The Harry Frank Guggenheim Emerging Scholar Awards (formerly the Harry Frank Guggenheim Dissertation Fellowships) recognize promising researchers in their final year of writing a doctoral dissertation examining a salient aspect of violence.

LOI period for the 2026 HFG Emerging Scholar Awards is Jan. 1–Feb. 1, 2026

The Foundation welcomes proposals from any of the natural and social sciences or allied disciplines that promise to increase understanding of the causes, manifestations, and control of violence and aggression. Highest priority is given to research that addresses urgent, present-day problems of violence—what produces it, how it operates, and what prevents or reduces it.

The Foundation is interested in violence related to many subjects, including, but not limited to, the following:

  • War
  • Crime
  • Terrorism
  • Family and intimate-partner relationships
  • Climate instability and natural resource competition
  • Racial, ethnic, and religious conflict
  • Political extremism and nationalism

The Foundation supports research that investigates the basic mechanisms in the production of violence, but primacy is given to proposals that make a compelling case for the relevance of potential findings for policies intended to reduce these ills. Likewise, historical research is considered to the extent that it is relevant to a current situation of violence. Examinations of the effects of violence are welcome insofar as a strong case is made that these outcomes serve, in turn, as causes of future violence. 

The Emerging Scholar Awards 

The award is $25,000 for one year and contributes to the support of a doctoral candidate to enable the completion of a dissertation that advances the Foundation’s research interests described above in a timely manner. They are available only to students for support during the final year of Ph.D. studies.

The award does not support doctoral research. Applicants may be citizens of any country and studying at colleges or universities in any country. 

Timing

The first component of the application process is a Letter of Interest (LOI) questionnaire, which opens January 1 and must be completed online and submitted by February 1. Approved applicants will be invited to submit a full application, which is due by March 15.

Final decisions are made by the HFG Board of Directors at its meeting in June.
Applicants will be informed promptly by email of the Board’s decision. The award year commences on September 1 unless a different starting date is requested and approved by the Foundation.

Eligibility

Applicants for an award must be Ph.D. candidates entering the dissertation stage of graduate study. Usually, this means that fieldwork or other research is complete and writing has begun or will at the beginning of the award period. If analysis and writing are not far enough along for an applicant to be confident that the dissertation will be completed within the award year, an application should not be submitted. In some disciplines, particularly experimental fields, research and writing can reasonably be expected to be completed within the same year, and in those cases, it is appropriate to apply.

Application

Candidates for the Harry Frank Guggenheim Emerging Scholar Awards may apply
online annually between January 1 and February 1. Applicants must create an account to access the application and guidelines. The guidelines are also available through the second link below.

Applicants will first submit a Letter of Interest (LOI), a brief online questionnaire about their proposed project and research design. This must be submitted by 11:59
p.m. ET on February 1. The LOI will be assessed by the Foundation for the project’s suitability for funding consideration. If the LOI is approved, the applicant will be invited to submit a full proposal application, which will be due by 11:59 p.m. ET on March 15.

Guidelines for the second stage of the process (the proposal application) and advice for applicants can be found in the links below.

Online Application (Login required)

Application Guidelines (PDF)

Advice for Applicants (PDF)