The NSF DDRIG in Biological Anthropology provides funding for fieldwork and other research costs not normally covered by the grantee’s university. UChicago doctoral candidates should consult the SSRC DDRIG toolkit for program dates, timelines and other institutional requirements.
Project budgets should be developed at scales appropriate for the work to be conducted. Proposal budgets cannot exceed $25,000 in direct costs for the entire duration of the award; indirect costs are in addition to this maximum direct cost limitation and are subject to the awardee’s current Federally negotiated indirect cost rate. The maximum project duration is 24 months.
Eligible Research
The Biological Anthropology Program supports multifaceted research to advance scientific knowledge of human biology and ecology, including understanding of our evolutionary history and mechanisms that have shaped human and nonhuman primate biological diversity. Supported research focuses on living and fossil forms of both human and nonhuman primates, addressing time scales ranging from the short-term to evolutionary, encompassing multiple levels of analysis (e.g., molecular, organismal, population, ecosystem), conducted in field, laboratory, captive, and computational research environments, and often incorporating interactions between human biology and culture.
Areas of inquiry that promote understanding of the evolution, biology, and adaptability of our diverse species include, but are not limited to: genetic/epigenetic/genomic variation and relationship to phenotype; ecology and socioecology; functional anatomy and skeletal biology; and paleoanthropology and primate paleontology. Multidisciplinary research that integrates biological anthropology with related anthropological fields, such as archaeology, cultural anthropology, and forensic anthropology, also may receive support through the Program.
The Program contributes to the integration of education and basic research through support of dissertation projects conducted by doctoral students enrolled in U.S. universities. Dissertation research projects in all of the subareas of biological anthropology are eligible for support through these grants. These awards are intended to enhance and improve the conduct of dissertation research by doctoral students who are pursuing research in biological anthropology that enhances basic scientific knowledge.