APSA Centennial Center for Political Science and Public Affairs
APSA’s Centennial Center for Political Science and Public Affairs is home to a number of grants, fellowships, and teaching and professional development opportunities. This includes $2,500 research grants, grants up to $10,000 for collaborative projects, and a number of grants specifically aimed at supporting public engagement and teaching. Please contact us at centennial@apsanet.org if you have any questions or concerns.
Current Research Grants
Spring Centennial Center Research Grants
The APSA Small Research Grant Program supports research in all fields of political science. The intent of these grants is to provide funding opportunities for research conducted by political scientists not employed at PhD-granting departments in the field, or who are in non-tenure track or contingent positions ineligible for departmental funding. Applications due March 15th of each year.
Summer Centennial Center Research Grants
The Centennial Center for Political Science and Public Affairs offers over $100,000 per year in research funding to APSA members. Centennial Center Research Grants assist with the costs of research, including travel, interviews, access to datasets, auxiliary devices or services necessary for scholars with disabilities to conduct their research, and access to archives. Applications due May 15th of each year.
Centennial Center Fellowships
Institute for Civically Engaged Research (ICER)
APSA’s Institute for Civically Engaged Research (ICER) is a four-day, residential institute that provides political scientists with training to conduct ethical and rigorous civically engaged research. Up to 20 scholars will be selected as ICER Fellows and invited to attend the 2025 Summer Institute. ICER Fellows will network with other like-minded political scientists, and together, learn best practices for conducting academically robust, mutually beneficial scholarship in collaboration with communities, organizations, and agencies outside of academia. Visit the ICER website
The Fund For Latino Scholarship
The Fund’s primary goal is to encourage and support the recruitment, retention, and promotion of political science students and scholars who study and research Latina/o politics.(especially students and tenure track junior faculty). Grants will be made to individuals, institutions, and projects whose purposes most clearly match the goals of the Fund, and whose proposals most persuasively demonstrate capacity for successful completion. Please contact the APSA Diversity, Equity and Inclusion department for any questions at diversityprograms@apsanet.org.
APSA’s Public Scholarship Program is a remote fellowship that introduces political science graduate students to the intellectual and practical aspects of presenting academic scholarship to the public. Before they begin writing, fellows participate in a public scholarship orientation and workshop and complete coursework to earn the ACES: Society for Editing certificate in editing. During the fellowship period, fellows work with authors and editors from APSA journals to produce public-facing summaries of peer-reviewed articles. Fellows also produce previews and recaps of Annual Meeting events, including author-meets-critics panels. The Public Scholarship Program was created in collaboration with the APSA Presidential Task Force for New Partnerships and is made possible thanks to the support of the Ivywood foundation.
Past Grants
The Special Projects Fund
Special Projects Fund grants support collaborative, member-led projects aimed at advancing the political science discipline and/or a tackling a challenge facing the discipline. Projects must be evidence-based and provide wider benefits for the profession and the discipline. Projects must be collaborative and can be focused on any area of disciplinary work, inclusive of teaching, research, service, and public engagement. Proposals can work to contribute to or advance a research area but should not focus on traditional scholarly project (e.g. production of a single author book or journal article). For examples of past funded proposals see the above link.
Special Projects Fund calls for applications are not issued in pre-determined cycles but are scheduled based on availability of funding.
Pedagogical Partnerships Grants
Pedagogical Partnership grants support projects that will bring together political science faculty from different institutions in the same geographic area to share expertise and produce cutting-edge teaching resources. PI’s will lead the organization of a series of meetings that will bring a larger group of local faculty together, allow for the sharing of best practices and innovations, and produce new teaching materials and new ties between faculty in the area. All Pedagogical Partnerships proposals must include at least one PI from a community college and one organizer from a research-intensive institution.
Research Partnerships on Critical Issues Grant
APSA’s Research Partnerships on Critical Issues program provides grants to political scientists for collaborative, research-based projects aimed at advancing the public good. The Research Partnerships on Critical Issues program has two central goals:
- To demonstrate the value of political science to the public to policymakers and to the broader community through publicly-engaged research.
- To bring higher ed-based political scientists into conversation with practitioners and policy-oriented scholars across ideological and geographic lines.
Growing Democracy Grants
Growing Democracy grants support community-based programming led by political scientists that aims to bridge the boundaries between academia and community and break down the barriers between residents and governing institutions.
Growing Democracy grants provide funding for collaborations between political scientists and their local communities aimed at supporting informed, engaged, and effective citizens. Proposed work should be community-centered and developed with an awareness of community needs and recognize the expertise held by faculty and community members.