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. Guillemin Prize funding is distributed as part of the PhD Student Research Grant.

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.

We encourage prospective applicants to read this list of helpful tips before applying.

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 deadline for 2027 will be announced in fall 2026.

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.”

• Sylvia Jimenez Riofrio, Urban Studies and Planning, "Heat and health planning in practice: Double roof as a local knowledge heat adaptation strategy in Manaus, Brazil" (Jeanne Guillemin Prize)
• Lucas Nobrega Augusto, Political Science, "How social media reshapes political representation in Brazil"
• Fanisi Mbozi, Political Science, "From campaigns to construction: How campaign organization shapes public goods allocation"
• Muhammad Feteha, Architecture, "Building on pious foundations: Waqf, public works, and heritage preservation in Cairo 1863-1952"
• Ashley Vicary, Urban Studies and Planning, "Climate shocks, internal migration, and left-behind children in rural China"
• JS Tan, Urban Studies and Planning, "High- versus low-road development in the China’s cloud computing sector"
• Joshua Tan, Architecture, "Prosperity and cooperation: The architecture of Japanese reparations, debt, and economic cooperation in Southeast Asia, 1951–1990"
• Darren Janz, Political Science, "Religious authority, Islamic revivalism, and political transformation in West Africa"
• Tyler Sagerstrom, Political Science, "Global economic integration and public goods"
• BreAnne Fleer, Political Science, "Who teaches the nation? Religious schooling and the politics of linguistic assimilation"
• Lydia Shaw, Political Science, "Merit, loyalty, and the architecture of governance: How bureaucratic state-building shaped modern Morocco"
• Adeposi Adeogun, Urban Studies and Planning, "Archipelagos of infrastructure: Mapping community-led governance and resilience in Lagos, Nigeria"
• Kathryn Dura, Political Science, "Perception, power, and innovation: Defense elites and the politics of emerging technologies" (Jeanne Guillemin Prize)
• Tathagat Bhatia, Science, Technology, and Society, "The Earth: Constituting the planet in the age of postcolonial worldmaking"
• Christine Liu, Political Science, "National power and global supply chains" (Trailblazer Grant)
• Terrence Roh, Political Science, "Governing the periphery: Spatial fragmentation and collective action in Lima, Peru" (Trailblazer Grant)
• Jingtian Chen, Political Science, "The political origins of market structures in China, the European Union and the United States" (Trailblazer Grant)