Grants-in-Aid for History of the Physical Sciences

About the Grants-in-Aid

AIP's grants-in-aid program supports research in the history of the physical sciences and aims to help develop the community that conducts that research. The program is targeted especially at graduate students, but it also supports undergraduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and well-established scholars and non-professional historians seeking supplemental research funds. Typical uses of the funds include travel to visit archives and to conduct oral histories. We welcome applications to visit our own Niels Bohr Library & Archives facility, but research can be conducted anywhere in the world.

The maximum value of a grant is $2,500 (USD) and it is paid on a reimbursement basis—please retain and digitize receipts! Expenses can include long-distance and local travel, lodging, and meals; expenses related to research, including research assistance (such as hiring of a research assistant or digitization by archives staff); and other reasonable costs directly associated with the research.

For oral histories, transcription and any translation costs may be included in the project cost. However, if you deposit your interviews for inclusion in AIP's online oral history collection (with interviewee permission), AIP may elect to have English-language interviews transcribed for you outside the grant budget, at AIP's discretion and pending the availability of funds. Contact us at chp@aip.org for details.

Application Information

Deadlines for receipt of applications: April 15 and November 15 of each year.

Apply by sending the following by email to chp@aip.org :

• A curriculum vitae or resume
• A letter or reference from your thesis adviser (if working towards a graduate degree) OR a record of publication in the field, which may be part of the CV
• A letter of no more than two pages describing your research and activities the grant will support. (To increase your chances of a successful application, see further guidelines below.)
• An appendix listing any archives and collections to be consulted or individuals to be interviewed
• A brief budget showing the expenses for which support is requested.

Further information: Decisions on applications are typically made within several weeks of the deadline and are made by an internal AIP panel comprising historians and archivists. Grants are valid for approximately one year; a six-month extension may be requested if unexpected circumstances prevent the conduct of the research in the time allotted. AIP requires submission of a short 1 or 2 page report following the completion of the grant work describing the work conducted and results obtained. AIP understands results will occasionally be disappointing, and in such cases will expect the report to convey lessons learned. AIP is pleased to promote your grant and the work it enables in publications such as our Newsletter and online articles; if for any reason you do not want your grant to be promoted, please let us know.

Tips for a competitive application: Applications should briefly describe the overarching project that the grant will support while focusing mainly on the activities to be conducted using the grant, making a strong case that those activities are important to the project and are practical and cost-effective. For students in particular, a goal of the grant program is to foster the skills in proposing and managing research projects that major research funders will look for. For that reason, AIP is pleased to offer advice to prospective, successful, and unsuccessful applicants in crafting effective proposals and designing an effective research agenda.

Here are some characteristics of successful applications:

• Relevance: This grant program supports projects in the history of the physical sciences, which is defined to include areas such as the Earth and atmospheric sciences, biophysics, and categories of technology that are closely connected to physical sciences research. It can also include the social and cultural connections of the physical sciences and areas such as science policy. Note that AIP has an institutional commitment  to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and welcomes projects that address that priority.
• A well-informed agenda: Successful applicants will make the case that they have a good chance of obtaining useful materials using grant funds. They will, for example, demonstrate familiarity with the scale of an archive and that they are likely to be able to find relevant materials in the time available. This may be the product of studying a finding aid or corresponding with archivists. Also, applications to visit an archive of an institution, for instance, will be more successful if they convey familiarity with the institution's activities and structure, and thus an ability to navigate its archive. AIP will fund more broadly exploratory trips to archives, but applicants should make a good case that an exploratory trip is appropriate.
• Appropriate scope: It is typical for grants to support only a portion of the research necessary for the overarching project. AIP will be looking for matches between the grant size and the specific work it will enable. Applications that seem to be overpromising will typically fare less well than ones that are sensibly scoped. Conversely, applicants should also not seek to do too little. For instance, a long-distance oral history trip should be well justified, such as by including multiple interviewees. AIP may recommend conducting remote interviews if a trip is insufficiently justified.
• Realistic budgeting: While AIP appreciates efforts to economize, applicants should not provide unrealistically low budgets in the hope of improving their chances of receiving a grant. AIP expects that many grants will be for the maximum value. While itemizing costs demonstrates diligence, if the costs well exceed the maximum value, applicants can indicate an approximate cost of the full trip and that they will use other funds to cover the full cost, and then simply state that the grant will partially cover major expenses such as travel and lodging.

When in doubt, contact us! Questions concerning the grant program or research strategy are welcome and may be directed to chp@aip.org . You may also contact our library and archives team at nbl@aip.org .