Funding

AACNF OUTCOME GRANT STUDIES PROGRAM

Three annual grants are available for studies evaluating outcomes of clinical neuropsychological services in target areas of ADHD, dementia, traumatic brain injury, stroke, and epilepsy. Sponsor: the American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology Foundation.

APA BASIC PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE GRANT

Several annual awards are available for graduate students conducting basic psychological research in one of the following areas: cognitive, cognitive neuroscience, computational, developmental, experimental or comparative, industrial and organizational, neuropsychology, neuroscience, perception, psycholinguistics, personality and individual differences, physiological, quantitative, or social. Fields with a practice component (clinical, counseling, or school) are not eligible. Sponsor: the American Psychological Association.

APA DIVISION 40 THESIS & DISSERTATION AWARDS

These awards are to support the research costs of graduate students completing a masters or dissertation in the area of Clinical Neuropsychology. One $500 Thesis Award and one $1,000 Dissertation Award will be funded each year to support basic or applied projects relevant to the mission of Division 40. The intent is to facilitate completion of curriculum-based research requirements by providing direct support of research costs associated with the project. A $1,000 travel supplement to present findings at an APA conference is also included with the Dissertation Award. Sponsor: Division 40 of the American Psychological Association.

BENTON-MEIER NEUROPSYCHOLOGY SCHOLARSHIPS

Two annual Benton-Meier scholarships are available that graduate students in neuropsychology may apply for. Sponsor: the American Psychological Foundation.

CERMAK POSTDOCTORAL TRAVEL AWARD

One annual Cermak award is available for postdoctoral fellows who have done outstanding research in the area of memory. Sponsors: the Memory Disorders Research Society and Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

ELDERHOSTEL/CROSS DOCTORAL RESEARCH GRANT

One annual research grant is available for doctoral candidates engaged in dissertation research in the areas of lifelong or later-life learning. This includes students of psychology, education, gerontology, cognitive studies, neuroscience, and aging. International students are welcome to apply. Sponsors: Road Scholar and Elderhostel, Inc.

FJ McGUIGAN DISSERTATION AWARD

One annual award to support dissertation research that addresses any aspect of mental function (e.g., cognition, affect, motivation) and should utilize behavioral and/or neuroscientific methods. Proposed research may fall within any area of contemporary behavioral or brain science but primarily within the area of psychophysiology. Sponsor: the American Psychological Foundation.

HISPANIC NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL SOCIETY GRANT

A $250 grant awarded to two applicants per year (February and August) that can be used to off-set costs for travel to conferences, student research that addresses cross-cultural issues in neuropsychology that involve Hispanics, and for clinical materials needed for evaluation of Hispanics (i.e. Spanish language testing materials). The award is limited to graduate students who are student affiliate members of HNS and although a student can re-apply in consecutive cycles, each person is only allowed to win once. Sponsor: the Hispanic Neuropsychological Society (HNS).

LAIRD CERMAK AWARD

One award is presented at the Annual North American and one at the Mid-Year meetings for the International Neuropsychological Society. Awards go to the best research in the area of memory or memory disorders presented, and is selected by the Program Chair from abstracts submitted for the meeting. No formal application is necessary. Sponsor: the International Neuropsychological Society.

NELSON BUTTERS AWARD

One award is presented at the Annual North American and one at the Mid-Year meetings for the International Neuropsychological Society. Awards go to the best research presented by a postdoctoral fellow. No formal application is necessary, as the winner is selected by the Program Chair from abstracts submitted for the meeting. Sponsor: the International Neuropsychological Society.

PHILLIP RENNICK AWARD

One award is presented at the Annual North American and one at the Mid-Year meetings for the International Neuropsychological Society. Awards go to the best research presented by a graduate student, and is selected by the Program Chair from abstracts submitted for the meeting. No formal application is necessary. Sponsor: the International Neuropsychological Society.

RITA G. RUDEL AWARD

One two-year award of up to $20,000 is available to early-career professionals specializing in developmental neuropsychology. Sponsors: the Rita G. Rudel Foundation and the International Neuropsychological Society.

SOCIETY FOR NEUROSCIENCE TRAVEL AWARD

One annual graduate student travel award is available for the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting. Sponsor: the Society for Neuroscience.

Still searching for funding? There are still a variety of other funding resources available. Don't forget to also consider:

Federal, state, and regional non-profit or philanthrophic
organizations.

National associations (e.g., disease or disorder-specific organizations).

Private or for-profit companies (e.g., pharmaceutical companies).

Don't forget to check your own department and university!

APA	The American Psychological Association (APA) website offers a searchable database of relevant grants, scholarships, and awards for undergraduate students, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and early career psychologists.

APF	The American Psychological Foundation (APF) is a philanthropic organization dedicated to funding psychology-related projects. In addition to scholarships and travel awards, program grants, as well as early career and seed grants, may be found here.

APS	The American Psychological Society (APS) sponsors student grants, research awards, and travel awards. A full listing of APS awards may be found on the APS website.

PSI CHI

Psi Chi is the national honor society for psychology. It sponsors a variety of awards and scholarships for students at a variety of levels. These include several graduate student research awards that can be found
on their website.

GRANTS.GOV

Grants.gov is a U.S. government-sponsored database of available grants funded through various federal agencies.

NRSA	The National Research Service Award (NRSA) a grant sponsored by NIH to fund graduate and/or postdoctoral training.

NIH

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is an agency of the US Department of Health sponsoring research across the nation. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) falls under NIH. Additionally, you can find a searchable database of existing NIH-sponsored research projects at RePORT, which can be helpful for deciding which NIH program to apply to.

Remember, applying for a grant or a fellowship can at times be a long and difficult process, and require that multiple components be organized then submitted. Often, successful applicants are often organized and patient, and have support from either an advisor or another peer. Below you can find some helpful resources for the application process:

Make yourself valuable. Develop a set of demonstrable core competencies through your publications. Your cv is your portfolio of skill sets, and you will be judged on your ability to deliver. Don’t submit a proposal before you have a few publications under your belt in the relevant area.
Get to know the funding sources. Different funding sources have different missions and different criteria. Your sponsored research office (SRO) should be able to help you get this information, and you should also peruse the foundation websites. Foundations have specific goals in terms of advancing a particular agenda. Government agencies have specific missions. Don’t forget about doing consulting work, particularly if you can turn the information gleaned from the work into an insightful publication. Identify the funding source which has the greatest overlap with your research interest and invest heavily in getting to know more about their interests.
Get to know the key people. If you are going after grants, get in touch with the program officer. It is their job to know about their foundation, and they will often know about upcoming opportunities at both their foundation and others. But don’t waste their time. A courteous email which provides a concise outline of your research idea, and connects it to their mission is a much better introduction than a phone call out of the blue.
Get to know the community by presenting at their conferences. This helps in several ways. First, a good presentation helps establish you as competent and explains your research agenda beyond your proposal. Second, the networking with others who have been successful at getting grants helps you get a better sense of the funding source’s portfolio, and the style of research they support. Third, members of the community will typically be asked to review any grant proposal you submit.
Submit your first few grants with senior colleagues who have been successful in getting grants. Grant writing is a skill that is not typically taught in graduate schools, and on the job training is the best way to learn how to acquire that skill.
Write well and have a focus. In your opening paragraph, state your focus. Every sentence that you write in the grant should develop your key idea. Write clear prose that assumes the reader is an expert, but not necessarily deeply embedded in your project. You should have a clear and logical beginning, a middle, and an end to your proposal. Write multiple drafts and eliminate verbosity, jargon and extraneous sentences. Cite other research that relates to your idea, but make it clear how your work fills an important gap in that research.
Ask for feedback. It’s very important to get others to read your proposal and make critical suggestions so that you submit the strongest possible proposal to the funder. There are reputation consequences to submitting poor proposals.
Resubmit. If you get good, constructive, reviews, consider resubmitting the proposal. Consult with the program officer before doing so, and spend a lot of time making sure you address each point carefully.
Deliver. Most foundations are interested in developing an academic community that studies a set of problems related to their mission. Once you get that first grant, make sure you deliver on what you promised. Let the program officer know about your publications, presentations, and other visible consequences of their investment in you. The more valuable that your research is, and the more active you are in the professional community, the more likely it is that the funding agency will continue to support you throughout your career.