What this program funds
Wenner-Gren Dissertation Fieldwork Grants fund the research expenses of doctoral dissertation projects in anthropology, across all subfields — sociocultural, archaeological, biological, and linguistic — and adjacent work that engages anthropological questions. The grant covers costs directly tied to the research: travel, living costs in the field, equipment, research assistance, and participant compensation. It is not a stipend: tuition, salary while writing up, and institutional overhead are outside its scope.
Eligibility in plain English
- You must be enrolled in a doctoral program — at any university in any country. There is no citizenship or residency requirement, which makes this one of the most internationally open dissertation grants in the field.
- You apply together with your dissertation supervisor, who signs on to the application and vouches for the project.
- The research must still be ahead of you — the grant funds upcoming fieldwork, not reimbursement for completed work. Confirm timing rules (candidacy status, project start windows) with the current guidelines.
- Unsuccessful applicants can generally revise and reapply in a later cycle.
What you'll need to submit
- The structured application — rather than one long narrative, the application asks a series of set questions about your research problem, its significance to anthropology, your methods, and your preparation. Each answer has its own length limit.
- Detailed budget itemizing field expenses.
- Bibliography of sources informing the project.
- Supervisor's participation — your advisor completes their own portion of the application.
Tips for this mechanism
- Answer the questions asked, in the order asked. Applicants who paste a repurposed grant narrative across the question boxes score poorly; reviewers use the question structure to compare applications directly.
- Make the anthropological contribution explicit. The foundation funds contributions to anthropological knowledge and theory — a strong area-studies or policy rationale alone is not enough.
- Write for anthropologists outside your subfield. An archaeologist may review a linguistic anthropology proposal and vice versa; define specialist terms and stakes.
- Budget like you've been to the field. Reviewers know what fieldwork costs; a padded or vague budget undermines an otherwise strong proposal, and modest, well-justified budgets read as experienced.
Related programs
- Wenner-Gren's post-PhD and workshop grants for later career stages
- SSRC dissertation-stage fellowships for social science fieldwork
- Fulbright student and scholar programs for research abroad