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 June 15th of each year.

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.

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:

1. To demonstrate the value of political science to the public to policymakers and to the broader community through publicly-engaged research.
2. To bring higher ed-based political scientists into conversation with practitioners and policy-oriented scholars across ideological and geographic lines.

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.

Pedagogical partnership proposals are typically due in early January of each year.

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.

Growing democracy proposals are typically due in early January of each year.