Sara Miller McCune Scholarship

The Sara Miller McCune Scholarship supports emerging scholars engaged in developing innovative empirical or methodological research in the social sciences. The McCune Scholarship is open to incoming and currently enrolled graduate students at any institution within the United States.

Sara Miller McCune is the founder of SAGE Publishing and of the McCune Foundation. Guided by an entrepreneurial spirit and an unwavering dedication to academia, Sara founded SAGE in 1965 at the age of 24, starting a company that would allow scholars to disseminate quality research in their own voices and break new ground in emerging fields of study. An active supporter of the behavioral and social sciences, McCune was a long-serving member of the board of directors of the American Academy of Political and Social Science and the Social Science Research Council and is a board member emerita of Stanford University’s Center for the Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS).

The McCune Scholarship covers the registration fee to attend a single session (either the First Session or the Second Session) in the General Sessions of the ICPSR Summer Program. Recipients of the McCune Scholarship will also receive funding to cover on-campus housing (in a University of Michigan student dorm) and on-campus meals, plus a stipend to help defray travel costs. Recipients of the McCune Scholarship will be expected to attend their classes in-person in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Applicants must be incoming or currently enrolled graduate students at universities based in the United States.

The following application materials are required:

  1. A current curriculum vitae
  2. A cover letter describing your research interests and how participation in the ICPSR Summer Program will will support your educational, research, or career goals. You must specify which Session (First or Second) you would like to attend and which Course(s) you would like to take. Your cover letter must also include:
    • A statement of need (1-2 sentences, 75 words max) describing any financial hurdles to attending the ICPSR Summer Program in-person.
    • A statement (1-2 sentences, 75 words max) explaining how you would broaden the perspectives represented in empirical social science research.
  3. One letter of recommendation from faculty. Letters of recommendation should be 1 page in length, and include the length of time the recommender has known the applicant and the nature of their relationship. The recommendation letter should also include the applicant’s academic and research achievement, background, and potential, citing current examples of the applicant’s course and/or research work as evidence of aptitude, ability, and commitment that will carry the applicant forward into a significant research career.

How to apply

You must fill out the application form and submit all required materials through our scholarship application manager.

2026 Application deadline

⚠️ The deadline for all ICPSR scholarship application forms and materials (including letters of recommendation) is 11:59 PM Eastern Time on Sunday, March 1, 2026.