The Russell Sage Foundation (RSF) is pleased to announce the establishment of a dissertation research grants (DRG) program to support innovative and high-quality dissertation research that addresses questions relevant to any of its priority areas: Behavioral Science and Decision Making in Context; Future of Work; Race, Ethnicity and Immigration; Immigration and Immigrant Integration; and Social, Political, and Economic Inequality. Proposed projects must be closely aligned with the funding priorities listed on the RSF website for any one of these areas, contribute to RSF’s mission to improve social and living conditions in the U.S., and demonstrate appropriate use of relevant theory, innovative data, rigorous methods, and measures.

RSF President Sheldon Danziger said of the new program: “In recent years, RSF has greatly increased opportunities for doctoral students and early career scholars through our expanded summer institutes on a range of topics and for early career faculty through the Pipeline Grants Competition on Economic Opportunity and Mobility. This new program expands opportunities for research grants for doctoral students across the social sciences who are conducting dissertation research on topics in our priority areas.”

To be eligible, applicants must be enrolled doctoral students who have completed all program requirements except the dissertation. To receive funding, an applicant whose proposal is selected for a grant must have their dissertation supervisor document that the dissertation research (a) is the same research that was described in the DRG grant application and (b) has been approved by the dissertation committee. In cases where a dissertation consists of several related papers, the proposal should focus on the most important paper. These grants will support all aspects of dissertation research (data collection, data preparation, data analysis and writing), but are not intended for students who have completed data collection and analysis and propose to spend the entire grant period writing the dissertation.

The proposal deadline is February 15, 2022, for funding starting in Summer 2022.

RSF staff will discuss the program and the application process at a webinar on February 1, 2022, at 2 p.m. Eastern Time. Click here to register for the webinar.

Learn more about the Dissertation Research Grants program here.