Social Science Research Council

SSRC Eurasia Program
Institutional Grants Competition Summer Language Institutes for the Languages of the New States of Eurasia

The Eurasia Program of the Social Science Research Council is pleased to announce a program of support for the summer language training programs of the New States of Eurasia. This grant program is designed to support the continuation and improvement of existing summer language programs, as well as to encourage the establishment of new summer language institutes dedicated to the languages of the New States of Eurasia.

The Title VIII SSRC-Eurasia Program accepts applications for these awards on an annual basis every fall. Please refer to the flyer at the right for information on the most recent grant competition. Grants ranging from $3,000 to $30,000 are intended to enhance the ability of the recipient institutes to provide fellowships to promising students, as well as financial assistance to teachers, enrolling in intensive summer programs in the languages of the New States of Eurasia. Grants may also support cultural activities that compliment the formal language curriculum in such programs.

Languages previously supported by the program include Armenian, Azeri, Georgian, Kazakh, Tajik, Uighur, Russian, Turkmen, Ukrainian and Uzbek. Please note that funding for Russian language programs will be available only for advanced courses, i.e., those offered to students with at least two years of prior Russian language study or equivalent. Applicants for qualified programs in other languages of the New States of Eurasia are strongly encouraged to apply; however, funding is no longer available for Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian.

Please note: These awards are not to be used for the purchase of major equipment, nor are they to be used towards indirect costs or proficiency testing.

ELIGIBILITY

Applicant institutions must meet all of the following eligibility requirements. They must:

• be American credit-granting institutions that confer undergraduate and graduate credits to students and in-service credits for teachers.
  
• offer intensive language training in the United States, involving a sufficient number of formal classroom contact hours (160 is recommended for Russian language programs), and providing a full year's worth of academic instruction.
  
• offer training in the four skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking.
  
• offer extracurricular, cultural and other support activities.

Preference will be given to institutions that offer the promise of ongoing programs. Funding will be made available upon confirmation of enrollments in the summer for which the grant was awarded. Funding is provided by the United States Department of State under the Program for Research and Training for Eastern Europe and the Independent States of the Former Soviet Union (Title VIII). All grants awarded under this program are contingent upon the receipt of funding from the US Department of State. Please contact the Eurasia Program for additional information and/or to obtain an application.