Status: OPEN | Verification: VERIFIED | Last verified: 30 September 2026.
The Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy is accepting applications for its 2027 awards supporting dissertation-level social-policy research by emerging scholars.
Deadline: 1 December 2026 at 11:59 PM EST.
Grant amount: USD 10,000 per award, with USD 7,500 paid initially and USD 2,500 after an eligible project milestone.
Geography: global.
Applicant type: current PhD or DrPH candidates working on an approved dissertation.
What the Foundation funds
The Foundation supports dissertation research with a clear social-policy application. Projects may address contemporary policy questions across the social sciences and are assessed on merit, including feasibility, applicability, originality, methodology and the strength of the research case.
Who can apply?
Applicants must be current PhD or DrPH candidates and must have had their dissertation proposal defended or formally approved by their department. Applicants who already hold a PhD are not eligible. Candidates may be based in any country or university; US citizenship or residency is not required.
Application requirements
The application includes personal details, a project overview, a 750-word project description, a CV and recommender information. Recommenders must submit their forms by the deadline, and all application materials must be in English.
Official source and application
Review the official grant information and apply through the Horowitz Foundation application page.
Practical applicant notes
This is an individual dissertation-research award rather than an institutional grant. Applicants should make the policy relevance explicit, show why the research matters beyond the academic literature and ensure the methodology is realistic for the available research period and budget.
Should you apply?
Best fit for: current PhD or DrPH candidates with an approved dissertation, a clear social-policy question and a research design that can generate findings useful beyond academia.
Probably not a fit if: you already hold a PhD, your dissertation has not been formally approved, or the project has weak policy relevance.
Africads application tips: make the social-policy application explicit in the first paragraphs; show methodological feasibility within the available funding; and brief your recommender early so their submission does not become the final bottleneck.
Before you apply: Check whether the research case is strong enough to fund
Use the Africads Program Fundability Checker to test whether the problem, research logic, expected results, evidence and policy value form a convincing case before you finalise the application.
Need application support?
If you want a second set of eyes on policy relevance, methodology, narrative coherence or budget logic, request Africads proposal review support.
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