National Resources for Research
- American Association for Applied Linguistics Dissertation Award
Description: The Dissertation Award began in 2016 to acknowledge a dissertation that demonstrates research excellence, transcends narrow disciplinary fields, and has impact on and implications for the field of applied linguistics as a whole. Nomination eligibility is for those who have completed dissertations during the two calendar years preceding the award call. The 2025 award nomination is closed. Eligibility: Nomination eligibility is for those who have completed dissertations during the two calendar years preceding the award call. The 2025 award nomination is closed.
- American Association of University Women-Dissertation Fellowship
Description: American Fellowships support women scholars who are completing dissertations, planning research leave from accredited institutions, or preparing research for publication.
Eligibility: Female U.S. citizens and permanent residents in the final year of writing their dissertation.
Amount: $6,000-$30,000 - American Association of University Women-International Fellowship
Description: International Fellowships are awarded for full-time study or research in the United States to women who are not U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Both graduate and postgraduate studies at accredited U.S. institutions are supported.
Eligibility: Female international students pursuing MA and PhD studies in the US, with the intent to return to their home country upon completion.
Amount: $18,000-$30,000 - American Council of Learned Sciences Dissertation Completion Fellowship
Description: Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowships support a year of research and writing to help advanced graduate students in the humanities and related social sciences in the last year of PhD dissertation writing.
Eligibility: Doctoral students in a humanities or social sciences program in a US university, who are in the ABD stage of their studies.
Amount: Up to $38,000 - Boren Awards for International Study (Administrated through IRIS)
Description: Boren Fellowships, an initiative of the National Security Education Program, provide unique funding opportunities for U.S. graduate students to study less commonly taught languages in world regions critical to U.S. interests, and underrepresented in study abroad, including Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Latin America, and the Middle East.
Eligibility: U.S. citizens enrolled in graduate degree programs.
Amount: Up to $24,000 - Duolingo Research Grant
- Education Testing Service (ETS): TOEFL Grant for Doctoral Research in Language Assessment
Description: This grant program supports the timely completion of doctoral research in foreign or second language assessment. Ph.D. candidates around the world working on dissertation research in language assessment are encouraged to apply. The dissertation research can focus on any language.
Eligibility: PhD students with an approved dissertation proposal specializing in second or foreign language assessment.
Amount: Up to $6,000 - Education Testing Service (ETS): TOEFL Young Students Research Program – Graduate Student Research Grants
Description: The Graduate Student Research Grants under the TOEFL® Young Students Series are designed to support foundational research that promotes high-quality language assessment related to young English learners between the ages of 8 and 15.
Eligibility: Graduate students with a focus on language testing or assessment, applied linguistics, or a related field.
Amount: Up to $10,000 - Education Testing Service (ETS): Jacqueline Ross TOEFL Dissertation Award
Description: To recognize doctoral dissertation research that makes a significant and original contribution to knowledge about second or foreign language tests and testing and/or the use and development of such tests and testing.
Eligibility: Graduate students with a dissertation project they intend to present at LTRC.
Amount: $2,500 + travel accommodations to LTRC - Ford Foundation Dissertation Grant
Description: The dissertation fellowships provide one year of support for individuals working to complete a dissertation leading to a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) or Doctor of Science (Sc.D.) degree. The Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship is intended to support the final year of writing and defense of the dissertation.The awards will be made to individuals who, in the judgment of the review panels, have demonstrated superior academic achievement, are committed to a career in teaching and research at the college or university level, show promise of future achievement as scholars and teachers, and are well prepared to use diversity as a resource for enriching the education of all students.
Eligibility: PhD students who are citizens, nationals, or permanent residents of the US, as well as individuals granted deferred action status under the Deferred Actions for Childhood Arrivals Program.
Amount: $28,000 - Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships (Administrated through IRIS)
Description: FLAS fellowships are funded by the U.S. Department of Education and administered by the UW’s National Resource Centers to assist students in acquiring foreign language and either area or international studies competencies. FLAS awards are only available for specific languages, and are contingent on federal funding.
Eligibility: U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Applications by students in professional fields are encouraged. Preference will be given to applicants with a high level of academic ability and with previous language training. - Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (Administrated through IRIS)
Description: This program provides grants to colleges and universities to fund individual doctoral students who conduct research in other countries, in modern foreign languages and area studies for periods of six to 12 months. Projects deepen research knowledge on and help the nation develop capability in areas of the world not generally included in U.S. curricula. Projects focusing on Western Europe are not supported.
Eligibility: Graduate students in doctoral programs in the fields of foreign languages and area studies must apply through the institutions in which they are enrolled. Applicants must be US citizens or permanent residents. - The International Research Foundation for English Language Education (TIRF) – Doctoral Dissertation Grants
Description: Since 2002, TIRF has supported students completing their doctoral research on topics related to the foundation’s priorities.
Eligibility: Doctoral students who have been advanced to candidacy in their PhD studies.
Amount: Up to $5,000 - Language Learning Doctoral Dissertation Research Grants
Description: The Language Learning Dissertation Grant Program provides support for the research work of doctoral candidates in the language sciences. The grant is designed to cover actual expenses, up to $2,000 per grant, e.g., travel for data collection, essential equipment etc., connected with the research component of the dissertation.
Eligibility: Graduate students in doctoral programs applying to this grant must have the proposal approved by the university. Application are accepted only in the window from July 8 – July 15, 2024. - Amount: Up to $2,000
- Midwest Association of Language Testers (MwALT) Graduate Student Award for Excellence in Language Assessment Research
Description: The award is to recognize research that has been carried out by a graduate student in a master’s or doctoral program. Students are encouraged to submit papers that investigate any area of language assessment that involve quantitative and/or qualitative analysis, such as data-driven empirical work or conceptual work (e.g., a literature review, meta analysis, etc.). Projects may address world languages, less-commonly-taught foreign languages, or English as a second or foreign language. The project may have been carried out in the context of a graduate-level course or may be from an original independent project conducted for academic credit (e.g., a course project, a qualifying research paper, a dissertation pilot study). The project must be in final form as a written paper at the time of submission. Research projects not eligible for this award are doctoral dissertations, projects directed by faculty, or papers co-authored with faculty. - NFMLTA/MLJ Dissertation Writing Support Grants
Description: Instituted in 2013 by the NFMLTA and the MLJ, this award helps support graduate students in the fields of applied linguistics and language education at the dissertation writing stage. These grants can provide resources at any stage of dissertation writing, e.g., data gathering, data transcription, data analysis, or write-up of the findings.
Eligibility: Applicants must be enrolled in a doctoral program at a US university (though they do not need to be American citizens), and must have completed all program requirements other than their dissertation.
Amount: $2,500 - NAEd/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship
Description: The Dissertation Fellowship Program seeks to encourage a new generation of scholars from a wide range of disciplines and professional fields to undertake research relevant to the improvement of education. These fellowships support individuals whose dissertations show potential for bringing fresh and constructive perspectives to the history, theory, analysis, or practice of formal or informal education anywhere in the world.
Eligibility: Be candidates for the doctoral degree at a graduate school within the United States. US citizenship is not required.
Amount: $27,500 - National Science Foundation Linguistics Program – Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants (Ling-DDRI)
Description: The Linguistics Program supports basic science in the domain of human language, encompassing investigations of the grammatical properties of individual human languages, and of natural language in general. Research areas include syntax, linguistic semantics and pragmatics, morphology, phonetics, and phonology. The program encourages projects that are interdisciplinary in methodological or theoretical perspective, and that address questions that cross disciplinary boundaries.
Eligibility: Graduate students in doctoral programs in good standing at U.S. institutions. Amount: Up to $12,000 - SSHRC Doctoral Fellowships
Description: SSHRC Doctoral Fellowships support high-calibre students engaged in doctoral programs in the social sciences and humanities. This support allows scholars to fully focus on their doctoral studies, to seek out the best research mentors in their chosen fields, and to contribute to the Canadian research ecosystem during and beyond the tenure of their awards.
Eligibility: For citizens or permanent residents of Canada who have completed no more than 48 months of full-time study in their doctoral program by December 31 of the calendar year of application.
Amount: $40,000 per year - The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans
Description: Every year, The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans supports thirty New Americans, immigrants or the children of immigrants, who are pursuing graduate school in the United States. Each Fellowship supports up to two years of graduate study – in any field and in any advanced degree-granting program – in the United States.
Eligibility: Must be new Americans, immigrants or the children of immigrants at the time of their selection. Fellows must be college seniors or early in their graduate programs.
Amount: Up to $90,000
National Resources for Travel
- American Association for Applied Linguistics Graduate Students Award
Description: The Graduate Student Award is a merit-based award that supports attendance of AAAL graduate student members at the annual conference. The number of awards varies based on the availability of funds. Graduate students who are eligible to apply will be notified by the conference chair by early November and may submit their application once they have confirmed their intention to attend the conference.
Eligibility: MA and PhD students presenting at the annual AAAL conference. Acceptance is based on the quality of their proposal for a paper or poster presentation. Only available for single-authored submissions. Previous award recipients are not eligible to submit. If recipients are unable to attend the conference, they will not receive the award. - International Language Testing Association (ILTA) – TOEFL ILTA Student Travel Grant
Description:The TOEFL ILTA Student Travel Grant, jointly sponsored by ILTA and ETS as of 2023, provides partial travel funding for students whose papers have been accepted at LTRC to attend the conference.
Eligibility: Graduate students may apply for this grant if their proposal to present at LTRC has been accepted. The proposal should be for a research paper or symposium paper; applications for demos, posters or works-in-progress proposals will not be considered. The student must be listed as an author, but need not be sole author. For co-authored papers, co-authors must be other students rather than supervisors, professors or other senior colleagues. In the case of co-authored papers, the honorarium may be shared among students if both have applied for the grant.
Amount: $1,000-$1,500 - NFMLTA/MLJ Conference Presentation Support Grants
Description: Instituted in 2017, this grant is intended to help defray the costs of conference attendance by foreign language professionals during the academic year. A maximum of 30 awards with a limit of $1,000 of reimbursable expenses per recipient will be made. - TESOL International Association – The Meral Güçeri TESOL/TEFL Travel Grant
Description: To provide resources for English language professionals to attend the annual TESOL International Convention & English Language Expo.
Eligibility: TESOL members in good standing who are currently practicing English language teachers, teacher trainers, or supervisors with at least 5 years of experience working in a setting where English is taught as a foreign or additional language (EFL/EAL). Professionals working in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, are not eligible for this award.
Amount: Up to $2,500 - TESOL International Association – Leadership Mentoring
Description: The Leadership Mentoring Program (LMP) helps TESOL members become more involved in the work of the association. Preference is given to individuals from underrepresented groups within TESOL. This program pairs selected individuals with experienced TESOL leaders who mentor recipients throughout the year as the partnership works together to contribute their time and expertise to TESOL and its varied activities and projects.
Eligibility: TESOL members in good standing who are interested in becoming more involved in the work of TESOL International Association.
Amount: Free registration to the annual TESOL convention; U.S.$1,000 for lodging expenses during the convention; A mentoring relationship with a TESOL leader.
Other
- Ex Libris Pivot-RP
Description: This is an online suite of tools for researchers and faculty. It provides a means to search for research opportunities, funding, and people. - The Linguist List
- US Department of Education – Federal Student Aid
- Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Grants Database