PhD Student Research Grants

$2,000 - $5,000

• Generally used to support field research or archival visits of 2-10 weeks in duration. 
• All MIT PhD students are eligible to apply.

Up to $15,000

• Only PhD students who have advanced to candidacy will be considered for the Trailblazer Grant. 
• Two grants are available per year

Trailblazer Grants provide resources for particularly ambitious research projects that may require extended field research and/or include costs for local research assistants, survey enumerators, etc. Applications for this more competitive grant should fully justify the need for additional resources and provide details on data collection, including power calculations for surveys and experiments.

The Jeanne Guillemin Prize is an endowed fund that provides financial support to women PhD candidates studying international affairs. Guillemin was a longtime colleague of CIS and a sociologist of science and national security. 

All women PhD candidates studying international affairs selected for a PhD Student Research Grant will also be considered for the Jeanne Guillemin Prize.

Complete the application form. You will need to prepare and upload the following PDF documents:

• Research statement (maximum 500 words for Standard Grants and 1,250 words for Trailblazer Grants)
• CV

Separately, please ask a current dissertation advisor to email a letter of support to cis-info@mit.edu. If you are applying for a Trailblazer Grant, please ask your letter-writer to indicate their specific support for this more ambitious opportunity.

Applicants must have registered student status for the duration of the proposed research. It is the applicant’s responsibility to comply with MIT and departmental requirements regarding payment of tuition and fees. All grantees must comply with the MIT student travel policy. 

Students may apply for both grants with separate applications, but a single letter of recommendation. Each student may receive a maximum of two grants from CIS during their time at MIT. 

The application deadline for 2025 grants has passed. Applications for 2026 grants will be due in March 2026, with results announced in mid-April.

Grants should be used to cover travel costs related to fieldwork (i.e., airfare, lodging, meals, etc.) and/or research-related costs (such as survey platform fees or research assistance). 

They may not be used for data purchases or as a “writing stipend.”

• Isabel Bailey, Architecture, “Soviet Sedentarization as a Process of Design”

• Ayelet Carmeli, Political Science, “Forging Financial Citizenships: The Origins of Savings Regimes in France, the U.K., and the U.S.”

• Nilsu Celikel, Political Science, “Amicable Relations and Conflict Termination”

• Jingtian Chen, Political Science, “The Competition Paradox: The Political Origins of Market Structures”

• Kathryn Dura, Political Science, “Perception, Power, and Innovation: Defense Elites and the Politics of Emerging Technologies”

• Odinaka Eze, STS, “Medical Governance: The Search for Health in Africa”

• Preston Johnston, Political Science, “Paying for Climate Change: The Politics of Insurance in a Warming World”

• Areti Kotsoni, DUSP, "Mapping Sociospatial Inequalities: Balancing Tourism, Living Heritage, and Policy"

• Zachary La Rock, STS, “Curative Malaise: Petrochemicals and the Pharmaceutical Model for Agriculture in South Italy”

• Julia Lodoen, Political Science, “In Democracy's Shadows: How Institutions Created under Democratic Regimes Strengthen Authoritarian Repression. State Actors and Democtratic Backsliding” Julia Lodoen was awarded the sixth annual Guillemin Prize

• Dení López, DUSP, “From Indigenous Grassroots to Policy: Redefining Disaster Risk Management Through Zapotec Expertise”

• Antonio Mahana, Political Science, “Peasants without Roots: Internal Colonialism and Land Distribution in Bolivia”

• Nina Miller, Political Science, “Blame Games: International Military Accidents, Blame Narratives, and Escalation"

• Alex Benjamín Muñoz Rojas, Political Science, “The Political Dynamics Behind Pretrial Detention” 

• Mrinalini Penumaka, DUSP, “Blame Games: International Military Accidents, Blame Narratives, and Escalation” Mrinalini Penumaka was awarded the sixth annual Guillemin Prize

• Clemente Sanchez Barja, Political Science, “To serve a cause: bureaucratic zeal and the foundations of the rule of law”

• Maia Simon, Architecture, “The City in the Economic Region: Industrialization, Urbanization, and Architectural Expertise in the Kazakh SSR, 1925–1965,”

• Thelma Wang, STS and Anthropology, “Seeking Medicine Elsewhere: Sino-Thai Pathways for Gender-Affirming Care”

• Chenhao Zhu, DUSP, “Global Urban Policies on Governing New Mobility Integration”

• Tingxuan Zhu, Political Science, “The Dilemma of Technology Control: Relative Gains in Great Power Technology Competition”