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Greetings,

 

We are excited to share this funding opportunity from the LEGO Foundation and Social Science Research Council (SSRC). The LEGO Foundation Fellowship supports researchers with a clear line of inquiry related to children’s thriving. More information about the award can be found in the synopsis and links below. For a full list of currently open opportunities that have been announced through our office, please visit our new Current Opportunities web page. As a reminder, our Research Development team is available to provide proposal development support to FAS ladder faculty.

 

Social Science Research Council (SSRC) LEGO Foundation Fellowship

  • OSP Deadline: July 24, 2026 at 9:00 AM ET
    Departments or areas may require additional time for proposal review and submission. Please discuss a timeline with your departmental or FORA grants administrator.
  • Sponsor Deadline: July 31, 2026 at 11:59 PM ET
  • Award Amount: $300,000 over three years
    Funding supports eligible research costs, including research personnel, professional travel, equipment, dissemination, trainee support, and related project costs. Maximum award amount is inclusive of 15% indirect costs.

 

Program Overview

 

The LEGO Foundation focuses on the realities children face, addressing barriers, supporting learners of all abilities, and responding where children are touched by crises and humanitarian needs. Developed in partnership with the LEGO Foundation and administered by SSRC as part of its commitment to supporting scholars working to bridge research and real-world impact, the LEGO Foundation Fellowship is a global initiative supporting research to strengthen our understanding of how children thrive across diverse contexts. The fellowship program brings together early- and mid-career scholars with the potential to generate evidence that matters for children's lives. In addition to funding support over three years, fellows will join a cohort of researchers and gain opportunities for exchange, feedback, and sharing evidence with relevant research, policy, and practice audiences. Up to 10 fellowships will be awarded for the fellowship period February 1, 2027 to December 31, 2029. 

 

Fellowship Research Theme Areas

  • The youngest children in crisis and conflict settings, including:
    • Mechanisms of resilience and pathways to thriving 
    • Strengthening caregiving and family environments
    • Scaling and sustaining effective interventions
    • Translating evidence into practice
  • Inclusion and wellbeing of neurodivergent children
    • Support before diagnosis
    • Strengthening family environments
    • Inclusive learning environments
    • Transitions and continuity of support 
    • Enabling tools
  • Children's learning and development in an AI-enabled world 
    • AI and adult-childhood connection
    • AI and children's social and emotional development 
    • AI and productive struggle in learning 
    • Differential effects of AI 
 

Eligibility Criteria

  • Applicants must have received their PhD or equivalent research doctorate within the past 10 years subject to any approved career-break policy.
  • Applicants from any country may apply, with the exception of countries subject to EU or US sanctions. Applicants are eligible to apply if their country is not on either sanctions list, regardless of location. 
  • Must be employed by a university or research institute at the start of the fellowship and have fellowship funds administered by their host institution. 
  • Applications from researchers across disciplines, methods, and geographies are welcome. Relevant fields include, but are not limited to: 
    • Education 
    • Psychology
    • Child development 
    • Public health 
    • Economics 
    • Sociology
    • Neuroscience 
    • Data science
    • Humanitarian studies 
    • Disability studies 
    • Human-computer interaction
    • Implementation science 
  • Demonstrated strong record of research accomplishment relative to career stage.
  • Submit an individual application proposing clear and original work that aligns with one or more fellowship themes. 
 

Application Materials

  • Online application form (application portal opens June 1, 2026)
  • Resume or CV (two page limit) 
  • Research abstract (250 word limit) 
  • Personal statement (500 word limit), to include: 
    • Applicant's inspiration for pursuing research into childhood development
    • How the proposed research will contribute to scholarly knowledge on the topic
    • How the proposed research will support the applicant's capacity for leadership in moving discovery into practice 
  • Research proposal (five page limit), to include: 
    • Relevance
    • Original contribution
    • Methods
    • Feasibility
    • Work to date
    • Budget (one page limit) and budget justification (two page limit) 
  • Selected bibliography relevant to the proposed research (two page limit) 

 

Selection Criteria

  • Alignment with the fellowship themes 
  • Clarity and strength of the proposed work 
  • Applicant readiness 
  • Approach and feasibility 
  • Research quality 
  • Field context and contribution
  • Fellowship fit and cohort contribution
 

Additional Information and Resources

 

The LEGO Foundation Fellowship application portal will open for applications on June 1, 2026. The program will include two evaluation stages:

  • In the first round, an international and multidisciplinary committee of childhood development specialists will review applications and nominate a panel of finalists.
  • In the second round, the LEGO Foundation's review committee will select grantees. Applicants will be informed of their status in November 2026.

 

Questions from FAS or SEAS faculty about this opportunity may be directed to legofellowship@ssrc.org.

MAILING LISTS

Sign up to join the mailing list for FAS Funding Focus, a resource series tailored to help FAS faculty and staff navigate the ever-evolving landscape of grants and funding. Previous editions of FAS Funding Focus (FFF) are accessible in the FFF archive. To receive additional announcements from FORA, including the monthly On Your RADAR (Research Administration Developments & Announcements Rundown) newsletter and invitations to the FORA Forum, a monthly meeting for Harvard research administrators, please sign up for the FORA listserv here.
 

RESOURCES

Research Development maintains a Sample Proposal Library of successful proposals from recent award recipients that are available to FAS and SEAS faculty by request; please email Research Development to request to view a proposal. For more information on Research Development's resources—including lists of internal funding programs, early career funding programs, and sabbatical fellowships—please visit the Funding Opportunities web page. 
 

SEARCH FOR OPPORTUNITIES WITH PIVOT

All Harvard affiliates can search for opportunities and set up alerts using Pivot, a searchable database of federal and private funding opportunities. Information on Pivot, including a one-page user guide, and other funding opportunity databases available to the Harvard community can be found on the Funding Databases web page.
 

PIVOT CURATED SEARCHES

Curated funding opportunity lists are funding search topics of broad interest. The following curated lists can be further refined in Pivot based on your funding needs. To view the results you must be on a Harvard network or logged in to your Pivot account. Information on setting up a Pivot account can be found in our one-page user guide. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Additional curated lists are available on the Funding Databases web page. We continue to add to and refine these lists based on feedback. Please feel free to reach out to us at research_development@fas.harvard.edu with any suggestions you may have.
 Research Development | FAS Office of Research Administration | research.fas.harvard.edu
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