Who may apply:  

Current ACTR members who are:

• Master’s or Ph.D. students at U.S. universities;
• scholars without institutional research support; or
• early career scholars within two years of their Master’s or Ph.D.

Members of the Research Award Committee and their advisees are not eligible.

What the award covers:

• Direct research costs: participant incentives and recruitment, study materials, data-collection equipment (recorders, cameras, VR), datasets and licensed corpora, transcription, and research software
• Not covered: travel, editing, generative AI subscriptions, or personal hardware
• Unsure about an item? Ask the Committee Chair before you apply: kisselev@mailbox.sc.edu 

How to apply:  

• Application form: contact details, advisor or chair, project title, and IRB status
• Project description, no more than two single-spaced pages: purpose, framework, research questions, methods, and significance
• Itemized budget and project timeline
• Letter of support from your advisor or department chair, sent directly by its author, confirming the project’s connection to your thesis or research and that full institutional funding is not available

Olesya Kisselev, University of South Carolina, chair
Emil Asanov, West Virginia University
Liudmila Klimanova, University of Arizona
Dmitri Pastushenkov, Harvard University