2024-25 SCCEI Graduate Student Research Grants: Winter Call

The Stanford Center on China’s Economy & Institutions (SCCEI) is pleased to invite proposals from Stanford PhD students in any field to fund research and associated travel on contemporary issues related to China’s economy, broadly defined. 

Eligibility and Requirements

PhD students in any field who are using quantitative data on or from China are eligible to apply. The aim of the SCCEI Research Fund is to foster rigorous, data-driven research on China. Priority funding will go towards:

• Student projects with a realistic and well thought out plan for data acquisition, defined broadly to include both collection of new data and use of existing datasets;
• Projects that aim to build upon existing research;
• Non-China experts looking to build their capacity for conducting research in or on China.

Research awards may support travel, materials (including data access or acquisition), or other costs that are integral to the research project. Research may include both primary and secondary sources and need not take place entirely or even partly in the field. The SCCEI Research Fund will provide up to $10,000 per student award.

Application deadline:

The deadline for proposal submission is Sunday, March 16, at 11:59pm. Awards will be announced in April 2025.

Award conditions:

Prior to receiving funding, award recipients must submit:

• Short biography written in the third person to be used on the SCCEI website
• Headshot of the recipient to be used on the SCCEI website

By June 2026, award recipients must submit a brief report on research progress, as well as an update on future academic plans, which may be shared with donors. A member of the project team will also be required to present the funded research results as part of SCCEI’s Young Researcher Workshop series. 

Application:

Applicants should be prepared to upload three documents to complete their online application:

1. A project proposal, no longer than 4 pages, that includes the following elements:
   • A project description that covers:
     • The specific research questions that the proposed research project aims to answer;
     • A description of the proposed or existing data source to be drawn upon for the research;
     • A detailed and practical plan for collecting and/or analyzing project data;
     • The specific activities which the award will support (such as travel, research assistants, or project materials)
     • How the proposed research project fits into dissertation or job market plans.
   • A list of the project PIs and other team members;
   • Estimated budget, including desired start and finish dates for the project.
   • A clear budget narrative, describing the calculations and rationale for each budget line item.
2. A letter of recommendation from a faculty mentor or advisor, speaking to applicant’s experience and ability to lead and complete the proposed project.
3. A current CV.

Please note: All file uploads must be submitted as PDF files. 

Recommendation letter:

Faculty recommendation letters have the same deadline as the graduate student fellowship application. Applicants are responsible for ensuring that their letter of recommendation is submitted by the application deadline.

Students request recommendation letters within the application on the SOLO platform. A link is immediately sent to the faculty member, who can then upload the letter via SOLO. Letters should be submitted as PDF files.

Faculty may submit letters of recommendation at any time after receiving the link and do NOT have to wait for the student to complete and submit the application. This means that students, out of courtesy to the faculty, should initiate their application early enough to give advance notice to their recommenders, even if students plan to finalize the application closer to the deadline.