Undergraduate Research Grant

About

We are piloting a new grant program, the AAR Undergraduate Research Grant program, that is designed to allow AAR members to support an undergraduate student conducting research on religion. The grant provides support to a student who is working on a project supervised by a faculty member who is already a member of AAR and is able to complete the application on behalf of the student.

Eligible grant expenses include books or research materials unavailable at the student’s university library, travel and lodging costs, and registration fees to attend an AAR regional and/or Annual Meeting. The grant does not support tuition costs or other university fees.

The AAR’s Graduate Student Awards Jury will review applications and select the grant recipient.

Criteria

Current enrollment as an undergraduate student is required for the grant applicant
Grant applicants must apply through a supervising faculty member
Grant applicant projects must be supervised by the faculty member who submits the application
Current AAR membership is required for the supervising faculty member

How to Apply

To be eligible for consideration, grant applicants and supervising faculty members must meet the eligibility criteria.

The supervising faculty member must complete the application form and submit all of the required materials by the deadline via the online submission system.

Late, emailed, or incomplete applications and/or materials cannot be accepted.

Application Materials

Cover page that includes:
- Grant applicant’s name and email address
- Name of grant applicant’s institution and year of study
- Supervising faculty member’s name and email address
Letter of Application
- A letter of application (no more than 2 pages) that describes the research project
- Budget with itemized list of expected costs related to the research project

Late, emailed, or incomplete applications and/or materials cannot be accepted.

Submit an Application

To submit an application, click the button below which will take you to our online grant application submission system accessible only to AAR members.

SUBMIT HERE

Winner Notification and Expectations

During the grant award year, the grant recipient must be enrolled as an undergraduate student for at least 4 months during academic term or the equivalent of one semester/2 quarters.
For awarded projects, the supervising faculty member must maintain current AAR membership throughout the grant period.
The grant check will be made payable to the individual student recipient. The AAR will issue the recipient a Form 1099 in the amount of the grant for income tax use.
Grant funds will be disbursed in two installments: the first installment of $3750 when the grant is awarded, and the second installment of $1250 once the reports from both the grantee and the faculty supervisor have been received. The second installment of grant funds will only be disbursed to the recipient if both reports are received by the deadline.
Funds awarded must be expended by December 31 in the year the grant is received.
The grant recipient must submit a written report about their research by no later than January 31 of the year following grant receipt.
The grant recipient’s supervising faculty member must submit their report/comments about the project no later than January 31 of the year following grant receipt.

Timeline

Applications will be accepted until 6:00 PM Eastern Time on November 1
Notification about the application status will be sent by January 15

Questions

Questions may be sent to [email protected].