Fulbright Distinguished Scholar Awards, Fulbright-FAPESP Network
Brazil
Number of recipients
The Fulbright Distinguished Scholar Awards, Fulbright-FAPESP Network are pre-arranged affiliations to host exceptional scholars who conduct research relevant to any of the six public universities in the state of São Paulo. These universities are interested in hosting Distinguished Scholars and encouraging them to engage with students, faculty, and the broader community. Scholars can conduct their own research, work collaboratively with Brazilian colleagues, guest-lecture, mentor students, network, and promote their research while representing the United States, the Fulbright Program, and their home and host universities. Teaching activities, if any, should not exceed three hours per week.
The applicant must select one of the six public universities in the state of São Paulo from the list below and indicate their choice as the main host university in the application form. If selected, the scholar will develop their work at the chosen host university and be granted the opportunity to join the Fulbright-FAPESP Network (FFN).
Universidade de São Paulo (USP)
Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho (UNESP)
Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP)
Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar)
The awards can total two, three or four months long.
Two- or four-month awards can be split into equal segments of 1+1 months or 2+2 months between July 1, 2025, and September 30, 2026. Split awards are known as Flex Awards. For additional information, please see the Flex description below.
Please be aware that most institutions in Brazil take a recess between December and January.
Flex awards allow the stay to be split into two visits of one or two months each between July 1, 2025, and September 30, 2026. There must be a period of at least two months between the two in-country stays.
The Flex Award is designed for scholars who require multiple visits to the host country. This option allows grants to be conducted over two or three short segments. Applicants must select Flex in the application form, and clearly describe their plans for Flex in their project statement, including a project timeline. Flex grantees may be asked to give public talks, mentor students, and otherwise engage with the host-country academic community.
- Bioenergy
- Biodiversity
- Sustainable Food Production
The Fulbright-FAPESP Network is a unique initiative to promote innovative partnerships, expand education ties and strengthen long-term U.S.-Brazil institutional linkages through a qualified dialogue about strategic U.S.-related topics within Brazilian society and disseminate these topics to a larger audience.
To achieve these goals, the Fulbright Commission and the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) are establishing this partnership. The scholar will be able to participate in online and onsite activities, e.g., seminars, conferences, and roundtable discussions, at the six public universities in the state of São Paulo, and diversify their knowledge about Brazil.
For the award period, the host university will help the scholar find housing. It will also provide an English-speaking student to help the scholar settle in.
All applicants must meet the Program eligibility requirements (click to review the requirements).
We encourage candidates to contact the chosen Brazilian institution, among the six institutions in the state of São Paulo eligible for this award, to discuss interests, project feasibility, and availability to host them for the proposed award period. If you need assistance facilitating this conversation, please reach out to the Fulbright Commission in Brazil.
Candidates should not wait until near the application deadline to contact the Brazilian institution of their choice to obtain a letter of invitation. If that will be your first time communicating with a potential Brazilian host, please be aware that a response can take longer than expected.
The letter of invitation can include:
- Confirmation of the Brazilian institution's interest in hosting the U.S. scholar, professional, or artist
- Confirmation that the U.S. Scholar will have access to the institution's facilities and services
- Information about project feasibility in regards to language skills
- Information on how the proposed project will impact ongoing activities in the Brazilian host institution
and what the projections are in the long term for the research partners and their institutions.
- Any further relevant information
The letter of invitation can be in Portuguese or English. If the letter is in Portuguese, please submit a translated version and the original with your application.
Preference for tenured faculty.
The scholar will receive a fixed sum of US$ 5,400 per month to cover all expenses but housing. The host university will help find accommodation for the award period. The Fulbright Commission will pay the scholar an additional U$ 1,200 monthly to help with housing costs. This amount corresponds to the estimated housing costs at a medium-priced hotel or Airbnb in a good location.
Scholars who opt for a Flex Award will receive US$2,400 for two international roundtrip tickets. Scholars on non-flex awards will receive US$1,500 for an international roundtrip ticket.
Information on the following website can help scholars figure out the cost of living, meals, and incidentals in different capital cities in Brazil. There can be significant differences in smaller towns, with lower prices. https://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/country/brazil
The host university will help the scholar find housing for the award period. It will also provide an English-speaking student to help the scholar settle in.
During their grant period, Fulbright U.S. Scholars in the Western Hemisphere (WHA) region may apply for a short-term regional travel grant for activities such as workshops, seminars, presentations, lectures, performances, exhibits, curricular advising, and similar projects, at institutions in eligible WHA countries (Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados and Eastern Caribbean, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago, Uruguay). The Regional Travel Program covers travel to and from the destination; lodging may be offered by the hosting institution. Scholars may only apply for this grant once in country on their Fulbright grant. Scholars who apply for the Flex award are ineligible for the Regional Travel Program. Additional information can be found at the Regional Travel Program website.
Brazil
To learn more about Fulbright U.S. Scholar awards in Brazil for 2024-25, please view our archived webinar and slides to hear directly from the Fulbright Commission, IIE staff and U.S. Scholar alums regarding award details, the scholar experience and application guidance.
Summary
Up to 41 awards are available in Brazil. This includes up to 30 All Disciplines awards for early and mid-career scholars, professionals, artists, and 11 Distinguished Scholar Awards in all regions in Brazil. The Distinguished Scholar Awards are opportunities for mid-career and senior academics with experience in Health and Technology, Medical Sciences, Planetary Health, Social Innovation and Sustainability in Multicultural Contexts, and other disciplines.
Fulbright Interdisciplinary Network (FIN)
To promote proficuous dialogues about contemporary issues in the Brazilian context from a U.S. perspective, the Fulbright Commission and the U.S. Embassy in Brazil have created the Fulbright Interdisciplinary Network (FIN). FIN is an opportunity for Distinguished Scholars to connect with five Brazilian universities during the award period and enrich their experience through online and onsite discussions, working collaboratively with faculty and advising students from all regions of Brazil.
Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world and it is similar in size to the continental United States. It is also the largest country in South America and the largest Portuguese-speaking country globally, with around 211 million people and 43% living in its Southeast region. As to ethnic background, like the United States, Brazil has a very diverse population. According to the Brazilian Statistics Bureau, Brazilians self-identify as White (42.7%), two or more races (46.8%), Black (9.4%), and of Indigenous or Asian descent (1.1%). The most important economic sectors are agriculture, mining, manufacturing, and services. In spite of poverty reduction achievements over the last decades, inequality remains at high levels in one of the world's largest democracies and economies.
After achieving universal coverage in primary education, Brazil is now struggling to improve the educational system's quality and outcomes, especially at the lower and upper secondary levels.
Brazil has a wide range of higher education institutions, with over 200 universities, as well as 3,472 master’s programs and doctoral programs with 122,000 graduate students. There are currently over 37,000 research groups around the country, with more than 200,000 researchers. Its leading research centers in agriculture, energy, biotechnology, environmental sciences, and epidemiology attract scholars and students worldwide. Among the top 20 universities listed in the Times Higher Education 2020 ranking, 13 are from Brazil. Additionally, Brazil is responsible for 52% of Latin American publications in indexed journals, which places the country as fourteenth worldwide by the Scimago Journal and Country Rank.
The extended coverage of Fulbright U.S. Programs in the country has been possible thanks to the significant contributions from Brazilian strategic partners such as the Brazilian Government through the Brazilian Federal Agency for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education (CAPES).
2017-18 Study and Researcher Kainen Bell in Olinda, Brazil
2015-16 and 2019-20 U.S. Scholar John Spencer in Ilha de Marajó, Brazil
2017-18 Study and Researcher Vanessa Castaneda in Salvador, Brazil
2018-19 Fulbright U.S. Student Matthew Aruch
- Blog from 2019-2020 U.S. Scholar to Brazil Theresa Robbins Dudeck in Theater Studies in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais: https://www.theimprofessor.com/single-post/2019/11/29/impro-in-brazil-endings
- News from 2019-2020 U.S. Scholar to Brazil King Chung in Audiology in Joao Pessoa, Paraiba and Bauru, Sao Paulo: