Humanities and Social Sciences research programs (Academic Research Fellowships and career-stage grants)
National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF)
Korea's national research funder runs a laddered set of humanities and social sciences programs spanning master's and doctoral student fellowships, Academic Research Fellowships for PhD holders without a permanent post, and career-stage research grants for early-career, mid-career and distinguished scholars. It also runs domestic and international collaborative research grants and larger International Research Group and Institute grants. The international tracks are the realistic entry point for a non-Korean social work researcher, who joins as a collaborator on a Korea-based lead's grant.
- Indicative award
- Amount not published (per year)Published in Korean won: Academic Research Fellowship A Type KRW 40 million per year over 5 years and B Type KRW 20 million per year over 1 year; Early-Career Scholars KRW 20 million per year for 1 to 3 years; Distinguished Scholars KRW 50 million per year over 5 years; Collaborative Research KRW 50
- Timing
- Annual cycleAnnual cycle · JunNo specific published date recorded. This funder publishes a cycle rather than a date, and this database does not invent one.The page lists a 1 June application point for new Academic Research Fellowship applications. No specific future dated deadline is published on this English program page, so none is recorded; other programs in the ladder run on their own annual cycles.
- Who can apply
- Doctoral candidate, Postdoctoral, Early-career faculty, Mid-career & senior, Any faculty rank
- Eligibility
- The individual fellowship tracks gate on Korean nationality and age: the Academic Research Fellowship A Type requires a domestic-nationality PhD holder aged 60 or under, and the B Type a domestic-nationality master's-or-above holder aged 64 or under. Early-Career Scholars requires being within 5 years of an assistant professorship or 10 years post-PhD; Distinguished Scholars requires 15 or more years post-PhD or 10 or more years as a professor. Foreign researchers cannot hold these individual fellowships but can participate through the collaborative and international research programs, hosted
- SSWR clusters
- Topics
- humanities and social sciences · korea · international collaboration · career-stage funding
- Apply at
- https://www.nrf.re.kr/eng/page/7e14e42b-d97a-4272-bba3-e48a29cf1805
- This entry
- Curated by the working group. Written 2026-08-07. The funder link has not yet been machine-checked.
Amounts and dates on this page are indicative and are maintained by people rather than scraped. Funders change ceilings, windows and eligibility without notice; confirm all details at the source above before applying.
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