The U.S. National Science Foundation is an independent federal agency that supports science and engineering in all 50 states and U.S. territories. NSF was established in 1950 by Congress to promote the progress of science, advance the national health, prosperity and welfare, and secure the national defense.
The broad goals of the Cultural Anthropology Program are to fund foundational and systematic research and training in cultural anthropology, aiming to deepen understanding of the vast variability in human social and cultural paradigms. The program is inclusive of all sub-fields within cultural anthropology and supports research across any time and space dimension. Proposals can utilize a wide array of methodologies like ethnographic fieldwork, surveys, experimental research, and mathematical modeling, among others. The key aim is to produce findings that, while based on specific case studies, can contribute to a broader anthropological understanding of human society and culture. However, the program specifically does not fund research primarily aimed at clinical practice improvements, policy application, or other direct applications not contributing to anthropological theory development or testing.