Cultural Anthropology

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Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences

CONTACTS

Name	Email	Phone	Room
Jeffrey Mantz-Program Director	jmantz@nsf.gov	(703) 292-7783	995 N
Deborah Winslow- Program Director	dwinslow@nsf.gov	(703) 292-7315	995 N
Kristin Kuyuk - REG/REU requests	kkuyuk@nsf.gov	(703) 292-4904	995 N
Don Rimon-Program Specialist	drimon@nsf.gov	(703) 292-2960

PROGRAM GUIDELINES

Apply to PD 98-1390 as follows:

For full proposals submitted via FastLane: standard NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide proposal preparation guidelines apply.
For full proposals submitted via Grants.gov: the NSF Grants.gov Application Guide: A Guide for the Preparation and Submission of NSF Applications via Grants.gov Guidelines applies. (Note: The NSF Grants.gov Application Guide is available on the Grants.gov website and on the NSF website at: http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=grantsgovguide)

Important Information for Proposers

A revised version of the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (NSF 17-1), is effective for proposals submitted, or due, on or after January 30, 2017. Please be advised that, depending on the specified due date, the guidelines contained in NSF 17-1 may apply to proposals submitted in response to this funding opportunity.

DUE DATES

Full Proposal Target Date

August 15, 2017

August 15, Annually Thereafter

Senior Research - Fall Funding Cycle

August 15, 2017

August 15, Annually Thereafter

Dissertation Research - Fall Funding Cycle

August 16, 2017

August 16, Annually Thereafter

Scholars - Fall Funding Cycle

January 16, 2018

January 16, Annually Thereafter

Scholars - Spring Funding Cycle

January 16, 2018

January 15, Annually Thereafter

Senior Research - Spring Funding Cycle

January 16, 2018

January 15, Annually Thereafter

Dissertation Research - Spring Funding Cycle

Supplement Target Date

March 1, 2017

March 1, Annually Thereafter

Research Experience for Graduates

March 1, 2017

March 1, Annually Thereafter

Research Experience for Undergraduates

Full Proposal Target Dates:
January 15 and August 15 annually for Senior Research Proposals, Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant Proposals, most Workshop proposals and proposals for Training Programs.

Cultural Anthropology Scholars Target Dates:
January 16 and August 16 annually for Faculty Scholars proposals.

CAREER Proposals:
CAREER proposals must conform to the annually announced NSF-wide CAREER proposal deadline.

EAGER, RAPID, and small workshop proposals:
EAGER, RAPID, and small workshop proposals may be submitted at any time, with prior permission of the Program Officer.

REG and REU supplement proposals:
March 1 annually. REG and REU supplement proposals may also be submitted out of cycle, with prior permission of the Program Officer.

SYNOPSIS

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. Anthropological research spans a wide gamut, and contemporary cultural anthropology is an arena in which diverse research traditions and methodologies are valid. Recognizing the breadth of the field’s contributions to science, the Cultural Anthropology Program welcomes proposals for empirically grounded, theoretically engaged, and methodologically sophisticated research in all sub-fields of cultural anthropology. Because the National Science Foundation’s mandate is to support basic research, the NSF Cultural Anthropology Program does not fund research that takes as its primary goal improved clinical practice or applied policy. Program research priorities include, but are not limited to, research that increases our understanding of:

Socio-cultural drivers of critical anthropogenic processes such as deforestation, desertification, land cover change, urbanization, and poverty
Resilience and robustness of socio-cultural systems
Conflict, cooperation, and altruism
Economy, culture, migration, and globalization
Variability and change in kinship and family norms and practices
Cultural and social contexts of health and disease
Social regulation, governmentality, and violence
Origins of complexity in socio-cultural systems
Language and culture: orality and literacy, sociolinguistics, and cognition
Human variation through empirically grounded ethnographic descriptions
Mathematical and computational models of sociocultural systems such as social network analysis, agent-based models, and integration of agent-based models with geographic information systems (GIS)

A. General Research The Cultural Anthropology Program supports a broad portfolio of research by both senior scholars and by graduate students. Information on recent awards can be found at the bottom of this page via the "What Has Been Funded" link. All proposals must be submitted using either Fastlane (as described in the Grant Proposal Guide) or Grants.gov. All proposals must explicitly address both the Intellectual Merit and the Broader Impacts of the research in the one-page project summary.

The Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants (DDRIG) Program (see Solicitation 15-556) supports doctoral dissertation research by anthropology graduate students enrolled at U.S. institutions. Proposals are accepted for both the January 15 and the August 15 target dates. Grants are intended to support the extraordinary expenses of conducting research, not the normal daily expenses of graduate education.
Senior proposals support individual, team, or collaborative research by scholars who hold a PhD, or other equivalent or appropriate credential. Proposals are accepted for both the January 15 and the August 15 target dates. Senior proposal project descriptions may be up to 15, single-spaced pages. There is no ceiling on senior proposal budgets, but a typical award rarely exceeds $100,000 per year of the award, including indirect costs. Researchers may propose empirically grounded and theoretically engaged projects in any sub-field and theoretical area of cultural anthropology.
General guidelines. All researchers should take care to explain very clearly why the research is needed; what it will contribute to the scientific understanding of human society and culture; and how it will lead to the development of theory extending beyond the particular cases to be investigated. They should be clear about the question or questions that the research is addressing; how the research design will address those questions; what information or data will be collected, how, and why; and how the information or data will be analyzed to address the research questions. Finally, researchers should also explain why they are able to conduct the research successfully. A good research proposal is interesting, clear, explicit, tightly integrated, and confidence inspiring.

B. Other Programs

The Faculty Scholars Program (see Solicitation 07-544) supports methodological training for cultural anthropologists who wish to learn new skills that are needed as part of an ongoing research program. For example, support may be requested to learn new methods of cross-cultural research, demography, remote sensing and GIS, ecological field survey, linguistics, or modeling. Support may be requested to learn any methodological skill that is necessary to advance the scholar's research agenda, as justified in the proposal with reference to published results from prior work. Proposals are accepted for both the January 16 and the August 16 target dates. Normal proposal guidelines apply. Awards are for up to 12 months and for a maximum of $50,000.
Grants for Rapid Response Research (RAPID) and EArly-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER). The RAPID funding mechanism is used for proposals having a severe urgency with regard to availability of, or access to data, facilities or specialized equipment, including quick-response research on natural or anthropogenic disasters and similar unanticipated events. The EAGER funding mechanism may be used to support exploratory work in its early stages on untested, but potentially transformative, research ideas or approaches. This work may be considered especially "high risk-high payoff" in the sense that it, for example, involves radically different approaches, applies new expertise, or engages novel disciplinary or interdisciplinary perspectives. For detailed information concerning these two types of grants, please review Chapter II.D of the NSF Grant Proposal Guide. There are no deadlines or target dates associated with these types of awards and the Cultural Anthropology program funding for them is rarely more than $25,000 including indirect costs.
Research Experience for Graduate Students (REG) and Reserch Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Supplements. Senior PIs with current NSF awards, may request supplements to support closely mentored but independent research projects by undergraduates intending to pursue graduate work in anthropology or graduate students at the pre-dissertation phase of their education. The supplemental request should include a two to three-page description of the project to be undertaken and a 1-2 page endorsement of the student, identifying the grounds for the student's selection as well as the PI's plans for mentoring the student. PIs are encouraged to submit proposals by March 1, each spring, although they will be considered at other times of the year by contacting the appropriate NSF Program Officer in advance. Awards are limited to $6,000 for REGs and $5,000 for REUs. See Dear Colleague Letter NSF 16-044 for detailed information on preparing Cultural Anthropology REG and REU Supplemental Funding Requests.
Workshops. Workshops are sometimes needed to allow researchers to work together. Proposals for workshops with research goals may be submitted in the normal grant cycle (target dates: January 15 and August 15). Under exceptional circumstances and with prior permission from the Program Officer, workshop proposals may be considered out of cycle, as well.
Training Programs. The Cultural Anthropology Program supports the dissemination of the most current research tools available for social science research. Consequently, as budget permits, the Cultural Anthropology Program funds a limited number of proposals for training workshops, short courses, and fieldwork programs, through the regular proposal review cycle. For more information, please contact the Program Officer.
Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Grants. The Cultural Anthropology Program participates in this NSF-wide activity offering prestigious awards in support of the early development of academic faculty as both educators and researchers. Consult the CAREER solicitation for more information.

What Has Been Funded (Recent Awards Made Through This Program, with Abstracts)

Map of Recent Awards Made Through This Program

News

Events

National Science Foundation - Where Discoveries Begin

Cultural Anthropology