Mellon Foundation - Higher Learning 2026 Open Call for Concepts
Apply to Internal Competition // Limit: 3 // Tickets Available: 3
Limiting Language:
Each institution may submit no more than three applications to Mellon for consideration.
Eligibility
The Principal Investigator (PI), or applicant, must be a faculty member and/or dean in a program or department in the humanities or humanistic social sciences at the applicant institution. The PI may also be the institution’s provost/chief academic officer. Applications that do not include a CV for the PI will be disqualified from consideration.
Overview
Full sponsor guidelines are linked here.
In the interest of maintaining a grantmaking portfolio that supports inquiry into issues of vital social, cultural, and historical import, the Higher Learning program at the Mellon Foundation invites eligible institutions of higher education to submit ideas for research and/or curricular projects focused on either of the two areas listed below. Projects should engage teams of scholars and/or students, and have visible, enduring impact at the institution. The two topical areas for the call are:
• Unruly Intelligences
• Normalization and Its Discontents
The Mellon Higher Learning team will review all eligible submissions and invite a small number of the most promising concepts to be developed into full proposals for potential grant funding. In consideration of the anticipated volume of concept submissions, we are unable to provide feedback on preliminary concepts.