USA Scholarships
Professional Development Scholarship Guides
Professional Development Programs
Guides for funded professional development, leadership, and executive programs that don't lead to a degree but build skills and networks. Each guide covers eligibility, benefits, and the full application process.
Kellogg Faculty Visiting Fellowship 2027 - Notre Dame
The Kellogg Faculty Visiting Fellowship 2027-2028 brings assistant, associate and full professors to the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame for a semester or a full academic year of research on global democracy. Fellows receive a stipend set by academic rank, research and travel funding, a round trip to Notre Dame and medical insurance, with the option to lease a furnished campus apartment. Open to scholars from any country, with applications due 1 October 2026 through Interfolio.
World Bank Young Professionals Program 2027 - Eligibility
The World Bank Young Professionals Program 2027 is a two-year, salaried leadership programme at the World Bank Group for people with a graduate degree and two to six years of professional experience. You start in Washington, DC in September 2027, rotate three times for eight months each across the World Bank, IFC and MIGA with at least one country office posting, and can then be placed in a role for five more years. There is no age limit. Applications close on 30 September 2026 at 11:59 PM UTC.
Stigler Fellowship 2028 - $14,000 Journalists in Residence
The Stigler Fellowship, officially the Journalists in Residence Program at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, gives a small cohort of journalists about 12 weeks in Chicago each spring to audit Booth classes and study political economy, with a $14,000 living stipend plus reimbursed economy airfare and visa fees. Reporters, editors and freelancers from any country can apply if they have a few years of post-degree experience and good English. The Spring 2027 cohort closes on 20 September 2026, so this guide is set up for the Spring 2028 cohort, with a deadline expected in late September or early October 2027.
Guggenheim Fellowship 2028 - Mid-Career US & Canada Award
The Guggenheim Fellowship funds six to twelve months of focused work for mid-career artists, writers, scholars and scientists who are citizens or permanent residents of the United States or Canada. The 2027 competition closes on 15 September 2026, so this guide is set up for the 2028 competition, which is expected to open in mid-August 2027 and close in mid-September 2027.
AAUW Research Publication Grant 2027 - $8,000 Award
The AAUW Research Publication Grant 2027, formally the American Short-Term Research Publication Grant, pays women scholars $8,000 in a single tranche to get a research manuscript ready for publication. The money covers drafting, editing, replicating research and answering reviewers, and can also go on housing, food and dependent care while you write. All fields qualify, with STEM researchers and those working on gender issues especially encouraged. You need a doctoral or terminal degree already in hand, US citizenship or permanent residency, and sole or first authorship on the manuscript. Applications open 17 August 2026 and close 30 September 2026 at 5pm ET, with awards announced in April 2027.
Harvard Radcliffe Fellowship 2027 - $78,000 Stipend
The Harvard Radcliffe Fellowship 2027 gives scholars, scientists, writers and artists nine months in Cambridge to finish an ambitious project, on a stipend of $78,000 plus $5,000 for project expenses. Fellows take up a full-time Harvard appointment as visiting fellows, get an office or studio in Byerly Hall, full Harvard Library access, and funded Harvard undergraduate research partners. Applications for the 2027-2028 year close 10 September 2026 at 5pm ET for the humanities, social sciences, creative arts, nonfiction and journalism, and 1 October 2026 for science, engineering and mathematics. Results go out by the end of March 2027, and the residency runs 1 September 2027 to 31 May 2028.
Cullman Center Fellowship 2027 - $90,000 at the NYPL
The Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers gives fifteen people a year an office inside the New York Public Library, a $90,000 stipend, and nine months to write. Fellows work at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on Fifth Avenue from September through May, five days a week, and the project has to genuinely need those collections rather than merely benefit from the address. Academics, independent scholars, novelists, playwrights, poets and visual artists working on a book project are all welcome, and the programme is international, though your application must be in English. Two exclusions end a lot of applications early: no academic projects from post-doctoral fellows, and no graduate-school dissertation research. Applications for 2027-2028 close on 25 September 2026 at 5pm EDT, with decisions in March 2027 and the term running 7 September 2027 to 26 May 2028.
IEEE-USA Government Fellowship 2027 - $100,000 in DC
IEEE-USA has been sending engineers to Washington since 1973, and more than 150 of its US members have now spent a year advising Congress or the State Department. Fellows get a stipend of $95,000 plus a $5,000 relocation allowance, paid in two lump sums, and run from 1 September to 31 August. Three tracks are open: the Congressional Fellowship, the Congressional Electric Grid Policy Fellowship, and the Engineering and Diplomacy Fellowship at the US Department of State. Eligibility is narrow and specific. You need a PhD, or a master's plus five years of full-time professional experience, you must be a US citizen, and you must be an IEEE member in good standing. You also have to live in Washington for the year, because the work cannot be done remotely. Application materials for the 2027-2028 year have not been posted yet, and the previous cycle closed in early January.
ICASE Presidential Scholarship 2026 - Indiana Special Ed
The Indiana Council of Administrators of Special Education gives two $1,000 scholarships a year to people training to become special education administrators in Indiana. The pool is genuinely small, which is the point: you have to be accepted or already enrolled in a Director of Exceptional Needs licensing program in the state, and a current special education director has to nominate you. Nobody applies cold. The application window for this cycle opens on 1 October 2026 and closes on 30 December 2026, and what you submit is compact by scholarship standards: the application form, two letters of recommendation, and one essay answering a single question about what you intend to contribute as an administrator in special education. Applications are scored against a published rubric. If you are already teaching in an Indiana school and working towards a director's licence, this is one of the few awards written specifically for you.
Fulbright Scholar Award 2027 - UK Scholars to the USA
The Fulbright Scholar Awards send UK academics and professionals to the United States to lecture, research or both, usually for three to six months, on a monthly stipend with travel and visa support attached. Applications for the 2027-28 cycle opened on 20 July 2026 and close on 2 November 2026 at 5pm GMT, with interviews in February 2027, results in March 2027 and departures from August 2027 onwards. Six awards run under the Scholar banner, from the open All Disciplines Award to partner awards with the Royal College of Surgeons of England, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Elon University, Rutgers University-Newark and the National Archives. You need to be a UK citizen or British Overseas Territory resident, hold a PhD or equivalent professional standing, and arrange your own letter of invitation from a US host institution before you apply.
Human Rights Advocates Program 2027 - HRAP at Columbia
The Human Rights Advocates Program (HRAP) at Columbia University's Institute for the Study of Human Rights brings grassroots human rights advocates to New York for a six-month capacity-building programme built from academic coursework, skills workshops, mentoring, networking and an advocacy trip to Washington, D.C. Applications for the Fall 2027 and Spring 2028 programmes close on 15 October 2026. Read the funding line carefully before you apply, because the aggregator sites get it wrong: only a very limited number of full scholarships are awarded, and other admitted applicants are asked to cover expenses including living costs and stipend. ISHR does make every effort to secure funding for shortlisted Advocates. HRAP is for people doing the work, not for students: full-time students, academics and government officials are not considered, and applicants from high-income countries are ruled out unless they represent marginalized communities.
Yale World Fellows Program 2027 - Fully Funded
The Yale World Fellows Program brings a small group of mid-career leaders from outside the United States to Yale for four months, mid-August to mid-December, on a package that covers a living stipend, a furnished one- or two-bedroom apartment, medical insurance and round-trip international travel, with no tuition or fees. The Class of 2026 held 16 Fellows, picked from several thousand applications, and the programme has taken over 400 Fellows from 102 countries since 2002. You need to be a citizen of a country other than the United States, between five and twenty-five years into your career, fluent in English, and free to live in New Haven for the whole term. Applications for the 2027 cohort are not open yet. Nominations are, and anyone can submit one without any Yale connection.