Currently 17 active research and journalism grants, fellowships and residencies open to applicants in Worldwide. 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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A global research fellowship for early- and mid-career researchers whose work can strengthen understanding of how children thrive across diverse contexts. Funds are awarded to and administered by the fellow's institution and may support the fellow's effort and broader research costs (research personnel, professional travel, equipment, dissemination, trainee support). Fellows join an interdisciplinary cohort and take part in convenings. Research must align with one of three themes: the youngest children (birth to eight) in crisis and conflict settings; inclusion and wellbeing of neurodivergent children (with a focus on Autism and ADHD, up to 18); and children's learning and development in an AI-enabled world (up to 18). The role of play may be explored where relevant but is optional. ELIGIBILITY: early- and mid-career researchers worldwide employed by a university or research institute, holding a PhD or equivalent doctorate by July 31, 2026, received no earlier than January 1, 2016 (subject to approved career-break policy). Applicants from any country welcome except those subject to EU or US sanctions. Individual applications only. Materials: online form, two-page CV, 250-word abstract, 500-word personal statement, five-page research proposal, budget and justification, and two-page bibliography. Two-stage review; applicants informed of status in November 2026. Questions: legofellowship@ssrc.org.
MUUS Collection (an American 20th-century photography collection that preserves, researches and reveals work from the archives it owns and represents) launches its first Research Fellowship, inviting a curator or academic to spend a year with the archives to develop an exhibition or publication concept offering a new perspective. The Research Fellow examines physical works and ephemera (journals, contact sheets, cameras, the totality of each photographer's collection) and benefits from the new MUUSEUM online research portal. PROJECT PERIOD: November 2026 to November 2027 (project completes November 2027). ELIGIBILITY: minimum five years professional experience at museums, galleries, universities or similar cultural institutions; international candidates eligible but fluency in English (written and spoken) is required; candidates must be willing to travel to Tenafly, New Jersey for up to a week (mutually agreed dates) and be available for remote collaboration with the archive team and advisory board. Candidates from underrepresented or marginalised communities are encouraged to apply. AWARD: USD 20,000 grant plus full coverage of travel costs to the archive. ANNOUNCEMENT: winner decided in October 2026 and announced at Paris Photo. DEADLINE: 31 July 2026.
Vision Grants are research planning grants that give scholars and their collaborators the time, space, resources and support to plan a large-scale study or program of research focused on transforming education systems toward greater equity. Rather than a fully fleshed-out research plan, the proposal is an invitation to think forward about what research is needed to transform education systems toward equity and how that systems change will happen, identifying the system(s) targeted and the specific levers the team thinks must be engaged. Grants bring together a team for 12 to 18 months to collaboratively develop ambitious, large-scale, cross-disciplinary research projects co-designed with practitioners, policymakers, communities and other partners. Awarded teams also join a cohort learning program held in person in Chicago. ELIGIBILITY: PIs and Co-PIs must have appropriate experience or an earned doctorate in an academic discipline or a terminal degree in a professional field; graduate students may be on the team but cannot be PI or Co-PI. The PI must be affiliated with a non-profit or public/governmental institution willing to serve as the administering organization (colleges, universities, school districts, research facilities, or other 501(c)(3) non-profits, or non-US equivalents); the Spencer Foundation does not award grants directly to individuals. Open to applicants in the US and internationally; proposals in English, budgets in USD. PIs and Co-PIs may apply even with another active Spencer grant or proposal in review, but may not be part of more than one Vision Grant proposal. Note: a Vision Grant is a prerequisite for applying to Spencer's Transformative Research Grant program (TRG, USD 3.5 million), though receiving one does not guarantee a TRG. PROCESS: applications opened 4 June 2026. A required Intent to Apply form (max 200 words, non-binding) is due 12 August 2026 at 12:00 PM noon Central time; the Full Proposal (2000-word narrative) is due 16 September 2026 at 12:00 PM noon Central time. Program contact: Jasmine Knetl, visiongrants@spencer.org.
The inaugural Kennan Institute Digital Fellowship promotes original scholarship and quality non-fiction writing about Russia and the former Soviet Union, with an emphasis on work that has policy relevance. Ten fellowships are awarded per year, and AT LEAST FOUR POSITIONS ARE RESERVED FOR RESEARCHERS PURSUING TOPICS IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES, MEDICINE, TECHNOLOGY OR RELATED FIELDS, which is the route by which a technology-focused project fits this call. The programme aims to give participants time, professional resources and support while bringing their work to a wider public and to the Washington-based policy community, and to build a cohort network that continues into the alumni body. Each fellow receives a monthly stipend of USD 2,000, mentorship and consultation from the Kennan community of experts where applicable, six virtual webinars tailored to the cohort's needs, and membership of the alumni network. ELIGIBILITY: intended for individuals with several years of experience working on, studying or otherwise examining Russia and/or broader Eurasia; applicants must have a good working knowledge of English, as the fellowship is conducted only in English and any publications produced for the Kennan Institute appear first in English with possible later translation into regional languages. The programme runs entirely virtually from 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2027; the Institute does not cover travel-related expenses including visas. Supported by the Lounsbery Foundation and the U.S. Russia Foundation. Deadline 14 August 2026, 17:00 EST. NOTE: 'digital' here describes the virtual format, not the subject matter, so this fits the desk only if your project is itself about technology, data or science.
An eight-week full-time empirical AI alignment research programme run by the AI Alignment Foundation, with a dedicated research manager, mentorship from senior researchers, compute and infrastructure, culminating in a Demo Day where fellows present their work. Fellows receive a USD 12,000 stipend paid in two installments plus a compute budget. The programme is fully remote for the research period; Demo Day is hybrid in Los Angeles and travel is covered for fellows who attend in person. ELIGIBILITY: open to all career stages, including recent PhDs, graduate students, self-taught researchers and career-changers, but candidates need a strong machine learning background, demonstrated engagement with alignment research, prior independent research output, and the ability to work autonomously. Non-US applicants are welcome provided they can make Pacific Time meetings; current graduate students may apply if they can confirm availability. This is explicitly a technical programme: the foundation says policy-focused applicants should not apply. SELECTION: all applications are reviewed, qualified candidates advance to a technical test, and finalists are interviewed, with decisions expected by early September. Applications close 17 August 2026 (Anywhere on Earth); the programme starts 8 September 2026.
Antikythera, a research programme on planetary computation and the evolution of intelligence, invites contributions to Agentworld, a special issue of its peer-reviewed MIT Press journal launching Fall 2026. THEME: Agentworld is a research initiative on the medium-term future of hybrid human-AI societies, framed not around tools for agentic task completion but around what the brief calls 'the human perplexity of deep agentic diffusion'. It treats human societies as the evolutionary niches into which new artificial species must adapt, where the constraints of agentic integration are qualitative and open-ended (psychological, philosophical, linguistic, symbolic, existential) rather than utility functions to be solved. The framing describes a 'parasociety' of densely reticulated social graphs in which agent-to-agent communication constitutes most socially significant interaction, humans and agents anthropomorphise each other by inheritance rather than necessity, and the two overlapping societies act as mutual evolutionary niches. The disciplinary posture proposed is 'a preemptive anthropology of open-world centaur societies': building the vocabulary, scenarios and conceptual armature for an emergent sociality while it is still forming, rather than describing it after the fact. WHAT THEY WANT: theoretical essays and technical papers that engage the Agentworld themes directly and explain how the contribution adds to the special issue's core questions. Philosophical, theoretical, technical, design-led and product-oriented research are all in scope. The call explicitly favours work that exceeds conventional academic journal formats, including contributions combining philosophical argument, technical analysis, design research, diagrams, software, infrastructure proposals, visual media or web-native formats. Contributors may optionally propose still images, diagrams, video, web-based or interactive components, and should say whether they have the design, development or production capacity to realise them; these elements are not required. SUBMIT: an abstract or proposal of up to 500 words; author name(s), affiliation(s), contact details, biography(ies) and CV(s); a designated lead author or contact person for collaborative submissions; and a portfolio with at least one relevant work sample such as a preprint, published article or paper. Full paper drafts are encouraged where available but not required at the initial stage. Submissions may be individual or collaborative. TIMING: the review window opened 25 June 2026. NOTE: no closing date is published on the call page; the deadline shown here is a placeholder set roughly a month out, so check the site or submit early.
USD 10,000 prize from the Association for Mathematical Research for serious experimentation in how mathematicians communicate with one another, beyond the static PDF. Submissions should demonstrate communicative capabilities fundamentally unavailable in a linear paper: interactive exploration of parameter spaces in differential equations, dynamic visualisation of group actions or geometric structures, multi-perspective representations of algebraic or number-theoretic objects, nonlinear navigation of proof architectures or dependency graphs, embedded computation as part of exposition, or similar. ELIGIBILITY: no nationality, institutional or career restriction stated; the focus is mathematical depth and communicative innovation. This is NOT for popularisation, production polish or short-form video content - it is about novel research-to-research communication. EVALUATION CRITERIA: mathematical depth and rigor; conceptual insight enabled by the medium; communicative innovation beyond static exposition; scalability and reproducibility; transformative potential for research communication. PROCESS: initial submissions are a short public YouTube concept demonstration (with the hashtag #AMRPotF and a concise written explanation of the mathematical substance and communicative innovation in the video description), with the YouTube link emailed to PotFPrize@amathr.org. Finalists are asked to provide a fully accessible prototype suitable for hosting or linking within AMR Reviews; the winning submission will be published in AMR Reviews as an interactive exposition. Selection committee: Mohammed Abouzaid, Benson Farb, Alex Kontorovich, Akshay Venkatesh, Maryna Viazovska.
Short-term international research fellowship for scientists seeking placements at host institutions in participating member countries. Fellowships last 6 to 26 weeks and support international scientific collaboration, research mobility, knowledge exchange and cross-border partnerships. PRIORITY THEMES: sustainable agricultural productivity, climate action, environmental protection, biodiversity conservation, soil health, water resource sustainability, knowledge innovation, sustainable livestock systems, fisheries development and aquaculture sustainability. FUNDING: a travel lump sum, return economy airfare, a weekly subsistence allowance (EUR 600 or EUR 650 by host-country cost of living) and a EUR 165 terminal allowance; insurance, visa fees, lab/bench fees and family or personal costs are not covered. ELIGIBILITY: employed by or affiliated with an institution in a participating country; proposed host institution in a different participating country; at least 4 years of postdoctoral experience (exceptional candidates with equivalent expertise and a strong publication record may also be considered). Applicants must not already hold a position at the host institution, need employer approval and assurance of continued employment or affiliation after the fellowship, and previous fellows may reapply only after a 5-year gap. Applicants confirm country eligibility, secure a host institution and collaboration, prepare a research proposal (objective, scientific relevance, methodology, expected outcomes, 6-26 week timeline, collaboration benefits) and submit supporting documents (CV, publication list, employer approval, host acceptance letter, proof of affiliation).
The IOC Olympic Studies Centre supports PhD students and early-career academics conducting scholarly research on the Olympic Movement, its history and ideals, the athletes, the Olympic Games and their impact on contemporary society and culture. ELIGIBILITY: current postgraduate students enrolled in a PhD programme within the human and/or social sciences, with Olympism, the Olympic Movement or the Olympic Games as at least one research focus; also academic staff and postdoctoral fellows who completed their doctorate (or equivalent highest degree) in or after 2024. AWARD: up to USD 6,000. APPLY: application files and related correspondence must reach the OSC before Tuesday 22 September 2026; see the programme rules and application form on the IOC Olympic Studies Centre website.
The Wilson Center, the congressionally chartered nonpartisan policy research institution in Washington DC, awards 10 to 20 research fellowships for its 2027-2028 class. Fellows conduct research and write in their areas of interest while interacting with policymakers in Washington and with other fellows. The Center accepts policy-relevant, nonpartisan proposals that address key foreign policy challenges confronting the United States and the world, and projects must align with at least one of the Center's four scholarship pillars: strategic competition, economic statecraft, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION, and regional scholarship. The technology and innovation pillar is the relevant route for AI governance, emerging technology and digital policy projects, which the Center also supports through its Science and Technology Innovation Program. Fellows work remotely for the duration of the fellowship; the Center covers travel costs for two required trips to Washington DC at the beginning and the conclusion of the term. The stipend is USD 10,000 per month for the twelve-month term, which runs 1 June 2027 to 30 May 2028. ELIGIBILITY: academic candidates need a PhD in hand and either a published book or monograph beyond the dissertation, or a substantial body of research articles (five or more) in reputable peer-reviewed journals. Non-academic applicants (practitioners, journalists, public intellectuals) need at least ten years of relevant experience and a record of substantial policy impact. There is no citizenship restriction, but English proficiency is required. Applications, including letters of recommendation, must be submitted online via Interfolio by 11:59pm ET on 30 September 2026. Questions: fellowships@wilsoncenter.org. NOTE: this is an open-topic foreign policy fellowship, not an AI-specific one; the technology angle depends on how you scope the proposal.
Fellowships supporting enterprise and investigative reporting with a business or economic angle, from the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Center for Business Journalism at the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, CUNY. Tech-platform economies, AI labour, data-broker investigations, digital-economy beats and similar tech-and-business stories fit naturally. ELIGIBILITY: working journalists with at least 5 years of professional experience; freelancers and staff are both eligible worldwide. CYCLES: Fall 2026 cycle deadline 12 October 2026; spring cycle expected around April 2027. No application fee.
Research grants from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for individual scholars with a PhD or equivalent to support a discrete project of anthropological research. The grant supports the project's most substantial cost (typically fieldwork or core research activity) and may be used for direct research expenses; not for salary or institutional overhead. Deadlines are biannual: 1 May and 1 November each year. ELIGIBILITY: scholars who hold a PhD (or equivalent) in anthropology or a clearly related discipline; nationality and country of work are not restricted. Up to USD 25,000 per grant. Strictly anthropology focus - the project must be primarily anthropological in scope and method (sociocultural, biological, archaeological or linguistic anthropology, etc.).
Residency programme run by the Art Explora Foundation with the Cite internationale des arts at its Montmartre site, supporting work that engages scientific and technological exploration and the major social and environmental issues of the present. Residents receive a studio-apartment of around 50 sqm, a monthly living grant of EUR 1,000, a production grant of up to EUR 3,000, and a round-trip travel grant, plus access to production facilities and local networks. Two tracks are offered: a SOLO programme for artists and writers across visual arts, performance, digital practices, literary and other experimental disciplines, and a COLLECTIVE programme for duos or collectives working collaboratively on interdisciplinary, experimental or research-based projects, for which a single studio-apartment designed for collaborative work hosts two residents sharing a bed, and only one member should submit the application. Eligible artistic disciplines are visual arts, performance and live arts, digital arts, curatorial practices, and writing and literary practices; eligible research fields are humanities, social sciences, cultural studies and history, technological innovation, and ecology. No output is required at the end of the residency, but participation in the Open Studios is mandatory. ELIGIBILITY: artists, artist collectives, researchers, curators and writers of all nationalities, no age restriction, with a minimum of five years of professional activity and works or research exhibited at national or international level. The Cite lists 20 to 22 residencies per year on this programme. Deadline 6 November 2026, 23:59 Europe/Paris. Questions: residences@artexplora.org. FLAG: the grant figures above come from the open-call text supplied to the desk; neither the Cite nor Art Explora publishes amounts on the programme page, so confirm them, along with the exact deadline, before applying.
The Omidyar Network Tech Journalism Fund offers rolling grants of $5,000-$25,000 for technology journalism projects. Relevant for journalists and media organizations investigating AI, tech policy, and AI's impacts on culture, society, and creative industries. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis through December 31, 2026 — one of the few currently open opportunities with a confirmed near-term deadline. Apply via the application form on omidyar.com.
Reporters Respond, run by Free Press Unlimited, is a rapid-response emergency fund for journalists and media outlets facing acute threats, covering urgent needs such as medical care, legal aid, physical safety measures and replacement equipment. ELIGIBILITY: individual journalists and media outlets in crisis, worldwide. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis with a roughly 24-hour response via the Free Press Unlimited page.
Pulitzer Center reporting grants supporting in-depth international journalism on under-reported global issues. Open to reporters, photographers, audio and video journalists, and documentary filmmakers worldwide. Grants cover the hard costs of reporting projects. ELIGIBILITY: professional journalists and visual storytellers anywhere in the world; both freelance and staff. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis via the Pulitzer Center grant portal.
Funds data-driven reporting that uses ML, NLP, satellite imagery, sensors and other computational methods on under-reported issues. Open to freelance and staff data journalists worldwide. Reviewed first-come, first-served on a rolling basis; decisions usually within a month.