Office of Competitive Fellowships

Dr. Jiunn-Jye Sheu Fullbright Specialist Award Winner

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Support for Faculty

The University of Toledo's faculty are world-class experts, scholars and researchers. Our office is committed to connecting them with prestigious nationally competitive awards and fellowships to recognize their work and enrich their pursuits.  Faculty are encouraged to contact us regarding opportunities and criteria for fellowships and research abroad for awards make to individuals.

Faculty interested in applying for a competitive award must complete the Application Form.  Faculty interested in sponsored research and agency funded opportunities in which The University of Toledo is the applicant and recipient should contact the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs.  

Examples of awards that our office will help with include:

  • Fulbright Scholar: For those interested in research abroad. Learn more.
  • Guggenheim Fellowships: For those in the arts and sciences interested in assisting research and artistic creation. Learn more.
  • National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH): For those seeking funding to support research, education, preservation and public programs in the humanities. Learn more.
  • Sloan Research Fellowships: For tenure track (or equivalent) science faculty seeking recognition and support for their research. Learn more.

Fulbright Scholar Program

For more than 65 years, American academics, administrators and professionals have taught and conducted research abroad through the Fulbright Scholar Program. Scholars have benefited from an enhanced appreciation of the global impact of their academic specializations, a reinvigorated classroom presence and a desire to become major participants in their home campuses' internationalization. Fulbright helps faculty and administrators build a "multiplier effect" by infusing cross-cultural perspectives into curricula, revitalizing teaching methods and opening doors for international colleagues and students.

Eligibility Criteria

To apply for this program through UToledo, applicants must:

  • Be a U.S. citizen
  • A Ph.D. or professional/terminal degree
  • Professionals and artists outside academia -recognized professional standing and substantial accomplishments
  • Teaching experience as required by award
  • As a general matter, preference for Fulbright Scholar opportunities will be given to candidates who have not previously received a Fulbright Scholar grant

GRANT TYPES AND SPECIAL PROGRAMS

The Core Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program provides approximately 800 teaching and/or research grants to U.S. faculty and experienced professionals in a wide variety of academic and professional fields.

The Fulbright Specialist Program (FSP) promotes linkages between U.S. scholars and professionals and their counterparts at host institutions overseas. The program awards grants to U.S. faculty and professionals approved to join the Specialist Roster in select disciplines to engage in short-term collaborative projects at eligible institutions in over 140 countries worldwide. Shorter grant lengths give Specialists greater flexibility to pursue projects that work best with their current academic or professional commitments.

The Fulbright Regional Network for Applied Research (NEXUS) Program will bring together a network of junior scholars, professionals and mid-career applied researchers from the United States, Brazil and other Western Hemisphere nations for a series of three seminar meetings and a Fulbright exchange experience.

In order to meet the changing needs of academia and develop new options to better accommodate the interests and commitments of today's scholars, we have introduced several innovations to the Fulbright U.S. Core Program, including: Fulbright Flex Awards, Fulbright Postdoctoral/Early Career Awards, Salary Stipend Supplements, and Teaching English as a Foreign Language Awards.

The Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence (S-I-R) Program assists U.S. higher education institutions in expanding programs of academic exchange. By supporting non-U.S. scholars through grants for teaching at institutions that might not have a strong international component, both the U.S. institution and the scholar grantee benefit.

GRANT DURATIONS

  • Fulbright Core Programs – 2‐12 months
  • Fulbright Distinguished Chairs – 3‐12 months
  • Fulbright Specialist Grants – 2‐6 weeks
  • Fulbright International Education Administrator Programs ‐ IEA (6) – 2‐3 weeks
  • Fulbright NEXUS Program – 1 year
  • Community College Administrators Seminar in Russia – 2‐3 weeks

GRANT INCLUDES

  • Package includes stipend, in-country living allowance and travel for grantee
  • Some countries add travel for dependents, dependent schooling, research allowance, book allowance
  • Stipends and living allowances vary considerably from country to country
  • New, enhanced grant structure for some countries
  • Country benefits can be found at the award descriptions page

Visit the Fulbright Scholar website to learn more about the opportunities available.


Guggenheim Fellowships

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. Candidates must apply to the Guggenheim Foundation in order to be considered in either of these competitions.

The Foundation receives approximately 3,000 applications each year. Although no one who applies is guaranteed success in the competition, there is no prescreening: all applications are reviewed. Approximately 175 Fellowships are awarded each year.

During the rigorous selection process, applicants will first be pooled with others working in the same field, and examined by experts in that field: the work of artists will be reviewed by artists, that of scientists by scientists, that of historians by historians, and so on. The Foundation has a network of several hundred advisers, who either meet at the Foundation offices to look at applicants' work, or receive application materials to read offsite. These advisers, all of whom are themselves former Guggenheim Fellows, then submit reports critiquing and ranking the applications in their respective fields. Their recommendations are then forwarded to and weighed by a Committee of Selection, which then determines the number of awards to be made in each area. Occasionally, no application in a given area is considered strong enough to merit a Fellowship.

The Committee of Selection then forwards its recommendations to the Board of Trustees for final approval. The successful candidates in the United States and Canada competition are announced in early April; those in the Latin America and Caribbean competition, in early June.

We guarantee our advisers and Committee of Selection members, as well as those who submit letters of reference, absolute confidentiality. Therefore, under no circumstances will the reasons for the rejection of an application be provided.

Find answers to frequently asked questions at the Guggenheim Fellowship website.


National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency created in 1965. It is one of the largest funders of humanities programs in the United States.

Because democracy demands wisdom, NEH serves and strengthens our republic by promoting excellence in the humanities and conveying the lessons of history to all Americans. The Endowment accomplishes this mission by awarding grants for top-rated proposals examined by panels of independent, external reviewers.

NEH grants typically go to cultural institutions, such as museums, archives, libraries, colleges, universities, public television and radio stations, and to individual scholars. The grants:

  • Strengthen teaching and learning in schools and colleges
  • Facilitate research and original scholarship
  • Provide opportunities for lifelong learning
  • Preserve and provide access to cultural and educational resources
  • Strengthen the institutional base of the humanities

Since 1965, the Endowment has opened new worlds of learning for the American public with noteworthy projects such as:

  • Seven thousand books, 16 of which have won Pulitzer Prizes, and 20 of which have received the Bancroft Prize
  • The Civil War, the landmark documentary by Ken Burns viewed by 38 million Americans
  • The Library of America editions of novels, essays, and poems celebrating America's literary heritage
  • The United States Newspaper Project, which cataloged and microfilmed 63.3 million pages of historic newspapers, paved the way for the National Digital Newspaper Program and its digital repository, Chronicling America
  • Annual support for 56 states and territories to help support some 56,000 lectures, discussions, exhibitions and other programs each year

NEH offers a variety of grant programs to individuals and organizations that do the highest quality work to promote the humanities. Search the NEH catalog to find the grant program that helps you accomplish your goals in enhancing the humanities.


Sloan Research Fellowships

The Sloan Research Fellowships seek to stimulate fundamental research by early-career scientists and scholars of outstanding promise.

These two-year fellowships are awarded yearly to 126 researchers in recognition of distinguished performance and a unique potential to make substantial contributions to their field. The 2019 Sloan Research Fellows will receive fellowships in the amount of $70,000.

Eligibility Requirements

  • Candidates must hold a tenure track (or equivalent) position at a college, university, or other degree-granting institution in the United States or Canada. Tenure track faculty positions at the candidate's institution must include a yearly teaching requirement.
  • Candidates must hold a Ph.D. (or equivalent) in chemistry, computational or evolutionary molecular biology, computer science, economics, mathematics, neuroscience, ocean sciences, physics, or a related field;
  • Candidates' most recent Ph.D. (or equivalent) must have been awarded on or after September 1, 2012. Exceptions may apply.

Nomination

In order to be considered for a Sloan Research Fellowship, a candidate must have a letter of nomination from a department head or other senior researcher. Submissions unaccompanied by a nomination letter from a senior researcher are not accepted.
More than one candidate from a department may be nominated, but no more than three.

Nomination Letters and Letters of Support are important elements of the selection process and are read carefully by Selection Committees. The letters allow nominators and support writers to give Committee members insight about nominees that is not present in their other application materials (CV, publication list, etc.). Selection Committees recommend that letters of support be submitted by someone who can speak objectively and knowledgeably about the quality and significance of a nominee's work. Letters submitted by co-authors, personal associates, or professional mentors are, in this sense, less useful to Selection Committees than letters submitted by those with more professional distance from a nominee's work.

Who Should Be Nominated?

Successful candidates for a Sloan Research Fellowship generally have a strong record of significant independent research accomplishments that demonstrate creativity and the potential to become future leaders in the scientific community. Nominated candidates are normally below the rank of associate professor and do not hold tenure, but these are not strict requirements.

In keeping with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's longstanding support of underrepresented minorities in the sciences, the Foundation strongly encourages the nomination of qualified women and minority candidates.

To find answers to frequently asked questions, visit the Sloan Research Fellowships' website.

Last Updated: 6/27/22