The Illinois Global Institute invites proposals for international research projects and collaborations. Funded by the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences INSURE program, we welcome proposals that support both new and ongoing international research, with the aim of sustaining and strengthening the international agenda of research by LAS faculty. The program is open to all LAS faculty regardless of the impacts of funding cuts to their research, but we particularly welcome proposals that support research that faces other funding constraints in areas such as Fulbright, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and initiatives supported by the IGI area and global studies centers that have faced the loss of Department of Education Title VI National Resource Center Funding.
Grants for International Research are open to full-time LAS faculty, including tenure-stream faculty, teaching and research professors and lecturers. While the grants are open to faculty at all levels, preference will be given to early-career scholars.
Applicants interested in receiving grants for their research must submit their application materials to the application form on the Illinois Global Institute's website. The page for Illinois Global Institute's Research is linked at the bottom of this News Article. The application includes a brief descriptive title and a 200-word summary of the project, a double-spaced 1,000-word proposal, plus a bibliography, a detailed budget, and a current curriculum vitae of the principal investigator (faculty member) and other research team members, an itinerary for any travel. Additionally, your application must include evidence of a sufficient command of any language necessary to conduct the project, a list of previous awards for the project, the dates of the awards, and any publications that have resulted from such awards, and a letter of support from either the faculty member’s unit head or the director of the IGI center with which the work is aligned. For more information about the application or to receive the application link, please use the link below the News Article.
The grant can cover expenses related to research travel, research materials and supplies, graduate research assistants, travel expenses to disseminate research findings and subvention costs for scholarly applications. The funds from the grant cannot be used as a summer salary, to support activities already supported by another LAS internal program or be sub-awarded to other organizations or individuals. Applications will be evaluated by an interdisciplinary committee of faculty directors from IGI’s centers and programs and a representative from the LAS Office of Research.
Awardees must submit a 1,000-word report no later than six weeks after the tenure of their fellowship. Reports should detail use of funds, outcomes, and next steps. Awardees must also acknowledge the support received from the IGI and LAS in publications flowing from the grant. They may also be invited to share their experiences through LAS research development programming. Grantees may be asked by the center making the award to present their research in the center’s workshop or brown-bag series.
Each grant will offer up to $5,000 (or, $10,000 for teams of two or more) in research support with the aim to keep LAS faculty’s international research on track and globally competitive. Applications will be accepted for a May 1, 2026 deadline.