The Current Events Grant Program is designed to advance research on topics related to intergroup conflict, intergroup violence, genocide, or religious prejudice. Priority will be given to submissions that involve multiple points of view and issues related to the conflict in the Middle East, Anti-Arab, Anti-Muslim, Anti-Palestinian, and Anti-Semitism.
These grants are intended to support relatively inexpensive, well-powered studies that, if successful, will be submitted for publication and presentation at the annual convention. The maximum that may be requested is $1,500, and up to $7,000 in grants will be distributed. Priority will be given to individuals who do not have funding and/or are early career members.
Awards may be used to compensate participants (online or in-person), purchase supplies, travel to research sites, or pay research assistants. Funds may not be used for salaries or travel to conferences, and no indirect costs will be granted to the awardee’s institution.
The deadline to apply is Thursday, September 26, 2024, 11:59 pm PT.
Eligibility
- A grant award from SPSP cannot have been awarded in the past three years.
- Applicants must be members (having obtained their doctorate at the time of grant submission) of SPSP and their dues paid for the year of application.
- Selected applicants must receive institutional review board (IRB) approval before receiving the grant payment.
Award recipients must submit a report of the research to SPSP within six months of the completion of the study and, if the research is successful, are expected to submit it both for publication and presentation at the SPSP convention.
Requirements
Grant applications must include the following:
- PI Contact Information
- Optional Co-PI
- What is the status of the IRB review for this project?
- Title of Research
- Abstract (limit: 75 words)
- Research question, goals of the study, significance to social/personality psychology (limit: 350 words)
- Research design and methodology (limit: 350 words)
- Planned analyses (limit: 350 words)
- Itemized budget (limit: 350 words)
- Proposed timeline for completion of the research (PDF upload)
- Average amount of grant dollars per year awarded to the PI for research
- A curriculum vitae - CV (PDF upload)
Review Process
The Review Committee will include two members of the Diversity and Climate Committee and two members of the SPSP Board of Directors. They will evaluate each proposal along the following criteria:
- Importance or significance of the topic to a specific call for submissions (1 – not significant to 4 – significant)
Does the proposal identify a gap in knowledge, and justify why it’s important to address it? Does the proposal pose a novel question or make novel predictions? Is the breadth of the question being addressed appropriate (neither too broad nor too narrow)?
- Clarity and quality of the research methodology and analyses that will be conducted (1 – low quality to 4 – high quality)
It is particularly important that applications include sufficient information to convince the Committee that the project will be completed to an ethical and publishable standard, so issues involving power, sample size, and planned analyses should be discussed. Is the design of the study appropriate for the question being asked? Are the constructs appropriately operationalized? Is the sample size sufficient? Is this a well-powered study? Are the proposed analyses appropriate?
- Appropriateness of the budget (1 – not appropriate to 4 – very appropriate)
- Feasibility of completing the project within the timeline provided, must be completed within 12-18 months (1 – not feasible to 4 – very feasible)
- The average amount of grant dollars per year awarded to the PI for research (1 – low need for funds to 4 – high need for funds)
The Society for Personality and Social Psychology offers a limited number of stipends and awards to support members from international locations who wish to attend its Annual Convention. This award is intended to increase the global representation of SPSP members and attendance at the Annual Convention.
Both graduate students and teachers/scholars who have completed their doctoral training are eligible to apply.
Given the format of the 2025 Annual Convention, two types of awards will be given this year: travel awards to support in-person attendance and registration stipends to support virtual attendance. Both graduate students and teachers/scholars who have completed their doctoral training are eligible to apply.
About the Award
The goal of the International Travel/Registration Award is to increase representation of scholars from underrepresented countries at the SPSP Annual Convention. This goal was set because:
- SPSP aspires to be international in outlook, both in terms of the populations we study and the researchers who are studying them;
- Attendees from outside of North America are underrepresented at the meetings;
- The North American location of the meeting, compounded by wealth disparities between these countries and the U.S., often puts attendance at our conference out of reach for international scholars from underrepresented countries.
Award selection criteria focus primarily on applicants’ contribution to enhancing international diversity and representation, and prioritizes applications from students and teacher/scholars from world regions historically underrepresented at the convention, as members of SPSP, or more broadly in the field of social/personality psychology (more information available under the Eligibility tab).
SPSP will host an International Reception at the convention (time and location to be announced). Award winners are expected to attend the reception.
Award Amounts
In recognition of large variations in the typical levels of resources and wealth between countries, and in travel costs associated with attending SPSP meetings in North America (based largely on distance traveled), three levels of award are offered. The three levels are based on two simple dichotomies reflecting country-level resources and travel costs.
Country-level resources: Countries are defined as high- versus low-resource countries based on the "2019 World Bank definition of “high-income economies”.
- High resource: 81 countries are identified as relatively high-income based on GNI per capita
- Low resource: all other countries are classified as relatively low-income
Travel cost: Countries are defined as high versus low in travel costs.
- Low cost: countries are those (a) in the North American continent (including island states) or (b) in Western Europe
- High cost: all other countries
Award amounts are based on combinations of these two dichotomies:
- High Resource/Low Cost = up to $600 award
- Low Resource/Low Cost and High Resource/High Cost = up to $1,000 award
- Low Resource/High Cost = up to $1500 award
Eligibility
Applicants cannot have previously won an SPSP Travel/Registration award (i.e., the Graduate Travel/Registration Award, the Diversity Graduate Travel/Registration Award, or the Teacher & Scholar Travel/Registration Award).
Applicants may apply for this award together with any other registration stipend for which they are qualified (see here for a full listing of available registration stipends). However, an applicant can receive only one of the stipends.
Geographic Eligibility
Applicants must reside outside of the U.S. and Canada at the time of the convention. The country of residence will normally be based on the location of the applicant's institution. Although individuals from any world region outside of North America are eligible to apply, applicants from underrepresented regions will be given priority in the evaluation process. For the purposes of this award, underrepresented regions include most countries in Southern and Eastern Europe; Asia, the Pacific Islands, and Oceania; Africa and the Middle East; and Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.
Other Criteria
Graduate student applicants must be enrolled in a graduate program in psychology, and have research interests that fall broadly within areas of personality, social, or a related sub-field (e.g., political psychology, health psychology, cultural psychology, etc.).
Teacher/scholar applicants must teach and work primarily with undergraduate or Master’s level students, and have research interests that fall broadly within the areas of personality, social, or a related sub-field (e.g., political psychology, health psychology, cultural psychology, etc.).
Undergraduate students are not eligible to apply.
Non-members are eligible to apply, but must become members to accept the award. Applicants from underrepresented regions may be eligible for dues reduction or exemption. Please contact membership@spsp.org for additional information.
International applicants may apply for this award together with any other registration stipend for which they are qualified (i.e., the Diversity Graduate Registration Stipend, the Graduate Registration Stipend, or a Teacher/Scholar Registration Stipend). However, an applicant can receive only one of the stipends.
Submission Requirements
- A current vitae (CV)
- A 300-word essay in which you describe how your research and/or your life experiences contribute to the internationalization of SPSP or of social and personality psychology research and how you would benefit from receiving an international award.
About the Stipend
The Society for Personality and Social Psychology offers limited support in the form of compensated convention registration for both U.S. and international students attending its Annual Convention. Registration stipend winners will receive an in-person compensation code to register for the Annual Convention.
Applicants cannot have previously won any of the SPSP Travel Awards (i.e., the International Travel Award, the Graduate Student Travel Award, the Diversity Graduate Travel Award, or the Teacher/Scholar Award).
Applicants must a SPSP member through December 31, 2025.
Winners will be chosen via a lottery system.