Graduate Research

Grants Services supports faculty, graduate students, and staff in the College of Liberal Arts. We encourage a culture of grant seeking in the Humanities and Social Sciences and aim to:

• Help grant­-seekers find funding opportunities through the COLA Grants Digest.
• Disseminate funding opportunities announced by the Office of the Vice President of Research to faculty.
• Ensure the research community stays informed of updates and changes to University, city, state, and federal policies and procedures.
• Assist researchers with proposal development including budget and budget justification preparation and inform individuals on the fellowship and grant submission process.
• Facilitate faculty and graduate student grant submissions through the Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP) and the Office of Corporate Relations and Foundation Relations (OCRFR).
• Perform outreach efforts through workshops and in-person meetings in order to educate the community on resources and tools offered in the College of Liberal Arts and at The University of Texas.
• Provide guidance to grant awardees and their departments on post-award matters.

Contact Us

We are here to support you throughout the process of submitting a grant proposal at UT Austin, but we often receive a high volume of requests. To ensure that your proposal gets the full attention it deserves, we ask that you adhere to our Grants Submission Timeline when contacting our office (laresearch@austin.utexas.edu).

Brook Davis, Senior Grants Administrator
Email: davis@austin.utexas.edu, Tel: 512-232-0760, Office: GEB 3.310

Vanessa Lopez, CRA, Senior Grants Administrator
Email: volopez@austin.utexas.edu, Tel: 512-232-0716, Office: GEB 3.310

The Office of Research & Graduate Studies collaborates with Liberal Arts departments, centers, institutes, and the Graduate School to support initiatives that increase graduate student success and improve students’ work environment. In addition to steering College policies, our office participates in the university-wide conversations about graduate student parental accommodations, dissertation embargo, funding, professional development, placement targets, and more. We investigate college, university, and national data on graduate education; design and offer professional development opportunities for graduate students; and work on best practices for student recruitment and support with fellowships and employment in academic job titles. 

Policy Statements

College-level policies impact students' academic progress. In establishing and revising such policies we respond to university and national conversations on graduate education and career options, helping shape these conversations.

• Parental Accomodation
• Time to Degree and Student Funding

Resources

• Graduate Student Writing Resources
• Milestones for Doctoral Programs
• Campus Disability Resources
• Graduate School Climate Study
• Best Practices: Teaching Assistant Job Duties

The College of Liberal Arts Office of Research & Scholarship provides funding to support COLA graduate students who obtain large (usually $15,000 or more), competitive, prestigious external fellowships to support their degree work and dissertations in the broad areas of the humanities and social sciences.

This fund is specifically intended to defray health insurance and tuition costs for graduate students who receive external fellowships that do not cover these types of costs, and at times, to assist the student with reaching the minimum employment requirements of benefits-eligible Graduate Research Assistant positions, in alignment with University requirements.

Learn more about the CoLA Graduate Student External Award Supplement Fund and speak with your advisor or department and/or research unit about how this program might benefit you.

The College of Liberal Arts Office of Research & Scholarship provides a team dedicated to assisting faculty and students with external proposals, awards and fellowships.

The Research Support Office (RSO) provides assistance with submitting proposals to sponsors and funders. We assist with submitting National Science Foundation (NSF) Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (DDRIG) proposals, external fellowships from foundations, non-profits and private industry, and other graduate student funding that originates from an external source, funder or sponsor (note: supporting/hosting UT faculty/PI is required in all cases).

• When the above-described award/funding arrives after-the-fact and requires institutional support and/or university administering of funds, we help bring the proposed/awarded funding and documentation through the University's Office of Sponsored Projects to assist with the negotiation process (if needed), and set up of the award, account and funds to be made available to the student (note: supporting UT faculty/advisor/PI is required in such cases). 

These services are reserved primarily for academic units and departments that do not already have in-house, dedicated research administrative personnel.

RSO assists graduate students with building UT-compliant budgets, budget justifications and other sponsor-mandated guidelines, documents and processes.

Please note, as a College-wide resource, RSO services require specific advance notice. Check out RSO's Porposal Services webpage and Proposal Resources wiki to learn more about how this team can assist you with your sponsored research.

• Graduate Student Resources
• Degrees & Programs in Graduate Education

• Graduate School Planning
  • Including the PhD Portal
• Career Exploration & Research
• Job & Internship Search
• Where Students Intern and more

• CoLA Scholarships & Awards

• Degrees & Programs
• Overview of Research, Programs, Units, etc.
• Graduate Student Mentoring Program
• Funding
  • Including Fellowships, Research-related employment, Awards

• University Research Units & Centers
• Off-Campus Research Sites

• Graduate Student assistance
  • Find Jobs & Internships

• Services for Graduate Student Writing Improvement
• Additional Resources

The Undergraduate College houses a Post Graduate Program with access to a significant amount of resources, opportunities and funding that successfully bridge the space between undergraduate and graduate studies for individuals interested in pursuing graduate studies and graduate level research.

The Assistant Director of the Office of Distinguished and Postgraduate Scholarships (ODPS), Dr. Tina Thomas, holds a lecturer position in the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies and is the Director of the University's Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program, housed in the College of Liberal Arts. 

For more information about the programs and resources available, reach out to ODPS directly.