Funding sources for postdoctoral work can include the UW, non-profits, corporations, professional and academic associations, foundations, and government agencies. Here are some funding tips for postdocsat the UW.
- Check out the opportunities below. The reverse side of this guide lists selected funding opportunities UW postdocs might use to extend their research and participation in scholarship.
- Check in with your community.The UWOffice of Postdoctoral Affairs ( and UW Postdoctoral Association ( offer holistic support to local postdocs. Are you a member of professional associations? Reach out for support and funding leads. Consider getting involved with the National Postdoctoral Association (
- Explore opportunities from UW Research Centers. Research Centers can help you expand your network and foster interdisciplinary collaboration. Grants and fellowships may also be available.
- Search in specialized funding databases. More strategic and specific than an open web search, these resources can surface new-to-you funding opportunities. Be sure to look in more than one place, as there is no single,comprehensive postdoctoral funding database.
Harvard Postdoctoral Fellowships Guide
Harvard’s Postdoctoral Fellowships database enables searching by academic area, citizenship, career stage, geographic location, fellowship duration, application deadline, and more. Tips for searching the database help ensure you get the results you’re looking for.
MinorityPostdoc
This website focuses on the minority postdoctoral experience but provides resources of value to all postdocs. Although not a searchabledatabase, it maintains an extensive list of postdoctoral-specific funding opportunities, including non-traditional industry and entrepreneurship options.
UCLA GRAPES
The UCLA Graduate and Postdoctoral Extramural Support (GRAPES) Database is an open resource aggregating a variety of external funding opportunities. This is a growing and up-to-date funding database, and postdoctoral funding is easily targeted through the “Academic Level” filter on the left-hand side of the page.
SciVal FundingAccess via
This powerful funding database is geared toward upper-level doctoral students, postdocs, and faculty researchers. Covering many disciplines, SciVal Funding allows you to search across opportunities from government, non-profit, corporate, and other sources. This database indexes the abstracts of successfully-awarded grants, and UW users can create a profile, allowing them to export results and set up search alerts. Requires UW NetID login.
Grant Forward Access via
More easily searchable than SciVal Funding, Grant Forward offers broad disciplinary coverage and features including results exporting and search alerts. Postdoctoral opportunities are best found by applying the “Early Career Investigator” applicant type filter or by using postdoc* as a search term. Requires UW NetID login.
Amazon Catalyst Grants*
Amazon Catalyst at the University of Washington provides students, faculty, and staff of all trades, fields, and disciplines with funding (from $10,000 to $100,000) and mentorship to help them grow early-stage ideas into successful endeavors.
American Association of University Women (AAUW) American & International Fellowships*
Major fellowship to support women scholars who are completing dissertations, planning research leave from accredited institutions, or preparing research for publication.
CAORC Multi-Country Research Fellowship
Supports advanced regional or trans-regional research in the humanities, social sciences, or allied natural sciences for doctoral candidates and postdoctoral scholars.
Christine Mirzayan Science & Technology Policy Graduate Fellowship Program*
Provides early career individualswith the opportunity to spend 12 weeks at the National Academies in DC learning about science and technology policy and the role that scientists and engineers play in advising the nation.
Dan David Prize*
Scholarships to doctoral and post-doctoral researchers at recognized universities throughout the world conducting research in one of the selected fields for the year in which the application is made.
American Philosophical Society Franklin Research Grants*
Awards of up to $6,000 to support research leading to publication in all disciplines. Grants aim to help postdoctoral researchers travel to libraries and archives, purchase microfilm, photocopies, or equivalent research materials, and defray other fieldwork and laboratory research expenses.
Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship Program
Fellowships offering a $45,000 stipend for individuals committed to a career in teaching and research.
Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholar Awards
Open to U.S. scholars who have recently completed their doctoral degree, typically within the 5 previous years. Awards are available in STEM fields, the arts, humanities, and social sciences.
Google Travel & Conference Grants*
Grants available to traditionally underrepresented groups in technology (including, but not limited to, African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, persons with disabilities, women, and veterans) for selected conferences in computer science and other technical fields.
Helen Hay Whitney Foundation Research Fellowships*
3-year fellowship to support early postdoctoral research training in biomedical sciences. Annual $50,000+ stipend and $1,500 research allowance.
Kluge Fellowships at the Library of Congress*
4-11 months of research support to enable use of the Library of Congress collections, with a stipend of $4,200 per month. Recipients of terminal advanced degrees within the past several years in the humanities, social sciences, or in a professional field such as architecture or law are eligible.
Reed Foundation Ruth Landes Memorial Research Fund
$10,000 to $60,000 per year for research, including field studies and related expenses. Areas of supported research include, but are not limited to, aging, gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, immigrant and minority populations, culture and education, language and identity, and religion.
*Open to non-U.S. citizens