* GRANTS: CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH AWARDS *

DEADLINE: All proposals must be received no later than February 1, 2009.

The Dirksen Congressional Center invites applications for grants to fund
research on congressional leadership and the U.S. Congress. A total of up to
$30,000 will be available in 2009. Awards range from a few hundred dollars to
$3,500.

The competition is open to individuals with a serious interest in studying
Congress. Political scientists, historians, biographers, scholars of public
administration or American studies, and journalists are among those eligible.
The Center encourages graduate students who have successfully defended their
dissertation prospectus to apply and awards a significant portion of the funds
for dissertation research. Applicants must be U.S. citizens who reside in the
United States.

The awards program does not fund undergraduate or pre-Ph.D. study.
Organizations are not eligible. Research teams of two or more individuals are
eligible. No institutional overhead or indirect costs may be claimed against a
Congressional Research Award.

There is no standard application form. Applicants are responsible for showing
the relationship between their work and the awards program guidelines.
Applications are accepted at any time. Applications which exceed the page limit
and incomplete applications will NOT be forwarded to the screening committee for
consideration.

All application materials must be received on or before February 1, 2009. Awards
will be announced in March 2009.

Complete information about eligibility and application procedures may be found
at The Center's Web site: http://www.dirksencenter.org/print_grants_CRAs.htm.
PLEASE READ THOROUGHLY. Frank Mackaman is the program officer --
fmackaman@....

The Center, named for the late Senate Minority Leader Everett M. Dirksen, is a
private, nonpartisan, nonprofit research and educational organization devoted to
the study of Congress and its leaders. Since 1978, the Congressional Research
Awards (formerly the Congressional Research Grants) program has paid out
$747,465 to support 369 projects.

Cindy Koeppel
ckoeppel@...

The Dirksen Congressional Center
2815 Broadway
Pekin, IL 61554
http://www.dirksencongressionalcenter.org