EVENT FUNDING
The Franke Institute accepts proposals to fund on-campus conferences and lectures. These awards encourage innovative, cross-disciplinary research in the humanities; we particularly welcome applications that represent multiple departments or disciplines.
The Franke usually acts as a co-sponsor with other University of Chicago departments, divisions, schools, or graduate workshops; it can also co-sponsor events with other institutions if the event in question has a component on the UChicago campus.
Please note that all Franke events are open to the public.
Deadlines
Proposals for event grants are accepted during Autumn, Winter, and Spring quarters every year. The deadline for proposals is the fifth Friday of each of these three quarters. We strongly recommend submitting your proposal at least two quarters before your event is planned (e.g., in Autumn quarter for a Spring event).
Winter 2026: The deadline for submission of funding proposals to the Franke Institute for the Winter 2026 meeting of the Institute’s Governing Board is February 6, at 11:59 pm. At this Winter meeting, proposals will be considered for funding for the academic years 2026-27 and 2027-28.
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Eligibility
All tenure-track faculty members in the Division of the Arts & Humanities, the Division of Social Sciences, and the Divinity School are eligible to apply. Applications from outside AHD are expected to have a substantive humanistic component.
In addition, the Institute welcomes conference proposals from groups of doctoral students in AHD; such proposals must be supported by a letter from the faculty advisor for the planned event. This letter should be requested by the applicant(s) as part of the InfoReady proposal (see below); the letter should then be submitted via InfoReady as well.
The Franke does not fund undergraduate projects.
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How to Apply
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Please submit your proposal to the Franke Institute’s Call for Proposals for Event Grants on the University’s InfoReady platform (log in with CNetID and password).
Please include a full account of:
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The purpose of the event, who would be involved in the planning process and who might participate in the event itself.
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A list of possible speaker(s) for your event, indicating whether they’ve been invited or confirmed, with each speaker’s title, department, institution and likely topic, and a tentative schedule.
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What kind of audience you envision.
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What results you hope to achieve.
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A tentative budget of costs and other sources of funding (departments, committees, workshops, external grants) might be available. Most of our events are joint efforts, planned and supported by all the potential interested groups.
A budget template can be found in the Supporting Documents section for Franke Event Grants in InfoReady.
Please note that the maximum award for a Franke event grant is $7,500. In addition, no award can exceed one-half of an event's overall budget.
“Festschrift” conferences for retiring colleagues present a special case. Such events may be excellent on their own terms while lacking the interdisciplinary quality that the Franke typically encourages. Accordingly, the Franke funds retirement conferences at a flat rate of up to $4,000 in support. Requests for higher levels of funding must justify the amount by incorporating a robust interdisciplinary component, e.g. by drawing on speakers and other participants from multiple departments at Chicago and/or other universities.
If you are planning a virtual or hybrid event, or an in-person event that might become virtual or hybrid, we strongly suggest that your proposal's budget include technical support. Please confer with Audio-Visual Services (AVS) to determine the type of support (both staffing and equipment) that your event might need. AVS can be reached at:
773-834-4499
https://academictech.uchicago.edu/services/av-services/
We are happy to work with you to discuss your proposal in advance of application and, indeed, recommend that you submit early drafts so that we can help you with the final application.
Please contact Margot Browning (mb31@uchicago.edu), Associate Director of the Franke Institute, if you have questions about the preparation of proposals.
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Reserving the Franke Conference Room
An event grant from the Franke Institute does not automatically reserve the Franke conference room for your event. If you wish to reserve the room for an event, please contact Vee Bonney (vbonney@uchicago.edu), Manager for Finance & Events, about availability. Upon confirmation of the room's availability, Ms. Bonney will advise you about how to make your reservation online. The Franke conference room is ordinarily available only for events that are sponsored, either in whole or in part, by the Franke Institute; other events involving the Division of the Arts & Humanities can sometimes be accommodated, based on availability.
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