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The Ford Foundation Fellowships are no longer accepting applications for predoctoral, dissertation, postdoctoral, or senior awards.
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No, applications will be accepted only for a limited number of 2024-2025 dissertation, postdoctoral, and senior fellowship awards. Eligible applicants for these fellowships must have held a previous Ford Foundation Fellowship administered by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
Dissertation Fellowship application: December 12, 2023 at 5:00 PM Eastern Standard Time Postdoctoral Fellowship application: December 12, 2023 at 5:00 PM Eastern Standard Time Senior Fellowship application: January 31, 2024 at 5:00 PM Eastern Standard Time Supporting documents for dissertation and postdoctoral applicants (including transcripts, verification forms, letters of recommendation, and postdoctoral host commitment letter): January 9, 2024 at 5:00 PM Eastern Standard Time.
No extensions or exceptions will be made for applicants or letter writers for any circumstances. Applicants and letter writers should ensure that they upload all their materials well in advance of the deadline and should be advised that the application system will automatically close at 5:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (EST) on the specified deadline dates. Applicants and letter writers who attempt to submit materials after this time will not be able to do so and these materials will not be accepted via e-mail or postal mail
Dissertation Fellowship: Intended to support the final year of graduate school, specifically writing and defense of the dissertation. Applicants must submit the Verification of Doctoral Degree Status Form (PDF, 114 KB) documenting that they have completed all requirements for a Ph.D. or Sc.D. degree, except for writing and defense of the dissertation.
Postdoctoral Fellowship: A career-enhancement award for recent Ph.D. or Sc.D. recipients (eligible applicants must have received their Ph.D. or Sc.D. degree within the past seven years). It is intended to provide an opportunity for recent Ph.D.s or Sc.D.s to take a year off from other responsibilities so they can conduct research at a host institution of their choice.
Senior Fellowship: Intended for faculty (eligible applicants must have held the Ph.D./Sc.D. for at least seven years by the application deadline) at accredited U.S. institutions to support research that advances and contributes knowledge to areas that are consistent with the work of the Ford Foundation.
Citations are not required; however, if used, they should be single-spaced and formatted using a standard bibliographic format appropriate to the applicant’s field. The inclusion of citations will count towards the maximum page limit for the document upload.
Full-time employment is not permitted for dissertation or postdoctoral Fellows while on fellowship tenure since Fellows are expected to devote full-time to their Ph.D. or Sc.D. or postdoctoral study. A concurrent TA or RA position may be allowed if 1) it is required by the program, 2) if it is necessary to secure stipend supplementation, benefits, or tuition waivers, or 3) if the assistantship is beneficial to the Fellow’s career development. However, the compensation associated with the assistantship position must be limited to supplementation of the Ford Foundation Fellowship stipend up to a standard assistantship salary at the institution, rather than a separate, full-time stipend in addition to the Ford Foundation Fellowship.
Dissertation and Postdoctoral Fellowship applicants: The Applications page located in the left navigation menu of the online application will indicate the date and time your application was submitted. You will also receive a confirmation e-mail. If your application does not include this timestamp and you do not receive the confirmation e-mail, your application was not successfully submitted.
Senior Fellowship applicants: The Sr. Fellowship Appl. page located in the left navigation menu of your online Ford Fellows account will indicate a Submitted status with the date you submitted your application.
The host commitment letter is required only for postdoctoral applicants and must state the willingness of the proposed mentor and the research site to serve as the applicant’s host during their fellowship tenure. This letter is in addition to the required minimum of three letters of recommendation.
Applicants should ensure that they have correctly entered the letter writer's e-mail address on the References page of the online application. If it was entered incorrectly, the applicant can edit the address and resend the notification by selecting Notify. If the address is correct, letter writers should check their spam or junk folders for the notification sent from FordApplications@nas.edu. If they cannot locate the notification, they should contact FordApplications@nas.edu.
Dissertation Fellowship applicants: A signed VS form is required of all dissertation applicants. Postdoctoral Fellowship applicants: A signed VS form is required only of postdoctoral applicants who have received the Ph.D. or Sc.D. degree by December 12, 2023 but whose Ph.D. or Sc.D. degree has not been conferred and documented on a transcript.
Supplementary materials cannot be uploaded until the fellowship application has been submitted. Ensure you submitted your application before attempting to upload any supplementary materials. If you have already submitted your application and are receiving an error message, try reducing the size of your file so that it does not exceed 4MB or shortening the name of the file. If you continue to experience difficulties, contact FordApplications@nas.edu.
Yes, unofficial transcripts are acceptable at the application stage. If offered a fellowship award, however, awardees must submit official transcripts to replace previously submitted unofficial transcripts. Postdoctoral awardees must submit an official Ph.D. or Sc.D. transcript showing the degree with the degree receipt date.
All applicants will be notified of the status of their application via e-mail. Notifications will be sent to the e-mail address associated with your online application. Once you have been notified via e-mail of the status of your application, you will be able to log in to your application to view reviewer feedback. If you applied to a Ford Foundation fellowship prior to the 2018 competition and did not already request reviewer feedback, you may request it by sending an e-mail to FordApplications@nas.edu.
Reviewers are strongly encouraged but not required to include comments. If comments are not included, then reviewers opted not to enter comments.
Please see a list of other funding opportunities offered by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine here and a list of outside opportunities compiled by the Fellowship Office listed here.
Yes. All currently awarded predoctoral Ford Fellows will continue to be eligible to use any remaining years of fellowship support in compliance with all prior Terms of Appointment for their Fellowship, including policy adjustments in 2020 and 2021 related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Current predoctoral Fellows can contact FordAwards@nas.edu to confirm their period of eligibility.
Contact
Fellowships Office
Telephone
(202) 334-2872
Email
FordApplications@nas.edu