Grants and Writing Resources for Indiana University

In June 2026 the College of Arts and Sciences reported that two of its students had won Goldwater Scholarships, a mathematics major in the class of 2027 and a biology major in the class of 2028. Each award is worth up to $7,500 a year toward tuition, fees, books, and room and board for sophomores and juniors headed for research careers. Two more College students, one in molecular life sciences and one double-majoring in mathematics and psychology, were nominated. The biology major said the award made two years of research feel concrete.

Undergraduate Research Funding

IU Undergraduate Research pays for summers spent on original research or creative projects. Its Advanced Summer Research Scholarships had a $3,500 maximum in 2026 and accept students from any field who have a project plan and a faculty mentor willing to supervise. The project can't earn course credit or other funding, and recipients present at the Summer Showcase of Student Research. The office also points undergraduates to Experiential Learning Travel Scholarships for presenting at conferences.

The Hutton Honors College gives juniors and seniors a one-time Research Grant of up to $1,500 in fall or spring and up to $3,000 in summer, when living expenses can be covered too. Projects tied to an honors thesis get priority. Seniors writing that thesis can add the HHC Thesis Award of up to $750, open to students in any department that offers an honors degree with a required thesis or project. Recipients of either award file a one-page evaluation afterward.

Symposia and Journals

The first Undergraduate Symposium for Creative Activity and Research was set for April 23, 2026, open to undergraduates in every discipline. Students could give a short talk, show a poster or exhibit, or perform music, dance, theater or spoken word, and awards were planned by presentation type and by category, such as humanities or STEM.

IU Undergraduate Research also sponsors the IU Journal of Undergraduate Research, a student organization. On the literary side, Indiana Review has published since 1976 and is edited and managed by English graduate students. Its stated mission is "carefully strange" writing from emerging and established writers.

Graduate Fellowships and Grants

Doctoral candidates in the College of Arts and Sciences can be nominated for a funded dissertation year. The College's fellowships and awards list for the 2026-27 cycle includes a Dissertation Completion Fellowship for humanities and humanistic social science candidates, with a stipend of at least $25,000, health insurance and G901 tuition, and a Dissertation Research Fellowship with a $25,000 stipend and health insurance. Each Ph.D. program can nominate up to two students for the two fellowships combined. The same 2026-27 list includes three McCormick Science Grants of $3,500 each, paid to the graduate student member of a faculty and graduate student team doing basic science research.

From the Graduate School, a Grant-in-Aid of up to $1,000 pays unusual research costs for projects, theses and dissertations, such as special library access or consultants, and a conference travel version pays up to $500. Departments rank their applicants before the Graduate School reviews them. For help writing a proposal, Bloomington graduate students can use the free GradGrants Center and its funding database. Students aiming for a Fulbright, Truman, Rhodes or Marshall award can book advising appointments with the Office of National Scholarships & Awards, housed in the Hutton Honors College.

Tutoring, Writing Groups and Submission

Writing Tutorial Services works out of Wells Library and offers free one-on-one tutoring, in person or online, on academic and professional writing up to theses and dissertations. Its Dissertation Writing Groups take up to eleven students who have defended a dissertation proposal or are writing large parts of the dissertation as part of one. They meet weekly for fourteen weeks in three-hour sessions led by a WTS graduate tutor, with Foundation groups for newer writers and Solidarity groups that spend most of the time writing.

Defended dissertations are submitted online through ProQuest, with signatures collected by edoc. The Graduate School emails each author if formatting changes are needed. Once it accepts a dissertation, the author can also post it, free to read, in IU Libraries' IUScholarWorks.

An essay or a dissertation headed for Graduate School format review can come to our editors for a final check of grammar, consistency and format. See our Indiana University dissertation and thesis editing and Indiana University essay editing pages, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.

From Our Writing Guides

• How to Write a Literature Essay: Mastering Close Reading
• Escaping the Revision Pile: Strategies for First-Round Approval
• From Dissertation to Publication: The Final Scholarly Synthesis