International Research Grants (Acton Institute)

International Research Grants (Acton Institute) is a grant from the Acton Institute, supported by the Templeton Religion Trust, that funds international scholars and think tanks working at the intersection of religion, theology, and free-market economics.

The program supports research exploring the relationship between theology, human dignity, and the principles of a free and virtuous society, particularly in contexts where trust in economics, limited government, and free markets is declining. Eligible applicants are promising international scholars and institutions such as think tanks.

The Acton Institute also offers Calihan Academic Grants for graduate students and Freedom and Prosperity Academic Grants in collaboration with the Atlantic Council. Award amounts vary. The application deadline was March 28, 2026.

Academic Grants and Awards | Acton Institute Award programs for future intellectual and religious leaders Many cultures are exhibiting growing distrust and suspicion of economics, profit, limited government, rule of law, and free markets. Given this, there is a significant need to redeem these concepts by relating them to theology, human dignity, and the principles of a free and virtuous society.

To encourage such developments, the Acton Institute's academic grants and awards programs support future religious, intellectual, and moral leaders who show potential in advancing understanding of this relationship.

An attendee at Acton University The Calihan Academic Grants provide financial assistance to graduate students and seminarians currently studying theology, philosophy, economics, or related fields whose academic work shows outstanding potential. Applicants must demonstrate the potential to advance the principles of the free and virtuous society.

Freedom and Prosperity Academic Grants The Freedom and Prosperity Academic Grants are a collaboration between the Acton Institute and the Atlantic Council's Freedom and Prosperity Center, a new center which aims to increase the prosperity of the poor and marginalized in developing countries and to explore the nature of the relationship between freedom and prosperity.

The Freedom and Prosperity Academic Grants are intended specifically to promote research using the Atlantic Council Freedom and Prosperity Indexes, either by examining the relationship between freedom and prosperity in general or by enhancing the robustness of the Indexes themselves.

International Research Grants The International Research Grant from Acton Institute provides financial assistance to promising international scholars and international institutions such as think tanks working at the intersection of religion and free markets. Applicants must demonstrate the potential to advance the principles of a free and virtuous society, characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles.

Funded research projects must be dedicated to the moral promotion of liberty and the necessity of religious principles and result in publication by reputable academic journals or widely read media outlets. The International Research Grant is supported by the Templeton Religion Trust.

This award recognizes scholars early in their academic career who demonstrate outstanding intellectual merit in advancing the understanding of theology’s connection to human dignity, the importance of the rule of law, limited government, religious liberty, and freedom in economic life.

Mini-Grants on Free-Market Economics The purpose of this mini-grant program is to enhance the effectiveness in the teaching and research of market economics for faculty at colleges, universities, and seminaries across the United States and Canada. The Acton Institute invites proposals from faculty in one or more of the following broad categories: course development and faculty research. /system/files/Calihan_Factsheet_rev.

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