Student and Postdoc Funding and Awards
Fellowship Opportunities
- Blum Summer Fellowship - Poverty Alleviation Through Action (PATA)
This program is offered in partnership with the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, College of Biological Sciences, College of Engineering and College of Letters and Sciences. Project mentorship and grants are offered to highly motivated undergraduate students enrolled and in good standing at UC Davis. Awards can be used to pursue fieldwork abroad in a developing country or working domestically on poverty alleviation, inequality, and topics related to global development.
Available to: UC Davis undergraduate students
Applications due annually in Fall Quarter - Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (CPFP)
The UC Davis Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program offers postdoctoral research fellowships and faculty mentoring to outstanding scholars in all fields whose research, teaching, and service will contribute to the diversity and equal opportunity at the University of California. These contributions may include public service addressing the needs of our increasingly diverse society, efforts to advance equitable access to higher education, or research focusing on underserved populations or understanding inequalities related to race, gender, disability or LGBTQ.
Available to: UC Davis postdoctoral scholars
Applications due annually in Fall Quarter - Climate Action Fellowships
The Bonnie Reiss Climate Action Student Fellowship Program engages and energizes students in supporting UC’s climate action goals and helping to create a more equitable, resilient, sustainable and healthy world. Fellowship awards are $4,000 each for a commitment of one academic year.
Available to: UC Davis undergraduate students, UC Davis graduate students
Applications due annually in Spring Quarter - Community and Citizen Science in Conservation Fellowship
This fellowship provides graduate students in conservation with the opportunity for training, funding and guided hands-on experience with community and citizen science (CCS). To qualify for the fellowship, graduate students must complete a 10-week seminar in the spring exploring CCS approaches and applications broadly related to conservation. Accepted fellows will be awarded a stipend for research support and given mentorship and professional development opportunities throughout the following academic year.
Available to: UC Davis undergraduate students, UC Davis graduate students
Applications due annually in Spring Quarter - Environmental Justice Apprenticeship Program
Through the Graduate Program of Environmental Policy and Management and the UC Davis Institute for the Environment, each year the Environmental Justice Apprenticeship program supports four students pursuing an environmental justice-focused practicum project.
Available to: UC Davis graduate students
Applications due annually in Fall Quarter - Environmental Justice Leaders
Through the Feminist Research Institute, the Environmental Justice Leaders program supports students with the opportunity to work on a project of benefit to their community in partnership with researchers
Available to: UC Davis graduate students
Applications due annually in Fall Quarter - Environmental Scholars (Earth and Environmental and Climate Justice Scholars)
Through the Environmental and Climate Justice Hub at the UC Davis Institute of the Environment, this program supports proposals that involve environmental studies and/or sciences research that clearly contributes to environmental justice, including the resolution of environmental inequalities or the improvement of environmental health.
Available to: UC Davis graduate students
Applications due annually in Winter Quarter - Mellon Public Scholars
The program introduces graduate students to the intellectual and practical aspects of identifying, addressing, and collaborating with members of a public through their scholarship. Each student will work with a faculty partner to develop a community-based research project and receive a stipend to support the project over the summer.
Available to: UC Davis graduate students
Applications due annually in Winter Quarter - Public Scholarship and Engagement Research Fellowship
This is a year-long fellowship with Public Scholarship and Engagement to support research, program development and implementation. Fellows will write literature reviews related to public scholarship, equity and inclusion, community engaged learning, and university community engagement, as well as research and prepare assessments of proposed programs and initiatives, including comparisons with peer institutions.
Available to: UC Davis graduate students
Applications due annually in Spring Quarter - Public Scholars for the Future
Public Scholarship and Engagement recently launched a new fellowship program, called Public Scholars for the Future, that focused on supporting doctoral students who are interested in or actively pursuing community-engaged research. Program includes workshops on and funding for community-engaged scholarship.
Available to: UC Davis graduate students
Applications due annually in Winter Quarter - Professors for the Future
Professors for the Future (PFTF) is a year-long competitive fellowship program designed to recognize and develop the leadership skills of outstanding graduate students and postdoctoral scholars who have demonstrated their commitment to professionalism, integrity, and academic service. This unique program, sponsored by Graduate Studies, focuses on the future challenges of graduate education, postdoctoral training, and the academy.
Available to: UC Davis graduate students
Applications due annually in Winter Quarter - Ted Bradshaw Engaged Scholars Program
Through the Center for Regional Change's program, undergraduate and graduate students have the opportunity to work one-on-one with faculty, researchers, and community partners on social justice and environmental issues that they are passionate about. Student engaged scholars go on to make presentations about their work in academic, policy, and community settings. They also receive special access to community-based research training, leadership development, and mentorship opportunities and events.
Available to: UC Davis undergraduate and graduate students
Applications due annually in Fall Quarter - University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program
The President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program was established in 1984 to encourage outstanding women and minority Ph.D. recipients to pursue academic careers at the University of California. The current program offers postdoctoral research fellowships, professional development and faculty mentoring to outstanding scholars in all fields whose research, teaching, and service will contribute to diversity and equal opportunity at UC. The program seeks applicants with the potential to bring to their academic and research careers the critical perspective that comes from their non-traditional educational background or understanding of the experiences of members of groups historically underrepresented in higher education in the United States.
Available to: UC postdoctoral scholars
Applications due annually in Fall Quarter
UC Davis Funding and Awards
- Beyond the Barriers - Carceral Justice Research Awards
The BBI-Imagining America awards were created to acknowledge graduate and undergraduate student research that contributes to new public knowledge on decarceration, support systems for formerly incarcerated individuals, building creative community alternatives to policing and prisons, and understanding the carceral state in California. The award recognizes research already underway and provides small seed grants for students to document their work. All UC Davis undergraduate, graduate, and professional students are eligible to apply.
Available to: UC Davis undergraduate, graduate and professional students
Applications due annually in Fall Quarter - Blum Center for Developing Economies - Poverty Alleviation through Sustainable Solutions
The Blum Center for Developing Economies, part of Global Affairs, graduate student small project grants program supports research and project implementation in the field. Successful grants focus on innovative approaches to alleviating poverty.
Available to: UC Davis graduate students
Applications due annually in Winter Quarter - Community Service and Civic Engagement Awards
This award is given annually to first-year, undergraduate and graduate students, and one registered student organization in recognition of dedicated service to others that is substantial in breadth, quality and time commitment. The service undertaken has resulted in a substantive and positive impact on the campus, local, national and international communities. The honorees have excelled in leadership and scholarship, improved the lives of others in innovative ways and demonstrated a commitment to equity and inclusion.
Available to: UC Davis undergraduate and graduate students
Submissions due annually in Winter Quarter - Event Co-Sponsorships
Public Scholarship and Engagement provides co-sponsorship funding for events that align with our vision of a university that serve the public, equitably and inclusively, resulting in reciprocal and mutual benefit to California’s communities and beyond. The events we support should have a clear public engagement focus, for example: transfer of knowledge between university and non-university partners; gathering collective input on projects that impact diverse audiences; building or strengthening relationships between the university and community.
Available to: UC Davis undergraduate, graduate and professional students
Applications accepted year-round - Graduate Student of Color Summer Research Award
The Student Recruitment & Retention Center (SRRC)'s Graduate Academic Achievement & Advocacy Program invites applications for research projects that examine questions of marginalization, promote social, racial and/or environmental justice, or engage community-based public scholarship. Funding may be used for research-related expenses such as: travel, materials, and/or living expenses for research-based writing.
Available to: UC Davis graduate students
Applications due annually in Spring Quarter - Grieshop Family Student Award for Community Education
A part of the Graduate Studies Internal Fellowship competition for continuing academic graduate students, this award supports graduate students in International Agricultural Development, Community Development, and Human Development who have a demonstrated academic emphasis in community education.
Available to: UC Davis graduate students
Applications due annually in Winter Quarter - Harry S. Truman Scholarship
This scholarship awards winners up to $30,000 toward a public service graduate degree. Scholarship recipients must work in public service for three (3) of their first seven (7) years after graduation.
Available to: UC Davis graduate students
Submissions due annually in Winter Quarter -
Rapid Response and Short-term Funding Opportunity
Do you need funds to jump-start an urgent research topic? Do you need extra funding for additional data collection? Do you have a new idea that you want to explore the feasibility of? Are you convening stakeholders to discuss an emerging issue? Are you developing training or outreach materials? Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety seeks proposals for short-term projects that address research, outreach, or educational issues of agricultural health and safety in Arizona, California, Hawaii, and/or Nevada.
Available to: UC Davis graduate students and postdoctoral scholars
Applications due annually in Spring Quarter -
UC Davis Grad Slam
UC Grad Slam is an annual contest in which master’s and Ph.D. students across UC campuses – in disciplines ranging from hard sciences to humanities – compete to sum up their research for a general audience. Students should present the significance and fundamental points of their work at UC Davis in a clear, direct, and interesting manner.
Available to: UC Davis graduate students
Submissions due annually in Winter Quarter -
UC Davis Library Graduate Student Prize
The UC Davis Library Graduate Student Prize celebrates graduate student researchers who use the library to create outstanding, publicly engaged scholarship. Up to three prizes will be awarded for an original, unpublished, written work created while the applicant is a graduate student at UC Davis. The $1,000 prize is co-sponsored by the UC Davis Library and the UC Davis Office of Public Scholarship and Engagement.
Available to: UC Davis graduate students
Submissions due annually in Winter Quarter - Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety Small Grant Program
The overarching goal of the WCAHS Small Grant Program is to encourage the development of creative research projects while nurturing researchers—particularly early-career researchers—interested in improving agricultural health and safety for the Western U.S. Projects that include collaboration with cooperative extension farm advisors or farm labor contractors and/or those that result in industry, community, and/or policy outputs are encouraged.
Available to: UC Davis graduate students and postdoctoral scholars
Applications due annually during the summer
External Funding Opportunities
- Community Resiliency Programs Grant
The Community Resilience Centers Program funds neighborhood-level resilience centers to provide shelter and resources during climate and other emergencies, as well as year-round services and programming that strengthen community connections and ability to withstand disasters.
Available to: Graduate students
Applications due annually in Fall Quarter - Donald A. Strauss Public Service Scholarship
The Donald A. Strauss Scholarship Foundation makes annual awards of $15,000 to no fewer than 10 and no more than 15 California college sophomores or juniors from 22 pre-selected institutions. The Foundation promotes the value of public service in the education and preparation of our future leaders by financing innovative student-generated projects. A central part of the application package is a proposal for a project to be carried out between the end of the sophomore or junior year, and the spring of the following year; these proposals shall become a major focus of the selection process.
Available to: UC Davis undergraduate students
Applications due annually in Winter Quarter - Joy of Giving Something Fellowship
The goals of the Imagining America/Joy of Giving Something Fellows Program are to elevate photography and digital media as pathways for undergraduate students to pursue their careers and to make a difference in their communities. The program specifically aims to support students for whom economic and family circumstances render such career pathways particularly challenging.
Available to: Member institutions’ undergraduate students (includes UC Davis)
Applications due annually in summer - Publicly Active Graduate Education (PAGE) Fellowship
Publicly Active Graduate Education (PAGE) is Imagining America’s (IA) network for publicly engaged graduate students in humanities, arts, and design. Imagining America invites graduate students with a demonstrated interest and commitment in public scholarship and/or artistic practice to apply for the PAGE Fellowship. Awardees receive a year’s worth of mentorship, professional development training, and community support as well as a travel stipend to attend a Fellows Summit during the national conference.
Available to: Member institutions’ graduate students (includes UC Davis)
Applications due annually in summer