Cultural Anthropology Program - Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants
OpenU.S. National Science Foundation
Deadline: Jan 15, 2026federal
Updated: Oct 30, 2025
Summary
The Cultural Anthropology Program aims to support basic scientific research on human social and cultural variability, encouraging proposals that contribute to theoretical advancements in anthropology through empirical research. Eligible applicants include non-profit organizations, institutions of higher education in the U.S., and federally recognized Tribal Nations, with proposals submitted by faculty advisors on behalf of doctoral students. Application details are not explicitly provided, but interested parties should contact NSF grants.gov support for assistance.
Full Description
Description
The primary objective of the Cultural Anthropology Program is to support basic scientific research on the causes, consequences and complexities of human social and cultural variability.
Contemporary cultural anthropology is an arena in which diverse research traditions and methodologies are valid in investigations of human cultural variation. Recognizing the breadth of the field's contributions to science, the Cultural Anthropology Program welcomes proposals for empirically grounded, fieldwork/lab-based theoretically engaged and methodologically sophisticated research in all sub-fields of cultural...
anthropology. Because the National Science Foundation's mission is to support basic research, the NSF Cultural Anthropology Program does not fund research that takes as its primary goal improved clinical practice, humanistic understanding or applied policy. A proposal that applies anthropological methods to a social problem but does not propose how that problem provides an opportunity to make a theory-testing and/or theory-expanding contribution to anthropology will be returned without review.
Program research priorities include, but are not limited to, research that increases our understanding of:
- Sociocultural drivers of critical anthropogenic processes such as deforestation, desertification, land cover change, urbanization and poverty.
- Resilience and robustness of sociocultural systems.
- Scientific principles underlying conflict, cooperation and altruism, as well as explanations of variation in culture, norms, behaviors and institutions.
- Economy, culture, migration and globalization.
- Variability and change in kinship and family norms and practices.
- General cultural and social principles underlining the drivers of health outcomes and disease transmission.
- Biocultural work that considers the nexus of human culture and its relationship with human biology.
- Social regulation, governmentality and violence.
- Origins of complexity in sociocultural systems.
- Language and culture: orality and literacy, sociolinguistics and cognition.
- Theoretically-informed approaches to co-production in relation to scientific understandings of human variability and environmental stewardship.
- Mathematical and computational models of sociocultural systems such as social network analysis, agent-based models, multi-level models, and modes that integrate agent-based simulations and geographic information systems (GIS).
- Socio-cultural drivers of technology and technological systems such as AI, machine learning, augmented data, and platforms.
Eligibility
Eligible applicants
Miscellaneous
- Other
Additional information
*Who May Submit Proposals: Proposals may only be submitted by the following:
-Non-profit, non-academic organizations: Independent museums, observatories, research laboratories, professional societies and similar organizations located in the U.S. that are directly associated with educational or research activities.
-Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs): Two- and four-year IHEs (including community colleges) accredited in, and having a campus located in the US, acting on behalf of their faculty members. Special Instructions for International Branch Campuses of US IHEs: If the proposal includes funding to be provided to an international branch campus of a US institution of higher education (including through use of sub-awards and consultant arrangements), the proposer must explain the benefit(s) to the project of performance at the international branch campus, and justify why the project activities cannot be performed at the US campus.
-Tribal Nations: An American Indian or Alaska Native tribe, band, nation, pueblo, village, or community that the Secretary of the Interior acknowledges as a federally recognized tribe pursuant to the Federally Recognized Indian Tribe List Act of 1994, 25 U.S.C. §§ 5130-5131.
*Who May Serve as PI:
The proposal must be submitted through regular organizational channels by the dissertation advisor(s) on behalf of the graduate student. The advisor is the principal investigator (PI); the student is the co-principal investigator (co-PI). The student must be the author of the proposal. The student must be enrolled at a U.S. institution, but need not be a U.S. citizen. To be eligible to serve as the PI, the advisor must be available during the period of submission, review, and performance of the research to relay information and communications from NSF to the student.
Grantor contact information
Description
NSF grants.gov support
grantsgovsupport@nsf.gov
If you have any problems linking to this funding announcement, please contact the email address above.
Apply on official siteUpdated Oct 30, 2025
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