» Academics » Fellowships
If you have been approached by a student to write a letter of recommendation, you might wish to browse the resources cited below. You probably have written many letters of recommendation for job applications and graduate programs for our students and alumni. The letters for these international fellowships are similar, but sometimes you will be asked to complete a form rather than write a complete letter. If you are not familiar with the fellowships, spend some time looking at them closely. These are highly competitive international fellowships, and the letters of recommendation are central components of a student’s application. Our office can help guide you with any questions you may have regarding the application process, the specific fellowship, or your letter of recommendation.
If you believe you can write a strong letter of recommendation, we recommend that you ask the student to bring you an unofficial transcript, a clean draft of his/her personal statement, resume, descriptions of the papers and presentations completed in your classes, and any other information that would assist in writing a good letter. If possible, meet with the student to discuss goals, opportunities, and options. This meeting might provide you with important information for a recommendation. If students ask you for advice on writing personal statements, please direct them to the International Fellowship Office.
For more specific information or for questions, please contact the Fellowships Office at fellowships@nwmissouri.edu.
We regularly present to students to make them aware of fellowship opportunities. To request an International Fellowship Office representative to speak to your class, please email fellowships@nwmissouri.edu. We are willing to present as little as a few minutes or up to a class period.
Scholars from throughout the world are awarded Fulbright grants to study and teach in the United States. Through the Outreach Lecturing Fund, these scholars can travel to any U.S. campus and share their knowledge, expertise, and cultural perspectives. Fulbright scholars can be invited to visit campus through direct contact from an interested university, college, or department faculty member. The university is responsible for providing housing and meals. Scholars are often eager to stay with host families and integrate as much as possible into the campus community. Contact the International Fellowship Office (fellowships@nwmissouri.edu) if you are interested in inviting a Fulbright scholar to campus.
Northwest Missouri State University supports sabbaticals for its faculty. To be eligible for funding, the sabbatical must have the potential to contribute tangibly to a faculty member’s professional development and/or university goals. Applications are submitted to the department chair/school director, dean/associate provost, and provost on or before November 20 of the academic year prior to the year for which the leave is requested. See the faculty handbook for more details. The Fellowship Office provides the following list as a guide for faculty, but the office does not provide application support for faculty. Additional awards and fellowships may be added to this list as they are identified.
For grant opportunities, contact the Northwest grants coordinator Tye Parsons at parsons@nwmissouri.edu.
American Academy in Rome—Rome Prize
The Rome Prize is awarded to support innovative and cross-disciplinary work in the arts and humanities from the following disciplines: Architecture, Design, Historic Preservation and Conservation, Landscape Architecture, Literature, Musical Composition, Visual Arts, Ancient Studies, Medieval Studies, Renaissance and Early Modern Studies and Modern Italian Studies. Recipients of a full-term fellowship are invited to Rome for approximately 11 months to immerse themselves in the academy community where they will expand their professional, artistic, or scholarly pursuits, drawing on their colleagues’ erudition and experience and on the inestimable resources of Italy, Europe, the Mediterranean and the academy. Each Rome Prize winner is provided with a stipend, meals, a bedroom with private bath, and a study or studio. (Those with children under 18 live in partially subsidized apartments nearby.) (The National Endowment for the Humanities supports the Rome Prize competition.)
American Antiquarian Society Fellowships
The American Antiquarian Society offers three broad categories of visiting research fellowships, with tenures ranging from 1 to 12 months, to enable academic and independent scholars and advanced graduate students to spend an uninterrupted block of time doing research in the AAS library. Categories are: Long-Term Visiting Academic Research Fellowships, Short-Term Visiting Academic Research Fellowships and Fellowships for Creative and Performing Artists and Writers.
American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellowships
AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowships (STPF) provide opportunities to outstanding scientists and engineers to learn first-hand about federal policymaking while contributing their knowledge and analytical skills to address today's most pressing societal challenges. Fellowships are offered in all three branches of federal government. A fourth fellowship, the Roger Revelle Fellowship in Global Stewardship, focuses on environmental initiatives, and is offered periodically.
American Council of Learned Societies
The American Council of Learned Societies continues to be the leading private institution supporting scholars in the humanities and related social sciences at the doctoral and postdoctoral levels. For the purpose of these competitions , the humanities and related social sciences include, but are not limited to American studies; anthropology; archaeology; art history and architectural history; classics; economics; ethnic studies; film; gender studies; geography; history; languages and literatures; legal studies; linguistics; musicology; philosophy; political science; psychology; religious studies; rhetoric, communication and media studies; science and technology studies; sociology; and theater, dance, and performance studies.
American School of Classical Studies at Athens Fellowships
The school is a century-old research and training institution for classicists and classical archaeologists in the United States and Canada that provides an advanced graduate program with extensive travel within Greece. It offers up to 12 full pre-doctoral fellowships for the ASCSA Regular academic program, and 7 full fellowships and several partial grants for advanced graduate students to conduct research at the school. Facilities include two major libraries, a scientific laboratory, extensive archives, two excavation study centers at the Athenian Agora and Corinth, and a residence hall in central Athens providing room and board.
Burroughs Wellcome Career Awards for Medical Scientists
The Burroughs Wellcome Fund’s Career Awards for Medical Scientists (CAMS) addresses the on-going problem of increasing the number of physician scientists and keeping them in research. By providing funding to help bridge the gap between the advanced postdoctoral/fellowship training and the early years of faculty service, BWF hopes to bolster the careers of the most promising up and coming scientists. This highly competitive program provides $700,000 awards over five years for physician-scientists who are committed to an academic career. Proposals must be in the area of basic biomedical, disease-oriented, or translational research. Proposals in health services research or involving large-scale clinical trials are ineligible.
Center for Advanced Studies in the Visual Arts Residency
The Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA), located in the East Building at the National Gallery of Art, is a research institute that fosters study of the production, use, and cultural meaning of art, artifacts, architecture, urbanism, photography, and film worldwide, from prehistoric times to the present. Founded in 1979, the Center encourages a variety of approaches by historians, critics, and theorists of art, as well as by scholars in related disciplines of the humanities and social sciences. The resident community of scholars consists of the Kress-Beinecke Professor, the Andrew W. Mellon Professor, and approximately 18 fellows at any one time, including senior fellows, visiting senior fellows, research associates, postdoctoral fellows, and predoctoral fellows.
The Cottrell Scholar (CS) program champions the very best early career teacher-scholars in chemistry, physics and astronomy by providing significant discretionary awards for research. Nurturing an interdisciplinary community of outstanding scientific/academic leaders, the CS program fosters synergy among faculty at major American research universities and primarily undergraduate institutions. Cottrell Scholars engage in an annual networking event, providing them an opportunity to share insights and expertise through the Cottrell Scholar Collaborative. Outstanding candidates are admitted to the ranks of Cottrell Scholars through a stringent peer-review process based on their innovative research proposals and education programs.
The Fulbright program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries through citizen diplomacy. The Fulbright Program operates in more than 160 countries worldwide and has provided approximately 380,000 participants with the opportunity to study, teach or conduct research in each others' countries and exchange ideas. The Fulbright Program provides participants—chosen for their academic merit and leadership potential—with the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns. The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program sends American scholars, artists, faculty and professionals abroad to lecture and/or conduct research for up to a year. The Fulbright Specialist Program sends U.S. faculty and professionals to serve as expert consultants on curriculum, faculty development, institutional planning, and related subjects at academic institutions abroad for a period of 2 to 6 weeks.
Getty Scholar Grant recipients are in residence at the Getty Research Institute or Getty Villa. Grants are for established scholars, or writers who have attained distinction in their fields. Recipients pursue their own projects free from academic obligations, make use of Getty collections, join their colleagues in meetings and participate in the intellectual life of the Getty.
Getty Predoctoral and Postdoctoral Fellowships provide support for emerging scholars to complete work on projects related to the Getty Research Institute’s annual research theme. Recipients are in residence at the Getty Research Institute or Getty Villa, where they pursue research projects, complete their dissertations or expand them for publication.
Getty Scholar Grants and Fellowships are awarded on a competitive basis. Applications are evaluated based on: 1) the overall quality of the application; 2) how the proposed project bears upon the annual research theme; 3) the applicant’s past achievements; and 4) how the project would benefit from the resources at the Getty, including its library and collections.
Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship
Often characterized as “midcareer” awards, Guggenheim Fellowships are intended for individuals who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts. Fellowships are awarded through two annual competitions: one open to citizens and permanent residents of the United States and Canada, and the other open to citizens and permanent residents of Latin America and the Caribbean. Approximately 175 Fellowships are awarded each year out of approximately 3,000 applications.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators
Investigators are "trail blazers" who tackle difficult research questions that may take years to answer. Competitively selected, Investigators receive renewable 7-year appointments as HHMI employees, with generous and flexible funding for salary, lab staff and equipment at their host institutions, where they remain working alongside their non-HHMI peers. HHMI funds exceptionally talented scientists and educators to advance the front lines of biomedical research and train the next generation of scientific leaders.
Institute for Advance Study Residency
The Institute for Advanced Study is one of the world’s leading centers for curiosity-driven basic research. It exists to encourage and support fundamental research in the sciences and humanities. Each year, the institute selects approximately 200 members from an average of more than 1,500 applicants for its four schools—Historical Studies, Mathematics, Natural Sciences, and Social Science-and three special programs—Program for Women and Mathematics, Institute for Advanced Study/Park City Mathematics Institute, Prospects in Theoretical Physics and Summer Program in Social Science. Members come to the institute for periods as short as one term or as long as several years. Young scholars and applicants from non-traditional backgrounds who have outstanding promise are considered, as are senior scholars whose reputations are already well established. The major consideration in the appointment process is the expectation that each member’s period of residence will result in work of significance and originality.
The Mellon Foundation makes grants in five core program areas: Higher Education and Scholarship in the Humanities, Arts and Cultural Heritage, Diversity, Scholarly Communications, and International Higher Education and Strategic Projects.
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships
NEH Fellowships support individuals pursuing advanced research that is of value to humanities scholars, general audiences, or both. Recipients usually produce articles, monographs, books, digital materials, archaeological site reports, translations, editions, or other scholarly resources in the humanities.
National Humanities Center Residential Fellowships
The National Humanities Center offers up to 40 residential fellowships for advanced study in the humanities during the academic year, September through May. Located in the progressive Triangle region of North Carolina, near Chapel Hill, Durham, and Raleigh, the Center provides an environment for individual research and the exchange of ideas. Applicants must hold doctorate or equivalent scholarly credentials. Mid-career scholars as well as senior scholars are encouraged to apply. Emerging scholars with a strong record of peer-reviewed work may also apply. Most of the Center's fellowships are unrestricted. Several, however, are designated for particular areas of research, including fellowships for environmental studies, English literature, art history, Asian studies, theology, and for early-career female philosophers. The Center also invites applicants from scholars in interdisciplinary fields, including African-American studies, area studies, bioethics, cultural studies, history of science and technology, film and media studies.
NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Awards
The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program offers the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization. Activities pursued by early-career faculty should build a firm foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating research and education. NSF encourages submission of CAREER proposals from early-career faculty at all CAREER-eligible organizations and especially encourages women, members of underrepresented minority groups, and persons with disabilities to apply.
NSF Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE)
Each year NSF selects nominees for the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from among the most meritorious recent CAREER awardees. Selection for this award is based on two important criteria: 1) innovative research at the frontiers of science and technology that is relevant to the mission of NSF, and 2) community service demonstrated through scientific leadership, education or community outreach. These awards foster innovative developments in science and technology, increase awareness of careers in science and engineering, give recognition to the scientific missions of the participating agencies, enhance connections between fundamental research and national goals, and highlight the importance of science and technology for the Nation’s future. Individuals cannot apply for PECASE as these awards are initiated by the participating federal agencies. Up to 20 nominees for this award are selected each year from among the PECASE-eligible CAREER awardees who are most likely to become the leaders of academic research and education in the 21st century. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy makes the final selection and announcement of the awardees.
Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences
The Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences provides funding to young investigators of outstanding promise in science relevant to the advancement of human health. The program makes grants to selected academic institutions to support the independent research of outstanding individuals who are in their first few years of their appointment at the assistant professor level.
The Searle Scholars Program makes grants to selected universities and research centers to support the independent research of outstanding individuals in the biomedical sciences and chemistry who have recently begun their appointment at the assistant professor level, and whose appointment is their first tenure-track position. The Program was established at the Chicago Community Trust in 1980 and has been administered by Kinship Foundation since 1996. The Program is funded from the estates of Mr. and Mrs. John G. Searle. Mr. Searle was the grandson of the founder of the world-wide pharmaceutical company, G.D. Searle & Company, and it was his wish that certain funds be used to support “...research in medicine, chemistry, and the biological sciences.” Each year 15 new individuals are named Searle Scholars.
