FY 2025 Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program

The summary for the FY 2025 Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program grant is detailed below. This summary states who is eligible for the grant, how much grant money will be awarded, current and past deadlines, Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) numbers, and a sampling of similar government grants. Verify the accuracy of the data FederalGrants.com provides by visiting the webpage noted in the Link to Full Announcement section or by contacting the appropriate person listed as the Grant Announcement Contact. If any section is incomplete, please visit the website for the Bureau Of Educational and Cultural Affairs, which is the U.S. government agency offering this grant.

FY 2025 Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program: The U.S. Study Abroad Branch (ECA/A/S/Q) in the Office of Global Educational Programs in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), U.S. Department of State, is pleased to announce an open competition for proposals to administer the FY 2025 Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program. The CLS Program is a component of the U.S. Department of State’s effort to increase the number of Americans who learn critical foreign languages in support of the U.S. foreign policy goals of bolstering national security; promoting U.S. competitiveness and economic prosperity; and building mutual understanding with critical regions of the world. The CLS Program started in 2006 as part of the interagency National Security Language Initiative. The award will fund approximately 522 U.S. undergraduate and graduate students to study critical languages through intensive overseas language institutes organized on behalf of ECA, in countries and locations where the target languages are widely spoken and through virtual programming. The award supports programming for all CLS alumni since the program’s inception in 2006.Only one proposal will be considered by ECA from each applicant organization. In cases where more than one submission from an applicant appears in grants.gov, ECA will only consider the submission made closest in time to the NOFO deadline; that submission would constitute the one and only proposal ECA would review from that applicant.Please see the NOFO for additional information.