Support + Funding

For Faculty

Scrabble tiles spelling out "Funding"

The Simpson Center provides financial and administrative support for crossdisciplinary research, teaching, and engagement projects in the humanities and humanistic social sciences. The ACLS offers a useful description of these areas of study: "the humanities and humanistic social sciences are fundamentally acts of investigation and reflection about different cultures, texts, and artifacts across space and time. Humanists study the diverse means by which human beings in every age and culture explore, understand, and change their world."

We support a wide range of activities, including fellowships, cross-departmental research groups, scholarly conferences and symposia, community-engaged collaborations, and other projects.

To receive a notification when funding rounds open, subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

FUNDING CATEGORIES

Spring 2022 Funding Round

For funding term -
Applications open: Applications due:
Application Instructions
  1. Bundle your proposal into a single PDF. Name your file "[Your last name]-[Project Title]."
  2. Complete the proposal information form. You will be prompted to upload your proposal at the end of the form.
  3. If your proposal requires a letter of support, request that the letter be sent to the Simpson Center directly at schadmin@uw.edu.

See individual funding categories for details on submission guidelines.

For notification when future funding rounds open, subscribe to our newsletter.

 

We encourage applicants to meet with us before submitting a proposal. To schedule a meeting, contact Assistant Director Rachel Arteaga. To discuss Co-Sponsored Events, contact Program and Events Manager Caitlin Palo.

Note: Co-Sponsored Events and Barclay Simpson Prize Nominations do not fall within our Fall and Spring Funding Category deadlines. To learn more, please refer to the full descriptions for Barclay Simpson Prize for Scholarship in Public, Co-Sponsored UW Events, and Co-Sponsored Community Events. The best way to stay updated on deadlines for funding opportunities is to subscribe to our newsletter, where we announce when funding opportunities open and close.

Crossdisciplinary Research Clusters

Applications accepted for both fall and spring funding rounds.

Crossdisciplinary Research Clusters are intended to seed new scholarly activity and develop further pathways for collaboration by bringing together UW faculty and graduate students from different departments and disciplines who share research interests. Projects in this category may vary widely in form and scale: innovative models beyond the speaker series are encouraged, as are clusters that develop emerging fields and communities of inquiry, crossdisciplinary or crossdepartmental curricula, and individual and/or collective documents.

Eligibility

Must be led by tenure-track faculty.

Criteria

Interdepartmental composition and organization. Crossdisciplinary Research Clusters should seed new and vital research activity and are not meant to provide ongoing support of existing programs.

Terms of Award

Awards of financial and administrative support vary according to requests and needs.  Proposals for funding support of up to $20,000 will be considered. If project budgets exceed this figure, we ask that applicants consult with us for guidance prior to submitting the proposal. Funds can be used to support meeting costs, visiting speakers, etc. We typically support crossdisciplinary research clusters for a maximum of three years.

Application Materials

  • Proposal Narratives (limit eight pages) should:
    • detail the focus of the cluster and the activities to be funded
    • address near-term goals, and longer-term ambitions if cluster is intended to lead to other forms of collaboration and project development
    • include a list three or more participating faculty and graduate students
  • Budgets should detail anticipated expenses (e.g. honoraria, travel, accommodations, promotional materials, printing, postage, hospitality, and facilities rentals) as applicable.
  • C.V.s for primary project liaison (limited to five pages), and, key organizers (optional—may also be represented in the narrative or an appendix as short bios).