greenwall Foundation
Faculty Scholars Program 


Funds the scholarship of three junior faculty members per year in the field of bioethics.

New Bioethics Grant Program


This grant supports various types of scholarship that work toward the resolution of “an important emerging or unanswered bioethics problem in clinical care, biomedical research, public health practice, or public policy” (GW webpage).

The Emily Davies and Joseph S. Kornfeld Foundation

This foundation supports a variety of ongoing bioethics research programs. Their application process appears to be always open and the funding opportunities otherwise unspecified.

Edmund J. Safra Center for Ethics – Harvard University

Offers lab fellowships open to all scholars including those outside of Harvard University. The lab studies institutional corruption.

Pfizer

A private business in the healthcare industry supports various independent studies related to the field of healthcare.

National Institute of Justice

Funds research that focuses on “criminal justice policy and practice in the United States” (NIJ webpage, W.E.B. Du Bois Fellowship). This includes the study of the evidence backlogs as well as forensic science.

Society for Professional Journalists (SPJ)

Offers grants, fellowships, and honors excellence in journalism.  Many, not most of these grants, fellowships, and awards focus on ethics in journalism and the ways in which journalism can be a tool for making society better.  Scroll through the webpage to locate something of interest to you.

Note that many of the awards allow self-nomination.