Outreach Lecturing Fund | FAQs

The OLF program enables Fulbright Visiting Scholars and Scholars-in-Residence who are currently in the United States for grants longer than three months to accept guest lecturing invitations at U.S. colleges and universities.

Scholars must go to a college or university in the United States and its territories, including Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam. OLF may not be used to attend conferences. Scholars can go to any institution including large research institutes; however scholars must supplement those visits with a second visit to a targeted institution. These include Minority Serving Institutions, Community Colleges, Small Liberal Arts Institutes or Geographically underrepresented regions. For a complete list of targeted institutions, please click here.

Institutions must submit the OLF application form together with an invitation letter on behalf of the scholar. Fulbright Visiting Scholars being requested must submit a copy of their Social Security Number (SSN) or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN).

IIE will assist scholars to directly make airline reservations. Scholars should work with their hosts to secure lodging.  If approved, scholars may submit receipts for lodging up to the federal per diem rate for their location.   

OLF awards support one roundtrip flight to and from a single location (from the scholar's primary host community to the OLF site and back). Multi-institution OLFs are supported and encouraged IF they are close to one another and part of the same application.  Multi-institution OLFs will only be supported when if they do not require special travel arrangements through OLF and if the primary host can provide local transportation among the different institutions/public transportation is available.  For example, a scholar could use one OLF award to go to Northern Virginia Community College and Howard University. Both institutions are located in the Washington, DC Metro area.  Multi-institution OLF awards are not permitted if they involve complex multi-sited travel arrangements and/or keep the Visiting Scholar away from their primary host institution for longer than one week.  

The roundtrip airfare portion of the award (to OLF host from primary host and return) is booked directly through IIE’s travel agency, American Express Global Business Travel (GBT).  Federal per diem rates for lodging, meals and incidental expenses for the duration of the OLF activity will be used to determine the remainder of the award amount. If the host institution is unable to support housing for an approved OLF award, the scholar may submit receipts for lodging expenses but may only be reimbursed up to the federal per diem rate for lodging for that location.  Additionally, every OLF travel award will include a $100 allowance for airport transit.  If more than $100 is spent on airport transit in service of an OLF activity, the scholar may submit receipts for consideration.  

Institutions that are on the Partnering Institution list can request supplemental funding and will reviewed on a case by case basis. Please indicate your request on the application and within the invitation letter.

The scholar will receive the OLF travel award funds after the OLF host institution submits an evaluation and summary of the event. Scholars are required to register their U.S. Bank Accounts through IIEPay in order to receive OLF funding. You can find detailed instructions on registering for IIEPay here. Scholars will receive payments within 3-4 weeks after all documents are submitted. Please note: Scholars cannot be reimbursed without their SSN/ITIN on file.  SSNs should be submitted through IIE's self service portal by the Fulbright Visiting Scholar.

Institutions are welcome to issue Visiting Scholars an honorarium, however they MUST include a letter indicating the amount of such honoraria with their OLF application.  Honoraria requests CANNOT be approved retroactively.   

Yes. Fulbright Visiting Scholars and Scholars-in-Residence are limited to two (2) OLF awards during their Fulbright exchange, regardless of the length of their exchange.  The two OLF awards must be at least 30 days apart. 

Institutions may apply for up to two OLF Visiting Scholar visits per academic year.  

No. In order to be eligible, scholars must be on Fulbright grants of 3 months and scholars cannot participate in an OLF during the last 30 days of their grant.

If you are a current Fulbright Visiting Scholar and you do not see your name in the directory, please contact your IIE Advisor. They can help determine why your name does not appear.

The Priority Institution Excel Document is updated periodically as we conduct research on eligible institutions. If you believe your institution falls into one of the categories or would like us to consider your eligibility for participation in the OLF program, please email us at olf@iie.org.

The OLF award is not intended to support conference attendance, research trips, or personal travel. These non-OLF activities will not be approved. If a scholar would like to attend a conference or conduct a research visit in the site near their OLF, alternate dates on the flights can be considered, but only if the total time away from the primary host institution is less than one week. 

The Fulbright Program is a federally funded program by Congressional appropriation. As such, any OLF events hosted should be free for their intended audiences.