Grants of up to $250,000 (or rarely up to $500,000 for multi-year projects.)

Henry Luce Foundation Goals

• To stimulate and support scholarship, especially projects that break new ground and that cross disciplinary and geographic boundaries
• To ensure that high-quality research, especially in the humanities and qualitative social sciences, informs policymaking and public discussion
• To prepare the next generation of diverse scholars and academic leaders

Higher Education Grants Characteristics

• They support projects in the humanities and qualitative social sciences (with one exception: projects that encourage diversity in certain STEM fields are also supported)
• In general, they will support team-based projects or institutional initiatives rather than purely individual research projects
• The projects they support will not only produce new knowledge but will also model new approaches to the production, dissemination and application of knowledge

Higher Education Program Strategies

• Encouraging new approaches to the dissemination of research outside of the academy—including to the general public or to particular communities of interest, like policymakers or practitioners
• Facilitating collaboration, dialogue, or another kind of exchange or partnership between scholars and practitioners or policymakers
• Facilitating and nurturing trans-disciplinary and trans-national research and training, especially across institutional boundaries and barriers of various kinds
• Supporting dialogue and collaboration between US and non-US institutions about higher education goals and strategies, especially in order to strengthen non-US institutions and the higher education sector in other parts of the world
• Supporting innovation in doctoral education, especially in ways that empower graduate students and equip them to thrive personally and professionally in the more challenging contemporary context
• Eliminating obstacles to a diverse professoriate and administration, especially in the physical sciences, engineering, and mathematics

UM and Henry Luce Foundation Process

UM Individuals interested in submitting a proposal should prepare a Letter of Inquiry via the UM ORSP InfoReady Review Portal at https://olemiss.infoready4.com. ORSP will review the Letter of Inquiry for compliance and responsiveness to program guidelines. If appropriate, ORSP will submit the Letter of Inquiry on behalf of the applicant, after obtaining institutional approvals via the Online Transmittal process. If the Henry Luce Foundation is interested in seeing a full proposal, they will invite the proposal within a month or so of receiving the Letter of Inquiry. If invited, the proposal itself should be handled via the ORSP Transmittal process, and ORSP will again review and submit the proposal, once approvals are obtained.

The letter of inquiry should not exceed 1000 words. It should include a brief description of the project and its hoped-for outcomes, the key personnel (full c.v.’s not required at LOI stage), and the rough project timeline. The letter should also explain how the project advances one or more of the Goals of the Luce Foundation and identify the particular Higher Education Program Strategy the project exemplifies. Finally, the letter should state the amount of the request (be sure to factor in 10% indirect costs), the total project budget, and other major sources of funding. A detailed budget is not required at the inquiry stage.
 

The process of inquiry review and proposal development generally takes 3 or 4 months, and proposals are reviewed and approved by the Foundation’s Board only three times annually—in March, June, and November. Institutions invited to submit a full proposal will receive a detailed list of proposal requirements.

General questions about this may be addressed, Jason Hale, Director of Research Development: jghale@olemiss.edu.

Guidelines Website: http://www.hluce.org/higheduguidelines.aspx