Since many of you have not applied for grants before, the following is meant to guide you through the process. Applications for the fellowship have in past years arrived in such a disorganized or incomplete state as to add to the work of the foundation's staff and seriously diminish the applicant's chances of funding.

Eligibility | These grants are made to Ph.D. candidates who are in the writing stage of the dissertation. Usually, this means that fieldwork or other research is complete and writing has begun. Both you and your advisor are asked to assure us that the thesis will be complete within the grant year, which may commence in July, August, or September of the year you apply and ends twelve months later. In some disciplines, particularly experimental fields, research and writing can reasonably be expected to be completed within one year, and in that case it is appropriate to apply. In all other cases, do not apply for support for your dissertation research. And if your analysis and writing are not far enough along for you to be confident that you will complete the dissertation within the year, do not apply. The application will not be competitive with those that comply with our timetable, it will not have a chance of funding, and your poor judgement will taint your chances of receiving a fellowship in the following year, when you are truly eligible.

Relevance | Foundation funding is offered to projects related to violence, aggression, or dominance, with priority given to research that can increase understanding and amelioration of urgent problems in the modern world related to those topics. Do not apply to us if your project is not relevant or only tangentially relevant to our program—however interesting your research may be, you will only be wasting our time and yours. If there is uncertainty about relevance, call and discuss the question with one of our program officers.

Deadline | The applications are due in our offices on February 1. If that falls on a weekend, the deadline is the following Monday. We do not accept any application materials by fax, and we do not extend the deadline for any reason. Please do not ask for an extension; it is not fair to applicants who submit proposals in time to accept late submissions. We will always say no, despite your reason. If your application involves long distances and complicated coordination with advisor, registrar, etc., you should begin the process earlier than applicants with simpler schedules.

In summary, the mistakes made most often in the past are these:
* Applicant will not finish the dissertation in the grant year.
* Project is not directly relevant to violence, aggression, or dominance.
* Only one copy arrives.
* Three copies arrive but are not collated.
* Application arrives in our office after the due date.
* Advisor's letter and c.v. arrive separately, and/or late, and/or in only one copy.
* No research plan.
* No title page, no abstract, or no protection-of-subjects statement.
* No note on other support.

Please avoid these careless errors and omissions. They will seriously diminish your chances of receiving a fellowship.