CIES Fulbright expands postdoctoral research opportunities

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Postdoctoral and early career grants in over 80 countries offer career-building scholarly research, teaching and mentorship avenues. Grants are available for U.S. scholars who will have recently completed a doctoral degree, usually within the last five years. In addition to allowances for international travel and living costs, grantees without institutional affiliation in the U.S. may be eligible for funds to attend a professional conference.

Postdoctoral and early career awards are open in all disciplines and specializations, from STEM fields to the arts, humanities and social sciences. For example, specific awards in Brazil, Canada, Egypt, Hong Kong, India, Israel and Taiwan target postdoctoral applicants in all fields. In public health, Fulbright-Fogarty postdoctoral awards provide outstanding opportunities to affiliate with a National Institutes of Health, Fogarty International Center research site in Bangladesh, Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Peru, South Africa or Zimbabwe.  Belgium offers a postdoctoral award in cancer and/or translational research.

Scores of additional countries welcome applications from all levels of scholar experience for teaching, research or combined teaching and research. Early career scholars can apply to the research option within such broadly open awards as a postdoc opportunity. Grant lengths for postdoctoral and early career awards vary, from 3 to 20 months, depending on the country.

In addition to primary research or teaching activities, postdoctoral and early career scholars will give public talks, mentor students, and otherwise engage with the host country academic community. You have a key role in bringing these options to connect with cutting-edge scholarship around the world to the attention of recent doctoral degree holders and faculty who teach and advise doctoral students. In the words of a Fulbright U.S. Scholar to Israel:

“My Fulbright experience has certainly changed my life and has helped immensely in furthering my career. The impact was evident in the responses I received for applications to new positions after my Fulbright research was complete. I ended up taking a very prestigious position for my next postdoc which I would not have been able to get had it not been for the Fulbright award. This is the kind of impact which will propagate throughout my career and I am very fortunate to have had this opportunity.”

To learn more, please encourage those in your networks to visit Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program resources online, including the website, Catalog of Awards and webinars, or contact scholars@iie.org. Thank you for encouraging new scholars to apply for a Fulbright U.S. Scholar grant.