Grant money for learning

December 1, 2005 6:52 AM

Is there such a thing as grant money for independent research or learning?

I know that people get grant money to study for an institution that they are associated with; but is there such a thing as getting money to study or research on your own? Money would be for travel and taking a seminar or course at a university or spending time observing, learning and writing at your location of interest.

posted by sandra194 to education (4 comments total)

Yeah, such people are called 'artists'. There's a great scam that's been on since the medieval times where artists ask for grants from various wealthy foundations and individuals and then produce art. Then there's a fancy party and all the rich people who gave money get to wear a special ribbon which they flaunt in the face of their other rich friends.

More seriously, there are all sorts of foundations and institutes and trusts out there that provide grants if you're working on something they might be able to show off to future donors. It might help if you indicate exactly what you want to research...
posted by nixerman at 7:15 AM on December 1, 2005

You might start with NCIS.
posted by IndigoJones at 8:17 AM on December 1, 2005

Guggenheim Fellowships are among the most prestigious. This is for people who have a reasonable shot at going on to win Pulitzer Prizes, Nobels, etc.
posted by alms at 8:31 AM on December 1, 2005

For people in the humanities and some social sciences, individual grants are the norm. I am currently conducting research overseas on an individual grant.

However, as far as I know, they often require that you are either enrolled in a university program (in my case a Ph.D.) or otherwise associated with a university. It was not tied to an institution, but rather to my status as an enrolled student at any eligible institution (aka a legit program). There are some grants that do not require this, but I know less about these. The UK may have some governmental grants which support independant scholars.

There are institutions like libraries which offer grants for research done with their resources. Most presidential libraries and some large manuscript libraries offer these grants, but they can be very small (anywhere from $500 to about $1000 per month).
posted by jb at 6:01 AM on December 4, 2005