Currently 16 active research and journalism grants, fellowships and residencies open to applicants in the US. Hand-curated and updated weekly. Almost every entry is funded; a few notable unpaid open calls and festival submissions are included as clearly flagged exceptions. Browse the list below, or use the interactive desk for filtering and shortlisting.
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Grants for in-depth investigative reporting that exposes corruption, malfeasance or misuse of power across public and private sectors. Covers print, online, broadcast, books, documentaries and podcasts. Surveillance, abuse-of-power and accountability investigations all fit. Letter of Commitment from a news outlet required for full proposals (not for seed). Seed deadline ~10 May 2026; regular deadline 14 September 2026, 23:59 ET. Reviewed three to four times per year. Stories must be published in English with a U.S. media outlet. Ethnic media and journalists of colour particularly encouraged.
The John W. Kluge Center awards twelve residential fellowships a year for humanistic and social science research that draws on the Library of Congress collections, with interdisciplinary and cross-cultural projects particularly welcome. Fellows get four to eleven months in residence at a stipend of USD 5,000 per month, work and discussion space in the Jefferson Building, and access to the Library's specialist staff, the world's largest law library, extensive multilingual books and periodicals, and deep special collections of manuscripts, maps, music, films, recorded sound, prints and photographs, alongside the wider scholarly community in Washington. The Center was established in 2000 through a USD 60 million endowment from John W. Kluge. ELIGIBILITY: scholars who received a terminal advanced degree (the highest degree available in the discipline, usually a PhD, JD or international equivalent) within the past seven years, in the humanities, social sciences, or a professional field such as architecture or law. The degree must be in hand at the time of submission, and full-time students are therefore out of scope. Open to U.S. citizens and foreign nationals; selected foreign nationals are assisted in obtaining a Library-sponsored J-1 visa, though holders of H-1B visas are not eligible. APPLICATION: through the Library's online portal, opening 15 April 2026 and closing 11:59pm on 15 September 2026. Materials required are an application form in English, a CV (max 2 pages), a 500-word research abstract, a one-page statement on how the Library's collections will serve the work, a project proposal with work plan (max 3 pages), a bibliography (max 3 pages), and two reference letters from referees who have read the proposal. No fee.
The ILIAD Fellowship is a 3-month mentored research fellowship producing concrete outputs in applied-mathematical AI alignment research, distinct from ILIAD's four-week taught Intensive. Fellows work in person in London or the SF Bay Area with a USD 6,000 per month travel-and-housing allowance. ELIGIBILITY: primarily PhD and postdoc researchers in mathematics, theoretical physics, theoretical computer science or related fields, though a degree is not a hard requirement given substantial research experience; limited remote flexibility. DEADLINES: 21 September 2026 for the November cohort (2 November 2026 to 5 February 2027); 19 October 2026 for the December cohort (1 December 2026 to 5 March 2027). A single common application at iliad.ac/apply covers the Fellowship and the Intensive.
The American Academy in Berlin is an independent, nonprofit institute for advanced study in the arts, humanities, social sciences, law, journalism and public policy, whose primary mission is to strengthen the cultural and intellectual ties between the United States and Germany. Each year, after a rigorous selection process, the Academy awards roughly two dozen semester-long Berlin Prize fellowships to individuals who demonstrate excellence in their fields. DISCIPLINES: applications are welcome across the humanities, social sciences, law, journalism and various areas of public policy. The Academy generally encourages projects addressing pressing issues of the day, specifically naming democracy, security, technology and society (especially AI), energy including climate, and global order. Dedicated fellowships also support projects in Jewish studies, German studies, and public health and biotechnology. Project proposals need not focus on Germany, but candidates should explain how a residency in Berlin would enhance their work. NOT ACCEPTED: proposals in mathematics or the natural sciences. NOTE FOR ARTISTS: visual artists and composers are invited through separate, nomination-based competitions, so there is no open application route for them here. ELIGIBILITY: fellowships are restricted to citizens and permanent residents of the United States. Both emerging and established figures are eligible. PhD holders qualify as emerging scholars with a strong record of peer-reviewed work beyond the dissertation; candidates in non-academic fields such as journalism, filmmaking and policy need a significant record of publication or production; fiction and nonfiction writers must have published at least one book with a reputable press. WHAT FELLOWS DO: fellows present their work to audiences in and around Berlin through lectures, readings, public discussions, performances and film screenings, and should be willing to engage with relevant German institutions, organizations and the media; these activities are integral to the Academy's mission of fostering transatlantic dialogue. APPLICATION MATERIALS: a project proposal of 1,500 to 1,750 words plus a one-page bibliography; a curriculum vitae of up to 10 pages; two writing samples totalling no more than 60 pages; and three letters of recommendation, which are due 2 October 2026. DEADLINE: Friday 25 September 2026 at 12:00 noon Eastern Time (18:00 Central European Time). TIMELINE: all candidates are notified of the competition outcome by email in late March 2027; the 2027-28 Berlin Prize recipients are announced in May 2027.
Long-running fellowship for in-depth, investigative written reporting on subjects of public interest, now administered by the Fund for Investigative Journalism after the foundation's December 2025 merger. For seasoned reporters with a body of in-depth written work; freelancers are encouraged and staff journalists may apply if they take leave (part-time work is allowed during the fellowship, full-time is not). Twelve-month fellows produce four articles, six-month fellows two. Decisions by end of 2026. Distinct from FIJ's regular reporting grants. No application fee.
NEH project grants supporting interpretive exhibitions, historic-place programming and discussion programmes that bring humanities scholarship to public audiences. Aimed at strengthening the humanities in public life through scholarship-informed public engagement (rather than primary research). Two upcoming application windows: 15 October 2026 and 9 December 2026. Two scales: Planning grants up to USD 75,000, and Implementation grants up to USD 1,000,000 (most awards substantially smaller than the cap). ELIGIBILITY: US-incorporated non-profits with appropriate IRS status, libraries, museums, historical organisations, or accredited US colleges and universities; individual scholars participate as project directors on behalf of an eligible institution. Aimed at projects that engage broad public audiences with humanities content (history, culture, philosophy, literature, etc.).
The AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowships place scientists and engineers inside US federal agencies, congressional offices and the judicial branch for a year of hands-on policymaking, contributing technical knowledge and analytical skills to the federal policy process. AI, data and computing policy placements are among the largest tracks, and AAAS runs a dedicated AI legislative branch cohort that places AI experts in congressional offices at GS-12 Step 10 on the DC locality scale. ELIGIBILITY: US citizens holding a PhD or equivalent doctoral degree in any science or engineering field, or a master's degree in engineering plus three years of post-degree professional experience; some tracks accept a bachelor's plus five years. Relevant expertise includes AI, machine learning, computer science, robotics and data science. Fellows must reside in DC, Maryland or northern Virginia during the fellowship year. TIMELINE: the application portal opens 1 August 2026 and closes 1 November 2026 at 11:59pm ET, with eligibility notification in late November, interview notification January to February 2027, semi-finalist interviews in March, placement offers by early May, and the fellowship year running 1 September 2027 to 31 August 2028. Apply through fellowshipapp.aaas.org.
The American-Scandinavian Foundation's award program for study and research abroad is its longest-standing commitment to educational exchange: over the past 100 years, more than 4,000 fellowships and grants have gone to Americans working in the Nordic region and Scandinavians in the US engaged in study, research, or creative arts projects. Fellowships for Americans in the Nordic Countries support projects in Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Sapmi. AMOUNTS: long-term fellowships of up to USD 23,000 for 4 to 12 months, and short-term grants of up to USD 5,000 for 1 to 3 months; awards are given in all fields, with graduate students (preferably dissertation-related), academic professionals, and creative artists eligible. In 2026, 31 American Fellows were granted over USD 277,390 in total. REPORTING: fellows abroad more than six months submit an interim report mid-project, and all fellows submit a final narrative report within 60 days of the fellowship period's end. DEADLINE: 1 November 2026 for the 2027-28 cycle. See ASF's Program Guidelines for full requirements and apply via the ASF application portal.
ACLS Digital Justice Grants fund digital projects in the humanities and interpretive social sciences that critically engage with the interests and histories of people of colour and other historically marginalised communities, including Black, Latinx, Indigenous, disabled and LGBTQ+ communities. The programme's stated aims are to diversify the digital domain, advance justice and equity in digital scholarly practice, and contribute to public understanding of racial and social justice issues, with an explicit interest in scholars working with under-utilised or understudied source materials and those at institutions with less infrastructure for digital work. TWO TRACKS, one deadline: SEED GRANTS of USD 10,000 to 25,000 for projects in the start-up or prototyping phase, covering planning, prototyping and methodology testing; and DEVELOPMENT GRANTS of USD 50,000 to 100,000 for projects that have moved past proof of concept and can show preliminary work and evidence of engagement. ELIGIBILITY: at least one principal investigator must be a scholar in the humanities or interpretive social sciences, and awarded funds must be administered by a US institution of higher education. WHAT IS NOT FUNDED: creative works such as novels or films, textbooks, straightforward translations, purely pedagogical projects, and institutional indirect costs. Note that outputs are expected to be made as widely available as intellectual property allows, ideally under the most liberal open-source or Creative Commons licence. TIMING: applications go through the ACLS online fellowship and grant administration system (ofa.acls.org) by 3 November 2026 at 17:00 ET; grant terms begin between 1 July and 31 December 2027 and run 12 to 18 months. The programme is funded by the Mellon Foundation.
The Institute for Law & AI's US Summer Fellowship is a paid research fellowship at the leading edge of US AI law and policy for law students, professionals, and academics, including the Summer Institute on Law and AI in Washington DC and mentorship from LawAI research staff. FUNDING: USD 2,000 per week, a USD 10,000 relocation/housing stipend for DC-based fellows, covered flights, accommodation and meals for the Convening Week, and potentially higher subsidies for exceptional candidates. ELIGIBILITY: a strong grasp of US legal principles applicable to AI regulation via formal US legal study (incoming 1L and up) or comparable professional experience; full-time commitment 14 June to 20 August 2027; valid US work authorization required (visa sponsorship possible but not guaranteed). The application takes about 20 minutes. DEADLINE: 29 January 2027, 11:59PM ET.
The American Sunlight Project works to ensure that citizens have access to trustworthy sources to inform the choices they make in their daily lives. It is looking for a Free Expression Fellow to produce its regular newsletter on censorship, helping readers stay informed on a rapidly evolving US political landscape. RESPONSIBILITIES: compile and write 'Last Week in Censorship', a clear and engaging newsletter-style roundup of platform policy changes, censorship news and regulatory developments that erode American democracy; and, in support of the organisation's censorship tracker, compile instances from the weekly briefing into a database. IDEAL CANDIDATE: motivated to document instances of democratic backsliding in the United States and happy to take on a part-time nonprofit commitment in service of that goal. The posting explicitly welcomes students, retirees and people looking to moonlight for a good cause. REQUIRED: U.S. citizenship or legal residency; exceptional writing skills with a strong command of tone, clarity and synthesis; and knowledge of U.S. politics and social media. DESIRABLE: experience in research, journalism, public policy or a related field. STRONG PLUS: familiarity with tech policy, internet culture, free expression issues and/or platform governance. Familiarity with Substack is a plus but not required. TERMS: roughly 5 to 8 hours per week, fully remote with flexible scheduling, starting as soon as possible and running through December 2026 with possible extension pending funding, for a USD 2,500 honorarium. APPLY by emailing your CV, a short cover note of a couple of paragraphs explaining your interest, and a writing sample (preferably on a tech or policy topic) to benjamin@americansunlight.org with 'Fellow Application' in the subject line. No closing date is stated.
Robot foundation models (pi-zero, OpenVLA, GR00T and others) are approaching widespread deployment on the back of more than USD 18 billion in funding, and almost nobody is working on their safety. The Physical AI Safety Institute, a new nonprofit founded by Bear Haon and Kaylene Stocking and seeded by a grant from BlueDot Impact, describes itself as a capacity-building organisation growing the community that develops techniques to interpret, align and control robot foundation models. Its research fellowship runs in 12-week cohorts: each fellow works within a stream led by a mentor on a concrete problem in physical AI safety, with mentors drawn from researchers with track records in robot foundation models, mechanistic interpretability, safe control or adversarial robustness for embodied systems. Each cohort ends with a research symposium where fellows present their work. STREAMS: mechanistic interpretability (sparse autoencoders and activation patching for VLA and WAM architectures); adversarial robustness (jailbreaking and prompt injection in the embodied action space); runtime monitoring (detecting when a policy operates outside its competence envelope); sim-to-real safety transfer (do safety behaviours survive deployment on physical hardware); and robot security (cyberattack vectors, data poisoning and supply chain for deployed robot models). WHO SHOULD APPLY: researchers with strong technical foundations in robotics or machine learning and a demonstrated interest in safety; prior safety experience is not required. PROCESS: this stage is an expression of interest, not a full application. The form takes about two minutes and asks you to pick your stream and preferred cohort dates; concrete details including stipend figures and application deadlines are shared through that channel, and neither is published on the site as of listing. PAISI also publishes seven free curriculum modules running from classical robot safety through VLA interpretability, adversarial robustness and runtime monitoring to deployment evaluation, plus a white paper, The Case for Physical AI Safety, at paisi.ai/the-case-for-physical-ai-safety. Contact: bear@paisi.ai.
A one-year fellowship placing Fellows directly inside government, non-profit and social-enterprise host institutions across the United States to design and implement high-impact programs, translating data-driven insights into actionable policy recommendations, new programs and operational changes for the partners they serve. STIPEND: USD 47,000 living stipend for the year (scaled up for higher-cost cities) plus a reimbursable health-insurance stipend up to USD 5,000. ELIGIBILITY: primarily intended for candidates graduating from their academic programs in 2026 and/or already working full-time; this is a full-time 12-month commitment. PROCESS: applications and interviews are considered on a ROLLING basis starting in March, so applicants are encouraged to apply early; most engagements begin between June and November, with partner match meetings 6 to 8 weeks before the anticipated start. APPLY: https://www.adf.uchicago.edu/apply
Pulitzer Center's 'Bringing Stories Home' initiative supports in-depth local journalism on under-covered issues in communities across the United States. ELIGIBILITY: freelance and staff journalists working on US-based stories. Grants cover the hard costs of reporting. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis via the Pulitzer Center reporting-grants page.
The Good Life Residents Program is a six-month Roosevelt Institute initiative that develops new leaders and elevates bold ideas across six economic policy priorities under its Good Life Agenda. Each topic area hosts a cohort of 3 to 4 residents plus 1 to 2 senior Topic Advisors (academics, policy leaders, organizers or government practitioners) who provide strategic and intellectual mentorship and moderate the closing event. Residents write a roughly 1,500-word original policy essay advancing a people-centered policy vision against a topic-specific prompt, take part in structured dialogue with peers, Topic Advisors and Roosevelt Think Tank directors, help prepare and appear at a culminating public event, contribute to press opportunities such as op-eds and reporter calls where applicable, and act as ambassadors for the Good Life Agenda in their professional and public networks. The current round, the AI and Finance Residents Program, is run in partnership with Data & Society and asks for bold ideas on how to shape, redirect, interrupt or make more visible and contestable the flows of capital into generative AI. Framing: breakneck investment in generative AI technology and infrastructure is distorting the stock market, profit measures, bond issuance, the pace and composition of growth, job creation and trade policy, with seven tech companies accounting for more than a third of S&P 500 market capitalisation and complex, sometimes circular financial arrangements obscuring risk. Suggested lines of inquiry include what government interventions could improve public oversight, risk allocation and direction-setting in private markets; how other investments could be coordinated and scaled if AI spending is crowding them out; what role public spending or new institutions could play in catalysing technology R&D designed to support workers, sustainability and supply chains; what democratic input mechanisms would keep state influence over capital flows less vulnerable to corruption; and how federal AI policy should address public hostility to data centre investments alongside national security and competitiveness. Compensation is USD 3,000 plus travel and accommodation for the culminating event. FLAG: Roosevelt does not publish an application deadline for the AI and Finance round on the programme page, and earlier rounds (Social Security financing, Federal Reserve powers, housing) each ran their own short application window. Check the Formstack application form linked from the programme page for the current closing date before applying.
The ILIAD Intensive is a four-week, full-time, in-person program for mathematically strong researchers interested in foundational AI alignment, running in London (at LISA) and in Berkeley. It runs five days a week, 10am to 6pm, in cohorts of 15 to 30 participants. CURRICULUM, across five clusters: Alignment (decomposing the alignment problem, pretraining, post-training and deployment, reward learning); Learning (deep learning theory, singular learning theory, training dynamics); Abstractions, Representations and Interpretability (mechanistic interpretability, natural latents); Agency (reinforcement learning, decision theory, agent foundations); and Safety Guarantees (debate, steganography, the limits of interpretability). MONEY: no tuition is charged. Each participant receives a USD 5,000 travel and housing allowance, office space at the venue, and lunch and dinner five days a week. Participants book and pay for their own travel and accommodation out of the allowance. ELIGIBILITY: a strong mathematical background, typically graduate-level study or a completed degree in mathematics, physics or theoretical computer science, though mathematical maturity is weighted more heavily than specific credentials. Research experience, general competence and motivation are also assessed. Prior machine learning or alignment experience is not required. DEADLINE: no fixed closing date is published. A single application covers several upcoming programs and applicants indicate their preferred dates and locations; applications are being accepted for the October 2026 and November 2026 cohorts. HOW TO APPLY: through the application portal at iliad.ac/apply. Questions to contact@iliad.ac.